This paper compares quantitative and qualitative results from selected pottery assemblages in sites in the northern Philippines with those from sites in the Mariana Islands. Pottery appears in this region sometime between 4000 and 3000 years ago, with the pottery of the Marianas Islands being towards the younger end of this age range. Arguments concerning the origins of the first pottery in the Marianas have been dominated to date by the correlation of selected decorative and stylistic attributes of the Marianas pottery with that of pottery found in sites in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). The similarities and differences in the pottery at the assemblage levels, however, have never been fully articulated. Recent arguments regarding the pottery have been specifically focused on perceived parallels between the early Marianas Red pottery and the early pottery of the Cagayan Valley in the northern Philippines. Although it has not been explicitly suggested that the northern Philippines was the immediate departure point for migrant boats, it has nevertheless been argued that there are more parallels between the pottery assemblages of these two regions than any others. This has even been a contributing factor in recent revisions to the Out of Taiwan model, which concerns the migration and dispersal of Austronesian language speakers. The results presented herein, however, show that there are distinct differences in the pottery technologies of the two regions that would not be expected if the sites are directly related. Consequently, there is no clear evidence that the pottery assemblages of the northern Philippines are ancestral to those of the Marianas. While both the early Marianas Red pottery and the northern Philippines pottery assemblages originate in a red-type pottery horizon that exists in both ISEA and the Marianas, the data to date suggests only a loose affinity between the assemblages, there being a high degree of variation in the constituent pottery characteristics between regions.

Establishing the prehistoric migration pattern from the similarity of pottery attributes is a fundamental archaeological approach that was validated in the Pacific by the recognition that Lapita ceramics dated to c. 3200-2650 years ago are distributed from south New Guinea to Samoa.Recent work has suggested a connection between Lapita ceramics and the oldest pottery from the Mariana Islands based on the similarity of selected traits that are also widespread in Neolithic and Iron Age assemblages of the region.We compared decoration, vessel form and tool type in Lapita Western Pacific and early Marianas pottery assemblages to determine whether a Marianas ceramic signal can be detected in Lapita pottery from the Bismarck Archipelago.Results indicate that Marianas ceramics are significantly different from Lapita pottery and the presence of simple ceramic traits in different assemblages do not of themselves provide evidence for a migration from the Marianas to the Bismarck Archipelago.

We present experimental and micro-trace evidence for an unusual Cypraeidae bead type associated with the earliest cultural deposits of the Bapot-1 site in the Marianas Islands in Western Micronesia. Results show that these ground-section cowry beads were strung together while worked dorsum found at this same site were used as pendants/lids. The probable occurrence of ground-section beads on Tikopia island ~4000 km from the Marianas suggests that these distinctive shell artefacts can assist archaeological understanding of early Oceanic dispersals and interaction among different colonising Neolithic groups in the Indo-Pacific.

The colonisation of the Pacific is an important chapter in human dispersal for which chronological control is primarily provided by radiocarbon (C-14) dates. In this context, the ability to reliably date shellfish is important because alternative dating materials, such as charcoal and bone, are typically highly degraded. However, the interpretation of shell C-14 results is not always black and white because C-14 is not evenly distributed throughout the marine environment, with estuarine taxa more likely to incorporate terrestrial sources of carbon. Regions where water has percolated through limestone bedrock provide an additional problem since ancient carbon is introduced into the estuarine waters. This "hardwater" has been put forward to explain old 3500 cal. BP results from culturally significant shells recovered from the site of Unai Bapot (Bapot-1) on the island of Saipan (Petchey et al., 2017). While arguments for (Carson and Hung, 2017) and against (Rieth and Athens, 2017) early settlement dates remain polarised, little attention has been given to the idea of change in the marine C-14 reservoir over time, or to possible species-specific offsets in shell C-14. In this paper, we further develop a tri-isotope approach using C-14, delta C-13, delta O-18 to identify carbon source. To investigate which shellfish are more prone to erroneous ages we have selected shell taxa that cover a range of nearshore environments commonly found in Pacific archaeological sites; including Anadara antiquata, Gafrariwn pectinatum (both estuarine) and Tridacna (marine/reef). To test the possibility of change over time we extend the dating of the site beyond the earliest occupation layers to deposits considered to post-date the end of the mid-Holocene drawdown in sea-level.

ABSTRACTThe colonisation of the Mariana Islands in Western Micronesia is likely to represent a long‐distance ocean dispersal of more than 2000 km, and establishing the date of human arrival in the archipelago is important for modelling Neolithic expansion in Island South‐East Asia and the Pacific. In 2010, Clark et al. published a paper discussing a number of radiocarbon dates from the Bapot‐1 site on Saipan Island, but a disparity between charcoal and marine shell (Anadara sp.) results prevented the calculation of a definitive age for the site and left open the possibility that Bapot‐1 was first settled as early as 3500 calBP. Here, we present new research using a combination of stable isotope (δ13C and δ18O) and 14C information to demonstrate that A. antiquata from the lowest layers of Bapot‐1 is affected by hardwaters. These new results indicate human arrival at Bapot‐1 occurred around 3200–3080 calBP (1250–1130 BC). We recommend a similar isotopic evaluation for other sites in the Marianas that are dated by marine shell.

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The colonisation of the Mariana Islands in Western Micronesia is likely to represent an early ocean dispersal of more than 2000 km. Establishing the date of human arrival in the archipelago is important for modelling Neolithic expansion in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, particularly the role of long-distance dispersals. This paper presents new 14C results and a ΔR estimate from the Bapot-1 site on Saipan Island, which indicate human arrival at ca. 3400-3200 cal. BP. Archaeological chronologies of long-distance dispersal to Western Micronesia and the Lapita expansion (Bismarcks to Samoa) show that the Neolithic dispersal rate was increasing during the period ca. 3400-2900 cal. BP. The range-versus-time relationship is similar to stratified diffusion whereby a period of relatively slow expansion is succeeded by long-distance movement. An increase in new colonies created by long-distance migrants results in accelerating range expansion.