- University of Oregon, Anthropology, Department Memberadd
Monumental architecture was an important and widespread component in the emergence and dynamics of many past human societies. These features figure prominently in global dialogues about the evolution of social complexity, as monuments are... more
Monumental architecture was an important and widespread component in the emergence and dynamics of many past human societies. These features figure prominently in global dialogues about the evolution of social complexity, as monuments are often seen as manifestations of social inequality, religiosity, labor control, intra-community cooperation, and inter-group competition. Consequently, understanding the various socio-ecological factors underlying the emergence of monument construction is critical for a more complete understanding of the human past and its various trajectories. In this dissertation, I investigate these processes on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), famous for its monumental religious architecture. The role of monument construction in Rapa Nui society had been persistently debated, with some arguing for a cessation of monument construction, internecine warfare, and cultural collapse in a late pre-contact ‘Huri Moai’ phase. Given recent critiques of this narrative, a new emerging model, drawn from costly signaling theory (CST), proposes that monument construction was instead an adaptive response to the island’s marginal and risky environment that had long-term benefits to Rapa Nui communities. In addition to their well-known religious roles, it is hypothesized that monument construction served as conspicuous displays (i.e., costly signals) of communities’ competitive ability to control and defend their limited resources, which resulted in greater intra-group cooperation and limited violent conflict between groups. This dissertation is focused on testing the archaeological predictions of the CST model and critically evaluating some central, yet unresolved aspects of the Huri Moai narrative. This dissertation addresses these issues through a series of quantitative spatial and chronological analyses of monument construction on Rapa Nui as well as the archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence for warfare and monument destruction that define the Huri Moai phase. The results provide support for the CST hypothesis, question the validity of the Huri Moai phase, and offer a revised account of Rapa Nui culture history. This dissertation includes previously published, co-authored material.2022-08-1
Research Interests:
This is the first release.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
<p>SKS tests for the relationship between image-<i>ahu</i> (black squares) and distance (m) from subsistence resource locations (choropleth maps). Observed distribution (black lines) is compared to the expected... more
<p>SKS tests for the relationship between image-<i>ahu</i> (black squares) and distance (m) from subsistence resource locations (choropleth maps). Observed distribution (black lines) is compared to the expected distribution under CSR (dashed red lines) with the alternative hypothesis being that <i>ahu</i> are nearer to these resources than random. Results suggest <i>ahu</i> are significantly clustered near freshwater sources (D<sup>+</sup> = 0.59, p<0.0001), marine resource locations (D<sup>+</sup> = 0.65, p<0.0001), and the maximal rock mulch garden classification (D<sup>+</sup> = 0.24, p<0.0001). Results for minimal and medial mulch classifications can be found in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0210409#pone.0210409.s008" target="_blank">S8 File</a>.</p
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Geography and Prehistory
Warfare is widely accepted as a transformative factor in human history. However, as warfare is not inevitable in human groups, archaeologists must critically assess the empirical evidence for war and its importance in the past. Here, we... more
Warfare is widely accepted as a transformative factor in human history. However, as warfare is not inevitable in human groups, archaeologists must critically assess the empirical evidence for war and its importance in the past. Here, we reevaluate the culture history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), often interpreted as a case of warfare resulting in social upheaval. Common accounts hold that, prior to European contact, clan groups eventually ceased making moai statues and statue platforms (ahu), battled with obsidian spears, sought refuge in fortified caves, and toppled rivals&#39; moai in a prolonged period of internecine warfare termed the &#39;Huri Moai&#39; phase. Examining this culture historical framework and evidence for warfare and monument destruction, we find a lack of support in archaeological or historical records for a pre-contact Huri Moai phase. Overall, these findings highlight how archaeologists must carefully evaluate assumptions about the prevalence of violence and war in the past given the evidence for each case. In the case of Rapa Nui, our prior understanding of the island&#39;s culture history is in need of fundamental revision.
Research Interests:
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the... more
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to explore how social network structure and interaction affect the rate of trait retention and extinction. Using Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) as an example, we develop a model-based hypothesis for how the structural constraints of communities living in small, isolated populations had...
Research Interests:
The history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long been framed as a parable for how societies can fail catastrophically due to the selfish actions of individuals and a failure to wisely manage common-pool resources. While originating in the... more
The history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long been framed as a parable for how societies can fail catastrophically due to the selfish actions of individuals and a failure to wisely manage common-pool resources. While originating in the interpretations made by 18th-century visitors to the island, 20th-century scholars recast this narrative as a “tragedy of the commons,” assuming that past populations were unsustainable and selfishly overexploited the limited resources on the island. This narrative, however, is now at odds with a range of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and environmental evidence. Here, we argue that while Rapa Nui did experience large-scale deforestation and ecological changes, these must be contextualized given past land-use practices on the island. We provide a synthesis of this evidence, showing that Rapa Nui populations were sustainable and avoided a tragedy of the commons through a variety of community practices. We discuss this evidence in the context of Elin...
Research Interests:
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important component of many coastal environments and hydrologic processes, providing sources of nutrients to marine ecosystems, and potentially, an important source of fresh water for human... more
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important component of many coastal environments and hydrologic processes, providing sources of nutrients to marine ecosystems, and potentially, an important source of fresh water for human populations. Here, we use a combination of unpiloted aerial systems (UAS) thermal infrared (TIR) imaging and salinity measurements to characterize SGD on the remote East Polynesian island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). Previous research has shown that coastal freshwater seeps are abundant on Rapa Nui and strongly associated with the locations of ancient settlement sites. We currently lack, however, information on the differential magnitude or quality of these sources of fresh water. Our UAS-based TIR results from four locations on Rapa Nui suggest that locations of variably-sized SGD plumes are associated with many ancient settlement sites on the island and that these water sources are resilient to drought events. These findings support previous wo...
Research Interests: Geology, Remote Sensing, Climate Change, Hydrology, Polynesian Studies, and 13 moreGroundwater, Drought, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Groundwater Hydrology, Easter Island Archaeology, Settlement archaeology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Salinity, Polynesian Archaeology, Thermal Analysis, Drones, and Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD)
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative... more
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative population sizes provides a widely applicable method in this research area. Paleodemographic reconstructions and modeling with SPDs, however, are stymied by a lack of accepted methods for model fitting, tools for assessing the demographic impact of environmental or climatic variables, and a means for formal multi-model comparison. These deficiencies severely limit our ability to reliably resolve crucial questions of past human-environment interactions. We propose a solution using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit complex demographic models to observed SPDs. Using a case study from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a location that has long been the focus of debate regarding the impact of environmental and climatic changes on its human population,...
Research Interests:
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative... more
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative population sizes provides a widely applicable method in this research area. Paleodemographic reconstructions and modeling with SPDs, however, are stymied by a lack of accepted methods for model fitting, tools for assessing the demographic impact of environmental or climatic variables, and a means for formal multi-model comparison. These deficiencies severely limit our ability to reliably resolve crucial questions of past human-environment interactions. We propose a solution using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit complex demographic models to observed SPDs. Using a case study from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a location that has long been the focus of debate regarding the impact of environmental and climatic changes on its human population,...
Research Interests:
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodyn...
Research Interests:
Landscape archaeology has a long history of using predictive models to improve our knowledge of extant archaeological features around the world. Important advancements in spatial statistics, however, have been slow to enter archaeological... more
Landscape archaeology has a long history of using predictive models to improve our knowledge of extant archaeological features around the world. Important advancements in spatial statistics, however, have been slow to enter archaeological predictive modeling. Point process models (PPMs), in particular, offer a powerful solution to explicitly model both first- and second-order properties of a point pattern. Here, we use PPMs to refine a recently developed remote sensing-based predictive algorithm applied to the archaeological record of Madagascar’s southwestern coast. This initial remote sensing model resulted in an 80% true positive rate, rapidly expanding our understanding of the archaeological record of this region. Despite the model’s success rate, it yielded a substantial number (~20%) of false positive results. In this paper, we develop a series of PPMs to improve the accuracy of this model in predicting the location of archaeological deposits in southwest Madagascar. We illust...
Research Interests:
ABSTRACTArchaeologists have struggled to combine remotely sensed datasets with preexisting information for landscape-level analyses. In the American Southeast, for example, analyses of lidar data using automated feature extraction... more
ABSTRACTArchaeologists have struggled to combine remotely sensed datasets with preexisting information for landscape-level analyses. In the American Southeast, for example, analyses of lidar data using automated feature extraction algorithms have led to the identification of over 40 potential new pre-European-contact Native American shell ring deposits in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Such datasets are vital for understanding settlement distributions, yet a comprehensive assessment requires remotely sensed and previously surveyed archaeological data. Here, we use legacy data and airborne lidar-derived information to conduct a series of point pattern analyses using spatial models that we designed to assess the factors that best explain the location of shell rings. The results reveal that ring deposit locations are highly clustered and best explained through a combination of environmental conditions such as distance to water and elevation as well as social factors.
Research Interests:
Abstract The abundance of marine mollusks found in Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean has made them enticing sample types for radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, a paucity of local marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for... more
Abstract The abundance of marine mollusks found in Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean has made them enticing sample types for radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, a paucity of local marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for most of the region limits building chronologies using marine-based carbonates. Here we present a suite of 33 new ΔR values for 22 islands in both the Greater and Lesser Antilles derived from known-age shells pre-dating A.D. 1950 (i.e., pre-atomic testing) and is the first intensive radiocarbon dating effort in the region to examine ΔR effects. The spatial coverage and corrections presented here demonstrate wide variation within and between islands across the Antilles, Bahamian archipelago, and islands that skirt the coast of northern South America. Correction values range from 282 ± 24 yr in Grenada to −547 ± 36 yr in Anegada. Calibration of published radiocarbon dates on archaeological marine shell using these new ΔR values demonstrates the need for caution when dating marine shell in the Caribbean, but illustrates the potential for these corrections to provide more accurate radiocarbon chronologies. Research is now focused on identifying the causal mechanisms behind the high variability in Caribbean ΔR and the implications these data have for refining radiocarbon sequences in the region, particularly for islands where there are currently no ΔR values.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Bayesian-modeled colonization estimates demonstrate episodic dispersals into the Caribbean that support the southward route hypothesis.
Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, Cuban Studies, Migration, and 15 moreCaribbean Studies, Island archaeology, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Migration Studies, Caribbean Archaeology, Medicine, Bayesian Models, Bayesian Radiocarbon Dating, Bayesian Analysis, Caribbean, Chronology, Colonization studies, Carribean Archaeology, Chronometric issues, and Meta Analysis and Systematic Review
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Geography, Spatial Analysis, Megalithic Monuments, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, and 13 moreEaster Island Archaeology, Model Selection, Geohydrology, Easter Island, PLoS one, Rapa Nui, Polynesian Archaeology, Moai, Monumental Architecture, Point Pattern Analysis, Point processes, Easter Island/Rapa Nui, and Multi-model selection
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Geology, Geochemistry, Pacific Island Studies, and 15 moreArchaeological Science, Megalithic Monuments, Pacific Archaeology, Pacific History, Bayesian Analysis, Easter Island Archaeology, Colonization, Monumentality, Easter Island, Monuments, Archaeology of Societal Collapse, Moai, Collapse, Monumental Architecture, and Eastern Polynesian Prehistory
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important component of many coastal environments and hydrologic processes, providing sources of nutrients to marine ecosystems, and potentially, an important source of fresh water for human... more
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important component of many coastal environments and hydrologic processes, providing sources of nutrients to marine ecosystems, and potentially, an important source of fresh water for human populations. Here, we use a combination of unpiloted aerial systems (UAS) thermal infrared (TIR) imaging and salinity measurements to characterize SGD on the remote East Polynesian island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). Previous research has shown that coastal freshwater seeps are abundant on Rapa Nui and strongly associated with the locations of ancient settlement sites. We currently lack, however, information on the differential magnitude or quality of these sources of fresh water. Our UAS-based TIR results from four locations on Rapa Nui suggest that locations of variably-sized SGD plumes are associated with many ancient settlement sites on the island and that these water sources are resilient to drought events. These findings support previous work indicating that ancient Rapa Nui communities responded to the inherent and climate-induced hydrological challenges of the island by focusing on these abundant and resilient freshwater sources. Our results highlight the efficacy of using UAS-based TIR for detecting relatively small SGD locations and provide key insights on the potential uses of these water sources for past and current Rapa Nui communities.
Research Interests: Remote Sensing, Climate Change, Hydrology, Polynesian Studies, Groundwater, and 12 moreDrought, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Groundwater Hydrology, Easter Island Archaeology, Settlement archaeology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Salinity, Polynesian Archaeology, Thermal Analysis, Drones, and Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD)
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative... more
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative population sizes provides a widely applicable method in this research area. Paleodemographic reconstructions and modeling with SPDs, however, are stymied by a lack of accepted methods for model fitting, tools for assessing the demographic impact of environmental or climatic variables, and a means for formal multi-model comparison. These deficiencies severely limit our ability to reliably resolve crucial questions of past human-environment interactions. We propose a solution using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit complex demographic models to observed SPDs. Using a case study from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a location that has long been the focus of debate regarding the impact of environmental and climatic changes on its human population, we find that past populations were resilient to environmental and climatic challenges. Our findings support a growing body of evidence showing stable and sustainable communities on the island. The ABC framework offers a novel approach for exploring regions and time periods where questions of climate-induced demographic and cultural change remain unresolved.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a cen- tral topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and iso- lated populations face evolutionary challenges in... more
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a cen- tral topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and iso- lated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to explore how social network structure and interaction affect the rate of trait retention and extinction. Using Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) as an example, we develop a model-based hypothesis for how the structural constraints of communities living in small, isolated populations had dramatic effects and likely led to preventing the loss of cultural information in both community patterning and technology.
Research Interests:
The abundance of marine mollusks found in Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean has made them enticing sample types for radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, a paucity of local marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for most of the... more
The abundance of marine mollusks found in Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean has made them enticing sample types for radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, a paucity of local marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for most of the region limits building chronologies using marine-based carbonates. Here we present a suite of 33 new ΔR values for 22 islands in both the Greater and Lesser Antilles derived from known-age shells pre-dating A. D. 1950 (i.e., pre-atomic testing) and is the first intensive radiocarbon dating effort in the region to examine ΔR effects. The spatial coverage and corrections presented here demonstrate wide variation within and between islands across the Antilles, Bahamian archipelago, and islands that skirt the coast of northern South America. Correction values range from 282 ± 24 yr in Grenada to − 547 ± 36 yr in Anegada. Calibration of published radiocarbon dates on archaeological marine shell using these new ΔR values demonstrates the need for caution when dating marine shell in the Caribbean, but illustrates the potential for these corrections to provide more accurate radiocarbon chronologies. Research is now focused on identifying the causal mechanisms behind the high variability in Caribbean ΔR and the implications these data have for refining radiocarbon sequences in the region, particularly for islands where there are currently no ΔR values.
Research Interests:
Warfare is widely accepted as a transformative factor in human history. However, as warfare is not inevitable in human groups, archaeologists must critically assess the empirical evidence for war and its importance in the past. Here, we... more
Warfare is widely accepted as a transformative factor in human history. However, as warfare is not inevitable in human groups, archaeologists must critically assess the empirical evidence for war and its importance in the past. Here, we reevaluate the culture history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), often interpreted as a case of warfare resulting in social upheaval. Common accounts hold that, prior to European contact, clan groups eventually ceased making moai statues and statue platforms (ahu), battled with obsidian spears, sought refuge in fortified caves, and toppled rivals' moai in a prolonged period of internecine warfare termed the 'Huri Moai' phase. Examining this culture historical framework and evidence for warfare and monument destruction, we find a lack of support in archaeological or historical records for a pre-contact Huri Moai phase. Overall, these findings highlight how archaeologists must carefully evaluate assumptions about the prevalence of violence and war in the past given the evidence for each case. In the case of Rapa Nui, our prior understanding of the island's culture history is in need of fundamental revision.
Research Interests:
Human settlement of the Caribbean represents the only example in the Americas of peoples colonizing islands that were not visible from surrounding mainland areas or other islands. Unfortunately, many interpretive models have relied on... more
Human settlement of the Caribbean represents the only example in the Americas of peoples colonizing islands that were not visible from surrounding mainland areas or other islands. Unfortunately, many interpretive models have relied on radiocarbon determinations that do not meet standard criteria for reporting because they lack critical information or sufficient provenience, often leading to specious interpretations. We have collated 2484 radiocarbon determinations, assigned them to classes based on chronometric hygiene criteria, and constructed Bayesian colonization models of the acceptable determinations to examine patterns of initial settlement. Colonization estimates for 26 islands indicate that (i) the region was settled in two major population dispersals that likely originated from South America; (ii) colonists reached islands in the northern Antilles before the southern islands; and (iii) the results support the southward route hypothesis and refute the "stepping-stone model."
Research Interests: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, Cuban Studies, Migration, and 15 moreMeta-Analysis and Systematic Review, Caribbean Studies, Island archaeology, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Migration Studies, Puerto Rico, Bayesian Models, Bayesian Radiocarbon Dating, Bayesian Analysis, Caribbean, Chronology, Colonization studies, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Republica Dominicana, and Carribean Archaeology
Landscape archaeology has a long history of using predictive models to improve our knowledge of extant archaeological features around the world. Important advancements in spatial statistics, however, have been slow to enter archaeological... more
Landscape archaeology has a long history of using predictive models to improve our knowledge of extant archaeological features around the world. Important advancements in spatial statistics, however, have been slow to enter archaeological predictive modeling. Point process models (PPMs), in particular, offer a powerful solution to explicitly model both first-and second-order properties of a point pattern. Here, we use PPMs to refine a recently developed remote sensing-based predictive algorithm applied to the archaeological record of Madagascar's southwestern coast. This initial remote sensing model resulted in an 80% true positive rate, rapidly expanding our understanding of the archaeological record of this region. Despite the model's success rate, it yielded a substantial number (~20%) of false positive results. In this paper, we develop a series of PPMs to improve the accuracy of this model in predicting the location of archaeological deposits in southwest Madagascar. We illustrate how PPMs, traditional ecological knowledge, remote sensing, and fieldwork can be used iteratively to improve the accuracy of predictive models and enhance interpretations of the archaeological record. We use an explicit behavioral ecology theoretical framework to formulate and test hypotheses utilizing spatial modeling methods. Our modeling process can be replicated by archaeologists around the world to assist in fieldwork logistics and planning.
Research Interests:
Archaeologists have struggled to combine remotely sensed datasets with preexisting information for landscape-level analyses. In the American Southeast, for example, analyses of lidar data using automated feature extraction algorithms have... more
Archaeologists have struggled to combine remotely sensed datasets with preexisting information for landscape-level analyses. In the American Southeast, for example, analyses of lidar data using automated feature extraction algorithms have led to the identification of over 40 potential new pre-European-contact Native American shell ring deposits in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Such datasets are vital for understanding settlement distributions, yet a comprehensive assessment requires remotely sensed and previously surveyed archaeological data. Here, we use legacy data and airborne lidar-derived information to conduct a series of point pattern analyses using spatial models that we designed to assess the factors that best explain the location of shell rings. The results reveal that ring deposit locations are highly clustered and best explained through a combination of environmental conditions such as distance to water and elevation as well as social factors.
Research Interests:
Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) presents a quintessential case where the tempo of investment in monumentality is central to debates regarding societal collapse, with the common narrative positing that statue platform (ahu) construction... more
Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) presents a quintessential case where the tempo of investment in monumentality is central to debates regarding societal collapse, with the common narrative positing that statue platform (ahu) construction ceased sometime around AD 1600 following an ecological, cultural, and demographic catastrophe. This narrative remains especially popular in fields outside archaeology that treat collapse as historical fact and use Rapa Nui as a model for collapse more generally. Resolving the tempo of "collapse" events, however, is often fraught with ambiguity given a lack of formal modeling, uncritical use of radiocarbon estimates, and inattention to information embedded in stratigraphic features. Here, we use a Bayesian model-based approach to examine the tempo of events associated with arguments about collapse on Rapa Nui. We integrate radiocarbon dates, relative architectural stratigraphy, and ethnohistoric accounts to quantify the onset, rate, and end of monument construction as a means of testing the collapse hypothesis. We demonstrate that ahu construction began soon after colonization and increased rapidly, sometime between the early-14th and mid-15th centuries AD, with a steady rate of construction events that continued beyond European contact in 1722. Our results demonstrate a lack of evidence for a pre-contact 'collapse' and instead offer strong support for a new emerging model of resilient communities that continued their long-term traditions despite the impacts of European arrival. Meth-odologically, our model-based approach to testing hypotheses regarding the chronology of collapse can be extended to other case studies around the world where similar debates remain difficult to resolve.
Research Interests:
Sources of drinking water on islands often present critical constraints to human habitation. On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), there is remarkably little surface fresh water due to the nature of the island’s volcanic geology. While... more
Sources of drinking water on islands often present critical constraints to human habitation. On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), there is remarkably little surface fresh water due to the nature of the island’s volcanic geology. While several lakes exist in volcanic craters, most rainwater quickly passes into the subsurface and emerges at coastal springs. Nevertheless, the island sustained a relatively large human population for hundreds of years, one that built an impressive array of monumental platforms (ahu) and statues (moai). To understand how Rapanui acquired their scarce fresh water, we review ethnohistoric data from first European arrival (1722) through the mid-twentieth century. Ethnohistoric accounts identify a diversity of freshwater sources and describe various Rapanui freshwater management strategies. Our findings highlight the importance of coastal freshwater seeps and provide much-needed insight into how Rapanui procured this vital and necessary resource.
Research Interests:
The diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural... more
The diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural traits that included commensal species, language, technology, and other cultural practices. Following colonization however, island populations diverged in language, subsistence practices, degree of territoriality, settlement patterns, investment and forms of monumental architecture, and social organization. Driven by historical circumstances and varied environmental conditions, this divergence presents evolutionary case studies of alternative paths of cultural change. One explanatory approach to this evolutionary divergence involves isolating the critical ecological parameters that likely constrained and shaped the diverse history of island populations. Here, we offer a comparative evolutionary analysis that explores the divergent histories of two marginal East Polynesian islands: Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti.
Research Interests:
Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui... more
Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is famous for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly numerous monumental platforms (ahu) and statuary (moai). To date, however, we lack explicit modeling to explain spatial and temporal aspects of monument construction. Here, we use spatially-explicit point-process modeling to explore the potential relations between ahu construction locations and subsis- tence resources, namely, rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwa- ter sources—the three most critical resources on Rapa Nui. Through these analyses, we demonstrate the central importance of coastal freshwater seeps for precontact populations. Our results suggest that ahu locations are most parsimoniously explained by distance from freshwater sources, in particular coastal seeps, with important implications for community formation and inter-community competition in precontact times.
Research Interests:
Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui... more
Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is famous for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly numerous monumental platforms (ahu) and statuary (moai). To date, however, we lack explicit modeling to explain spatial and temporal aspects of monument construction. Here, we use spatially-explicit point-process modeling to explore the potential relations between ahu construction locations and subsistence resources, namely, rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwater sources-the three most critical resources on Rapa Nui. Through these analyses, we demonstrate the central importance of coastal freshwater seeps for precontact populations. Our results suggest that ahu locations are most parsimoniously explained by distance from freshwater sources, in particular coastal seeps, with important implications for community formation and inter-community competition in precontact times.
Research Interests:
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long-presented a challenge to researchers seeking to explain the nearly 1,000 multi-ton statues carved and more than 600 transported across this tiny, remote island where Europeans observed a population just a... more
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long-presented a challenge to researchers seeking to explain the nearly 1,000 multi-ton statues carved and more than 600 transported across this tiny, remote island where Europeans observed a population just a few thousand in number. The stark contrast between the island’s impressive monuments and its marginal resources led to early European speculations of a once larger population under more prosperous conditions, most famously espoused in Diamond’s (2005) narrative of “collapse.” Recently, Puleston et al. (2017) bring needed attention to the issue of pre-contact population size for Rapa Nui to examine the “collapse” debate. Their work combines demographic and agricultural productivity modeling with parameter estimates from Rapa Nui and other Pacific Islands. While such modeling has many strengths, their conclusion—that the island once supported a population of 17,500—is based on questionable assumptions and contradicts a range of available evidence.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Jeff Clark’s contributions to the archaeology of Sāmoa and Hawai‘i are numerous and variously highlighted throughout this Special Issue. In this paper we describe our efforts to assemble an archaeological geospatial database incorporating... more
Jeff Clark’s contributions to the archaeology of Sāmoa and Hawai‘i are
numerous and variously highlighted throughout this Special Issue. In this
paper we describe our efforts to assemble an archaeological geospatial database incorporating the locations of more than 900 archaeological sites and features distributed across the archipelago with an associated suite of 420 radiocarbon and 10 thorium-series dates. The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database builds on the pioneering settlement pattern research by Jeff Clark and Roger Green and the current corpus of radiometric dates from the archipelago. While the database offers an important first step for examining regional patterns in demography and land use, much additional work is required to convert previously recorded “site”-based data into meaningful comparable analytical units for settlement pattern studies (see Morrison 2012; Morrison and O’Connor 2015). We highlight this process with an example drawn from Clark’s archaeological surveys in ‘Aoa Valley on Tutuila Island.
numerous and variously highlighted throughout this Special Issue. In this
paper we describe our efforts to assemble an archaeological geospatial database incorporating the locations of more than 900 archaeological sites and features distributed across the archipelago with an associated suite of 420 radiocarbon and 10 thorium-series dates. The Sāmoa Archaeological Geospatial Database builds on the pioneering settlement pattern research by Jeff Clark and Roger Green and the current corpus of radiometric dates from the archipelago. While the database offers an important first step for examining regional patterns in demography and land use, much additional work is required to convert previously recorded “site”-based data into meaningful comparable analytical units for settlement pattern studies (see Morrison 2012; Morrison and O’Connor 2015). We highlight this process with an example drawn from Clark’s archaeological surveys in ‘Aoa Valley on Tutuila Island.
Research Interests:
The Hawaiian Islands, like many other high volcanic islands, are characterized by a diversity of ecozones, which had ramifications for the types of subsistence strategies that developed within each. Although traditional cultivation... more
The Hawaiian Islands, like many other high volcanic islands, are characterized by a diversity of ecozones, which had ramifications for the types of subsistence strategies that developed within each. Although traditional cultivation practices were highly variable, agricultural systems can be roughly split into windward and leeward forms. Leeward agriculture is differentiated from windward agriculture based on the almost complete dependence on rainfall. Dependence on rainfall, an often-unpredictable resource, creates a high level of risk and uncertainty in agricultural yields. Dryland field-systems were highly susceptible to droughts, potentially resulting in food shortages that would have had various societal consequences, such as increased intergroup conflict, community cooperation, or social inequality. The concepts of risk and uncertainty, derived from human behavioral ecology, are useful for exploring how fluctuations in the availability of resources from droughts influenced agriculturalists in the Hawaiian Islands. Using the Rainfall Atlas of Hawai'i, a newly published rainfall archive, we investigate spatiotemporal rainfall patterns in the Leeward Kohala Field System (LKFS) on Hawai'i Island. We employ geostatistical modeling techniques, time-series analysis, and a simulation model to quantify the intensity, frequency, and periodicity of droughts in the LKFS. Our results support previous studies and suggest a high degree of agricultural risk, particularly from ca. AD 1450–1600, with implications for Hawaiian agriculture and emerging sociocultural patterns.
Research Interests:
The diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural... more
The diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural traits that included commensal species, language, technology, and other cultural practices. Following colonization however, island populations diverged in language, subsistence practices, degree of territoriality, settlement patterns, investment and forms of monumental architecture, and social organization. Driven by historical circumstances and varied environmental conditions, this divergence presents evolutionary case studies of alternative paths of cultural change. One explanatory approach to this evolutionary divergence involves isolating the critical ecological parameters that likely constrained and shaped the diverse history of island populations. Here, we offer a comparative evolutionary analysis that explores the divergent histories of two marginal East Polynesian islands: Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti.
Research Interests:
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the original document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Research Interests:
Pacific Island agricultural research has focused predominately on measuring the degree of risk in dryland subsistence practices. Environmental risk and uncertainty have been especially important topics in the Hawaiian Archipelago,... more
Pacific Island agricultural research has focused predominately on measuring the degree of risk in dryland subsistence practices. Environmental risk and uncertainty have been especially important topics in the Hawaiian Archipelago, specifically in relation to the large dryland agricultural systems of Maui and Hawai‘i Island. Unlike most windward agricultural systems, leeward dryland agriculture was almost completely dependent on rainfall. It is generally assumed that dryland field systems were highly susceptible to droughts, potentially resulting in food shortages with various societal consequences, such as conflict and the emergence of social complexity. The recent publication of the Rainfall Atlas of Hawai‘i enables us to build more fine-grained models of spatiotemporal rainfall variation in the Hawaiian Islands. Using this newly published rainfall archive, we investigate spatiotemporal rainfall patterns on Hawai‘i Island, with particular emphasis on the Leeward Kohala Field System (LKFS). We employ geostatistical modeling techniques to quantify the intensity and frequency of droughts in the LKFS and discuss the implications of our results for Hawaiian agriculture and emerging sociocultural patterns.
The ahu and moai monuments of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) are ceremonial features that served to functionally integrate the members of relatively small-scale communities distributed around the island. These monuments also potentially served... more
The ahu and moai monuments of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) are ceremonial features that served to functionally integrate the members of relatively small-scale communities distributed around the island. These monuments also potentially served as conspicuous and costly 'advertisements' of community competitive and cooperative potential. Described in this fashion, this settlement pattern offers the potential to explain the substantial investment in monuments using a signaling-based evolutionary framework. Evaluating this hypothesis requires us to identify of the set of resources over which communities compete as well as share. Here, we argue that the distribution of freshwater sources played a critical role in the formation and functioning of prehistoric Rapa Nui communities. By examining the varying spatial association of ahu with freshwater locations and gardens (manavai), we show that freshwater resources were a key factor leading to the structure of prehistoric communities and the unprecedented level of cultural elaboration on this tiny and remote island.