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ARTICLES

Human Colonization of the Palau Islands, Western Micronesia

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Pages 215-232 | Received 09 Dec 2005, Accepted 06 Mar 2006, Published online: 04 Dec 2006
 

ABSTRACT

Adaptation to new environments is an important issue in colonization research with implications for accurately establishing the timing of human arrival and interpreting the dispersal pattern from the distribution of early archaeological sites. Island groups frequently contain a diverse range of landscapes and geographic variation in their colonization records that might reflect the environmental preference of prehistoric migrants. In the Palau Islands the large island of Babeldaob may have been colonized by 4300 cal BP on palaeoenvironmental evidence, while the oldest archaeological deposits in the small limestone islands of southern Palau date to ∼ca. 3000 cal BP. Does the discrepancy in colonization ages represent a predilection for the large volcanic island relative to small limestone islands? To examine the timing of human arrival in southern Palau an early site on Ulong Island was re-excavated, along with ancillary investigations to calculate a local reservoir value (ΔR) to apply to new marine shell 14C ages and investigation of a buried sea-notch to estimate the impact of sea-level change and tectonic movement. Human arrival in southern Palau is dated to no earlier than 3100–2900 cal BP. Neolithic dispersal in other island environments in the Pacific is reviewed to see whether colonization of large islands tended to precede use of small islands. The general pattern is for the oldest sites to be located on large islands, with human activity archaeologically visible throughout an archipelago within 100–300 years. A similar interval applied to Palau would put colonization at 3400–3100 cal BP, but this needs to be confirmed by palaeoenvironmental and archaeological investigations in coastal Babeldaob.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Field work was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant and an ANU Faculties research grant to Clark, and an ANU post-graduate travel grant to Wright. Radiocarbon dates were funded by the Centre for Archaeological Research and ARC. We gratefully acknowledge the support in Palau of the Bureau of Arts and Culture (BAC, formerly the Division of Cultural Affairs) and the assistance of Rita Olsudong (National Archaeologist), and Vicky Kanai (former Director, BAC). Excavations were carried out with the permission of the Governor of Koror, the Honorable John Gibbons; and we also thank John Rutledge (Koror State) for his help. The expert crew of Vince Blaiyok, Dino Mibuk, and Lark Ngirkiklang facilitated excavations and field processing of excavated material. Finally, we thank the editors and three reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Notes

a AMS determination.

b Natural marine shell from below the basal cultural deposit. Cypraea tigris is an algae feeder.

c 13C value estimated.

d Sample considered to be intrusive from overlying levels.

∗Indicates multiple intercepts.

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