Voyaging, Trade and the Development of Ancient Complex Societies in East Polynesia: An Interdisciplinary Approach (2009-2011)

The prehistoric colonisation of the Pacific is the greatest maritime migration of all time and the settlement strategies employed and subsequent diversifications of founding island societies are key issues in Pacific archaeology. Building from a successful pilot study published recently by one of us in Science, we will utilise state-of-the-art geochemical methods to characterise stone adzes collected from archaeological sites and raw material from basalt quarries and to determine the extent of inter-archipelago voyaging and trade (interaction) within East Polynesia. The outcome will significantly improve our understanding of the variability in the development of insular societies - a major pursuit applicable to world archaeology.