Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T06:38:07.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Radiocarbon Chronology for Human-Induced Environmental Change on Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, Polynesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

P. V. Kirch ,
J. R. Flenley  and
D. W. Steadman
P. V. Kirch
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 USA
J. R. Flenley
Affiliation:
2Department of Geography, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
D. W. Steadman
Affiliation:
3Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, New York 12230 USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A suite of 23 14C age determinations, from a well-stratified rockshelter and from 3 pollen cores on Mangaia Island is reported. The rockshelter has yielded significant evidence for avifaunal extinctions during the period cal. A.D. 1000-1600. The Lake Tiriara pollen cores span a period from ca. 6500 cal. b.p. to the present, and palynological analysis of the TIR 1 core indicates major anthropogenic disturbance on the island's vegetation after ca. 1600 cal. B.P. These sites, and the radiocarbon ages associated with them, provide the first chronologically secure evidence for human impacts on the island ecosystems of the southern Cook Islands.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , 1991 , pp. 317 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Bellwood, P. 1978 Archaeological research in the Cook Islands. Pacific Anthropological Records 27: 1–214.Google Scholar
Buck, P. H. 1934 Mangaian society. B. P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 122: 1–207.Google Scholar
Christensen, C. C. and Kirch, P. V. 1986 Nonmarine molluscs and ecological change at Barbers Point, O'ahu, Hawai'i. Occasional Papers of the B. P. Bishop Museum 26: 52–80.Google Scholar
Dawson, S. (ms.) 1990 A chemical and mineralogical study of a sediment core from Lake Tiriara, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, with special reference to the impact of early man. B. Sc. dissertation, School of Geography and Earth Resources, The University of Hull.Google Scholar
Flenley, J. R. and King, S. M. 1984 Late Quaternary pollen records from Easter Island. Nature 307:47–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fosberg, R. 1963 Disturbance in island ecosystems. In Gressit, J. L., ed., Pacific Basin Biogeography. Honolulu, Bishop Museum Press: 557–561.Google Scholar
Gill, W. W. 1894 From Darkness to Light in Polynesia. London, The Religious Tract Society.Google Scholar
Hughes, P., Hope, G., Latham, M. and Brookfield, H. 1982 Prehistoric man-induced degradation of the Lakeba landscape. evidence from two inland swamps. In Brookfield, H., ed., Lakeba: Environmental Change, Population Dynamics, and Resource Use. Paris, UNESCO: 93–110.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 1982 The impact of the prehistoric Polynesians on the Hawaiian ecosystem. Pacific Science 36: 1–14.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 1983 Man's role in modifying tropical and subtropical Polynesian ecosystems. Archaeology in Oceania 18: 26–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirch, P. V. and Yen, D. E. 1982 Tikopia: The prehistory and ecology of a Polynesian outlier. B. P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 238: 1–396.Google Scholar
Lamont, F. (ms.) 1990 A 6,000 year pollen record from Mangaia, Cook Islands, South Pacific: Evidence for early human impact. B. Sc. dissertation, School of Geography and Earth Resources, The University of Hull.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. and Wilson, E. O. 1967 The theory of island biogeography. Monographs in Population Biology 1, Princeton.Google Scholar
Marshall, P. 1927 Geology of Mangaia. B. P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 36: 1–48.Google Scholar
McGlone, M. 1983 The Polynesian deforestation of New Zealand: A preliminary synthesis. Archaeology in Oceania 18: 11–25.Google Scholar
Merlin, M. D. 1991 Woody vegetation on the raised coral limestone of Mangaia, southern Cook Islands. Pacific Science 45: 131–151.Google Scholar
Olson, S. L. and James, H. F. 1984 The role of Polynesians in the extinction of the avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. In Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., eds., Quaternary Extinctions. Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 768–780.Google Scholar
Pregill, G. K. and Dye, T. 1989 Prehistoric extinction of giant iguanas in Tonga. Copeia 1989(2): 505–508.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1986 Landscape, land use and political transformation in southern Melanesia. In Kirch, P. V., ed., Island Societies: Archaeological Approaches to Evolution and Transformation. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 6–19.Google Scholar
Steadman, D. W. 1985 Fossil birds from Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 108: 58–66.Google Scholar
Steadman, D. W. 1987 Two new species of rails (Aves: Rallidae) from Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands. Pacific Science 40: 27–43.Google Scholar
Steadman, D. W. 1989 Extinction of birds in Eastern Polynesia: A review of the record, and comparisons with other Pacific Island groups. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 177–205.Google Scholar
Steadman, D. W. and Kirch, P. 1990 Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 87: 9605–9609.Google Scholar
Stoddart, D. R., Spencer, T. and Scoffin, T. P. 1985 Reef growth and karst erosion on Mangaia, Cook Islands: A reinterpretation. Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie 57: 121–140.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Becker, B. 1986 High-precision decadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, a.d. 1950–2500 b.c. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2B): 863–910.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Polach, H. A. 1977 Discussion: Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3): 355–363.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Reimer, P. J. 1986 A computer program for radiocarbon age calibration. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds, Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2B): 1022–1030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, D. L. and Jarrard, R. D. 1982 K-Ar dating of the Cook-Austral island chain, a test of the hot-spot hypothesis. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 12: 187–220.Google Scholar
Yonekura, N., Ishii, T., Saito, Y., Maeda, Y., Matsuhima, Y., Matsumoto, E. and Kayanne, H. 1988 Holocene fringing reefs and sea-level change in Mangaia Island, Southern Cook Islands. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 68: 177–188.Google Scholar