Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Micronesian/macrofusion
- 2 Micronesians: the people in history and anthropology
- 3 Fluid boundaries: horizons of the local, colonial and disciplinary
- 4 Settling the seascape: fusing islands and people
- 5 Identifying difference: the Mariana Islands
- 6 A sea of islands: Palau, Yap and the Carolinian atolls
- 7 ‘How the past speaks here!’ – the eastern Caroline Islands
- 8 Islands and beaches: the atoll groups and outliers
- 9 The tropical north-west Pacific in context
- References
- Index
8 - Islands and beaches: the atoll groups and outliers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Micronesian/macrofusion
- 2 Micronesians: the people in history and anthropology
- 3 Fluid boundaries: horizons of the local, colonial and disciplinary
- 4 Settling the seascape: fusing islands and people
- 5 Identifying difference: the Mariana Islands
- 6 A sea of islands: Palau, Yap and the Carolinian atolls
- 7 ‘How the past speaks here!’ – the eastern Caroline Islands
- 8 Islands and beaches: the atoll groups and outliers
- 9 The tropical north-west Pacific in context
- References
- Index
Summary
Despite their enormous geographical distribution, spreading as they do 20 degrees in longitude, and starting from a little south of the Equator to nearly 12 degrees north, there are three factors that link the islands discussed in this chapter. The first is that they are all low atolls or limestone islands whose residents, as I write, are particularly concerned about rising sea levels that threaten to submerge their homes; and second, they have received the least archaeological attention in Micronesia. Third, if the Caroline Islands were considered part of a ‘Breadfruit Culture Complex’ (Ishikawa 1987), then perhaps these islands ought to be considered part of a ‘Pandanus Pattern’, given the traditional importance of the pandanus tree for many of the communities discussed here (Grimble 1933–34; Stone 1963).
The Marshall Islands
The Ralik (sunset) and Ratak (sunrise) chains of twenty-nine atolls and five raised limestone islands form the Marshall Islands (Fig. 7.1). Although producing some of the earliest dates for colonization in this part of Oceania (see chapter 4), they have until recently resisted attempts to gain a clear understanding of the sequences of settlement and land use of this widely dispersed and numerous group of islands. This is typical of atoll groups, as noted in chapter 6 in relation to the Carolinian atolls, in that they appear to be some of the last to be subjected to intensive archaeological investigation.
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- The Archaeology of Micronesia , pp. 225 - 244Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004