Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using <sup>230</sup>Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural stone

Quaternary Research - Tập 86 - Trang 295-303 - 2016
Mark D. McCoy1, Helen A. Alderson2, Richard Hemi3, Hai Cheng4,5, R. Lawrence Edwards5
1Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA
2Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
3School of Surveying, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
4Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
5Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

Tóm tắt

AbstractArchaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High-quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of the Pacific. Nan Madol is an ancient administrative and mortuary center and the former capital of the island of Pohnpei. It was constructed over 83 ha of lagoon with artificial islets and other architecture built using columnar basalt and coral. We employed geochemical sourcing of basalt used as architectural stone and high-precision uranium-thorium series dates (230Th/U) on coral from the tomb of the first chief of the entire island to identify the beginning of monument building at Nan Madol in AD 1180-1200. Over the next several centuries (AD 1300-1600) monument building began on other islands across Oceania. Future research should be aimed at resolving the causes of these social transformations through higher quality data on monument building.

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Quaternary Research

Tập 86

295-303

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