Erlandson, JonO'Connor, John2019-09-182019-09-18https://hdl.handle.net/1794/24822This dissertation project explores the timing and impacts of Polynesian colonization on the island of Raʻiātea in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. Raʻiātea, also known by the ancestral name Havaiʻi, is the largest island of the Leeward Group and a key location for understanding human settlement and the dispersal of voyaging populations among the islands of East Polynesia prior to European contact in the region. This project examines the position of Raʻiātea in the context of regional settlement with an analysis of East Polynesian cultural transmission networks, a contribution to the radiocarbon chronology of Raʻiātea, and an assessment of landscape change and ecological effects at the megalithic ceremonial center of Marae Tainuʻu on the west coast of the island. An analysis of morphological variability among 18 artifact fishhook assemblages from 17 East Polynesian islands supports Raʻiātea as a central node in regional cultural transmission networks, an outcome that fits well with other archaeological and linguistic models of dispersal and interaction. Excavations at Marae Tainuʻu exposed a deep history of Maʻōhi settlement existing beneath the surface of the extant megalithic structures. Subsurface architecture, artifacts, and faunal remains suggest culturally dictated patterns of resource use and landscape modification at the marae complex. Radiocarbon dates reveal a record of human activity beginning as early as ~1520-1665 cal AD. The intellectual merit of this project lies in the advancement of knowledge regarding Society Islands archaeology, a relatively neglected area of study with implications for public policy, local resource protection, and furthering collective knowledge of Polynesia’s deep history. The broader impacts of this work include contributions to the assessment of how Polynesian peoples shaped their environment and how this relates to models of anthropogenic environmental change on oceanic islands. This dissertation includes previously published co-authored material.en-USAll Rights Reserved.archaeologychronologycommunity patterningFrench Polynesiahistorical ecologyRaiateaElectronic Thesis or Dissertation