Improving chronologies in Island Environments: A Global Perspective
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Date
2021-09-13
Authors
Napolitano, Matthew
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Chronology building is a fundamental part of archaeology. Questions related to the timing and duration of events are inextricably connected to larger questions about human activity in the past. Given its wide applicability and temporal range that covers the last ca. 50 kya, radiocarbon dating is the most frequently used chronometric technique in archaeology. Preserved carbon-based organic materials such as charcoal, shell, and bone are often key sources of information for determining the onset and duration of cultural events that occurred in the past. Limitations of radiocarbon dating have long been identified, yet with advances, including accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and applications of Bayesian modeling (see below), archaeologists and other scientists have continued to improve the accuracy and precision of chronologies. For archaeologists working in island regions, these techniques have allowed archaeologists to engage with a number of complex issues including island colonization events (i.e., initial human settlement), paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and long-distance exchange and interaction between groups of people living on different islands.To examine chronological issues as they specifically relate to islands, I present four case studies as part of this dissertation in which various techniques are applied to archaeological datasets to improve the accuracy and precision of understanding human activity in the past. By applying a suite of methods, including chronometric hygiene, Bayesian modeling, glass chemical composition analysis, and marine reservoir corrections to case studies from four island regions around the world, I improve upon some of the limitations imposed by radiocarbon dating to create a more nuances understanding the past. These approaches allow me to address both large-scale questions such as the timing of human settlement across the circum-Caribbean, site-specific questions such as when stone money quarrying activity took place in a rockshelter site in Palau, western Micronesia, and how settlement patterns in southern Yap, western Micronesia was influenced by sea-level change around 2000 years.
This dissertation includes unpublished and previously published co-authored material.
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Keywords
Bayesian modeling, Caribbean, chronometric hygiene, Micronesia, radiocarbon dating, Remote Oceania