Tracing interisland and interarchipelago movements of people and artifacts in prehistoric Polynesia has posed a challenge to archaeologists due to the lack of pottery and obsidian, two materials most readily used in studies of prehistoric trade or exchange. Here we report the application of nondestructive energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis to the sourcing of Polynesian artifa...

It is now generally accepted that Polynesia was first settled by peoples from southeast Asia. An alternative that eastern parts of Polynesia were first inhabited by Amerindians has found little support. There are, however, many indications of a 'prehistoric' (i.e. before Polynesia was discovered by Europeans) contact between Polynesia and the Americas, but genetic evidence of a prehistoric Amer...

The geographic situation of the Iberian Peninsula makes it a natural link between Europe and North Africa. However, it is a matter of debate to what extent African influences via the Straits Gibraltar have affected Iberia's prehistoric development. Because early African pastoralist communities were dedicated to cattle breeding, a possible means to detect prehistoric African-Iberian contacts mig...

Sexuality as a social and psychological construct varies within the socio-cultural traditions in the history of the human society. The absence of prehistoric written records does not allow us to explore in depth its genesis, so we have to use models and hypotheses based on fragmented and indirect data and on comparative studies. In this session we will attempt to explore the following problems:...

Stone tools, or lithics, are the least familiar artifacts archaeologists encounter in our research. Most of us have more than a passing acquaintance with artifacts made of ceramics or metal. We have household words for them, such as “bowl” or “nail,” that transfer readily into archaeological analysis. Few students come to archaeology already familiar with stone tools. When and where preservatio...

Prehistoric exploitation of marine mammals in the northeastern Pacific has been a subject of considerable attention since 1992 when Hildebrandt and Jones used an optimal foraging model to argue that when congregated in rookeries, seals and sea lions represent highly attractive resources vulnerable to overpredation. Using archaeofaunal data from sites along the Oregon and California coasts they ...

Inter-archipelago exchange networks were an important aspect of prehistoric Polynesian societies. We report here a novel genetic characterization of a prehistoric exchange network involving an endemic Pacific island tree snail, Partula hyalina. It occurs in the Society (Tahiti only), Austral and Southern Cook Islands. Our genetic data, based on museum, captive and wild-caught samples, establish...

This paper deals with the study of Holocene geomorphic evolution of rivers around Songshan Mountain in relation to human frequentation in Prehistoric periods. The investigations were performed by means of an integration of GIS data processing; field surveys and particle size analysis. In 8000–3000 aBP; in the Songshan Mountain Region, large-scale river sedimentation occurred. This increased the...