title: Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia.
abstract: The Cook Islands are considered the "gateway" for human colonization of East Polynesia, the final chapter of Oceanic settlement and the last major region occupied on Earth. Indeed, East Polynesia witnessed the culmination of the greatest maritime migration in human history. Perennial debates have critiqued whether Oceanic settlement was purposeful or accidental, the timing and pathways of colonization, and the nature and extent of postcolonization voyaging-essential for small founding groups securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities. Centering on the well-dated Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, we charted the temporal duration and geographic spread of exotic stone adze materials-essential woodworking tools found throughout Polynesia- imported for more than 300 y beginning in the early AD 1300s. Using a technique requiring only 200 mg of sample for the geochemical analysis of trace elements and isotopes of fine-grained basalt adzes, we assigned all artifacts to an island or archipelago of origin. Adze material was identified from the chiefly complex on the Austral Islands, from the major adze quarry complex on Tutuila (Samoa), and from the Marquesas Islands more than 2,400 km distant. This interaction is the only dated example of down-the-line exchange in central East Polynesia where intermediate groups transferred commodities attesting to the interconnectedness and complexity of social relations fostered during postsettlement voyaging. For the Cook Islands, this exchange may have lasted into the 1600s, at least a century later than other East Polynesian archipelagos, suggesting that interarchipelago interaction contributed to the later development of social hierarchies.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; kirch@berkeley.edu m.weisler@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Marshall I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Weisler
authors.affiliation: School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, South Africa;
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bolhar
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochronology and Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia;
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia;
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: St Pierre
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand;
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheppard
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand;
authors.forename: Richard K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia;
authors.forename: Yuexing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia;
authors.forename: Jian-Xin
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 kirch@berkeley.edu m.weisler@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Patrick V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Kirch
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D063426:Human Migration; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D009354:Neodymium; D011114:Polynesia; D017640:Silicates / Q000737:chemistry*; D013325:Strontium Isotopes
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D017640:Silicates; D013325:Strontium Isotopes; C060346:basalt; D009354:Neodymium
keywords: Polynesian archaeology; adzes; exchange; geochemical sourcing; voyaging