Researchers Determine Date When Polynesia First Settled

The precise date when Polynesia was first settled by humans has long been elusive, but now a team of researchers have applied a dating technique that reveals that the first human settlers founded a colony on the islands of Tonga between 2,830 and 2,846 years ago. 

The founder colony has been identified through previous studies as Nukuleka in the Kingdom of Tonga, as evidenced by a ceramic tradition connected to a people called the Lapita, a founding population whose origins are still unknown. A number of radiocarbon dates for the artifact contexts have been established to support the claim, but these dates cannot precisely establish when the founding event occurred, including an accurate chronology for succeeding occupation. The accumulated archaeological data indicates that expansion from Nukuleka by later Lapita peoples occurred around the lagoon and then northward to the other islands of Tonga and Samoa.

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Map showing region where Lapita pottery has been found. Christophe Cage, Wikimedia Commons 

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This most recent research, led by David Burley and colleagues from Simon Fraser University, Canada, applied U/Th dating to Acropora coral files (abraders) from Nukuleka. The files (pictured below) were used by the Lapita people to sculpt and smooth wood and shell surfaces. The results afforded unprecedented resolution, identifying the founder event by 2,838 plus or minus 68 years BP and documenting site development over the ensuing 250 years.

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This shows pristine (upper) and used (lower) surfaces of an Acropora coral file used to sculpt and smooth wood and shell surfaces. Credit: Citation: Burley D, Weisler MI, Zhao J-x (2012) High Precision U/Th Dating of First Polynesian Settlement. PLoS ONE7(11): e48769. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0048769

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Says Burley, “This degree of precision is impossible using radiocarbon and other dating techniques. It provides significant new opportunities for our understanding of the exploration and settlement of the far distant islands spread across the South Pacific.”

The details of the research are published in the November 7 edition of the open access journalPLOS ONE  as High Precision U/Th Dating of First Polynesian Settlement, available at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048769.

*Republished with permission from Popular Archaeology