Authors
Janet M Wilmshurst, Terry L Hunt, Carl P Lipo, Atholl J Anderson
Publication date
2011/2/1
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
108
Issue
5
Pages
1815-1820
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Description
The 15 archipelagos of East Polynesia, including New Zealand, Hawaii, and Rapa Nui, were the last habitable places on earth colonized by prehistoric humans. The timing and pattern of this colonization event has been poorly resolved, with chronologies varying by >1000 y, precluding understanding of cultural change and ecological impacts on these pristine ecosystems. In a meta-analysis of 1,434 radiocarbon dates from the region, reliable short-lived samples reveal that the colonization of East Polynesia occurred in two distinct phases: earliest in the Society Islands A.D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed; then after 70–265 y, dispersal continued in one major pulse to all remaining islands A.D. ∼1190–1290. We show that previously supported longer chronologies have relied upon radiocarbon-dated materials with large sources of error, making them unsuitable for precise dating of recent …
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Scholar articles
JM Wilmshurst, TL Hunt, CP Lipo, AJ Anderson - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011