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The antiquity of human dispersal into Mediterranean islands and ensuing coastal adaptation have remained largely unexplored due to the prevailing assumption that the sea was a barrier to movement and that islands were hostile environments to early hunter-gatherers [J. F. Cherry, T. P. Leppard, J. Isl. Coast. Archaeol. 13, 191-205 (2018), 10.1080/15564894.2016.1276489]. Using the latest archaeological data, hindcasted climate projections, and age-structured demographic models, we demonstrate evidence for early arrival (14,257 to 13,182 calendar years ago) to Cyprus and predicted that large groups of people (~1,000 to 1,375) arrived in 2 to 3 main events occurring within <100 y to ensure low extinction risk. These results indicate that the postglacial settlement of Cyprus involved only a few large-scale, organized events requiring advanced watercraft technology. Our spatially debiased and Signor-Lipps-corrected estimates indicate rapid settlement of the island within <200 y, and expansion to a median of 4,000 to 5,000 people (0.36 to 0.46 km-2) in <11 human generations (<300 y). Our results do not support the hypothesis of inaccessible and inhospitable islands in the Mediterranean for pre-agropastoralists, agreeing with analogous conclusions for other parts of the world [M. I. Bird et al., Sci. Rep. 9, 8220 (2019), 10.1038/s41598-019-42946-9]. Our results also highlight the need to revisit these questions in the Mediterranean and test their validity with new technologies, field methods, and data. By applying stochastic models to the Mediterranean region, we can place Cyprus and large islands in general as attractive and favorable destinations for paleolithic peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive models have become an integral part of archaeological research, particularly in the discovery of new archaeological sites. In this paper, we apply predictive modeling to map high potential Pleistocene archaeological locales on the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. The model delineates landscape characteristics that denote areas with high potential to unearth Pleistocene archaeology while at the same time highlighting localities that should be excluded. The predictive model was employed in surface surveys to systematically access high probability locales on Cyprus. A number of newly identified localities suggests that the true density of mobile hunter-gatherer sites on Cyprus is seriously underestimated in current narratives. By adding new data to this modest corpus of early insular sites, we are able to contribute to debates regarding island colonisation and the role of coastal environments in human dispersals to new territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typological and geochemical analyses of stone adzes and other stone tools have played a significant role in identifying directionality of colonisation movements in early migratory events in the Western Pacific. In later phases of Polynesian prehistory, stone adzes are important status goods which show substantial spatial and temporal variation. However, there is a debate when standardisation of form and manufacture appeared, whether it can be seen in earliest populations colonising the Pacific or whether it is a later development. We present in this paper a stone adze and obsidian tool assemblage from an early Ancestral Polynesian Society Talasiu site on Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga. The site shows a wide variety of adze types; however, if raw material origin is taken into account, emerging standardisation in adze form might be detected. We also show that Tongatapu was strongly connected in a network of interaction to islands to the North, particularly Samoa, suggesting that these islands had permanent populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analysed over 1000 obsidian stone artefacts excavated from two adjoining shelters at Tron Bon Lei on Alor Island Indonesia using portable XRF. The study showed an unambiguous separation of three different source locations (Groups 1, 2 and 3). Two sources (Group 2 and 3a, b, c) dominate the assemblage numerically. Group 1 and 2 indicate use of a single volcanic formation with a strong match between Group 1 artefacts and artefacts from sites in Timor Leste. Obsidian occurs in the earliest occupation layer in the Alor sites but does not include Group 1 artefacts which occur only after approx. 12,000 cal BP. Currently the geographical location of the Group 1 outcrop is unknown, however, based on the late appearance of the Group 1 artefacts in the Alor sequence it is likely that the location is not on Alor, but rather on another island of the Sunda chain. The dating of Group 1 artefacts in widely spaced sites on the never geographically connected islands of Timor and Alor indicates that maritime interaction between islands began by at least the terminal Pleistocene. The distribution of the obsidian in Tron Bon Lei shelter Pit B shows that there were periods of more intense interaction punctuated by periods when interaction declined or ceased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Teouma site on Efate Island in Vanuatu is unique in the Pacific, as it enables us to analyse an archaeological assemblage in relation to discrete activity areas of burial and settlement at the time of initial settlement of the archipelago. Geochemical sourcing of obsidian in combination with a basic technological analysis help us to understand whether differences exist between burial zones and settlement middens. The results show that the distribution of obsidian was not directly associated with individual burials and does not unambiguously correlate with specific activity areas, thus questioning the hypothesis that obsidian transportation was linked to the increase in individual status. It is argued that the evidence adds further weight to those models that interpret the function of obsidian as being associated with past social transactions or relationships, rather than having any enduring or intrinsic value as a wealth-enhancing commodity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga's maritime polity, we geochemically analyzed stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly lithic artifacts associated with stone-faced chiefly tombs. The lithic networks of the Tongan state focused on Samoa and Fiji, with one adze sourced to the Society Islands 2,500 km from Tongatapu. To test the hypothesis that nonlocal lithics were especially valued by Tongan elites and were an important source of political capital, we analyzed prestate lithics from Tongatapu and stone artifacts from Samoa. In the Tongan state, 66% of worked stone tools were long-distance imports, indicating that interarchipelago connections intensified with the development of the Tongan polity after A.D. 1200. In contrast, stone tools found in Samoa were from local sources, including tools associated with a monumental structure contemporary with the Tongan state. Network analysis of lithics entering the Tongan state and of the distribution of Samoan adzes in the Pacific identified a centralized polity and the products of specialized lithic workshops, respectively. These results indicate that a significant consequence of social complexity was the establishment of new types of specialized sites in distant geographic areas. Specialized sites were loci of long-distance interaction and formed important centers for the transmission of information, people, and materials in prehistoric Oceania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geochemical study using pXRF and LA-ICP- MS to characterise artefacts from sites dating to the initial phase of colonisation on Aore and Malo islands, Vanuatu, has confirmed the dominance of obsidian from the distant Kutau/ Bao source in West New Britain, with a smaller group from local outcrops in the Banks Islands, Vanuatu. Three flakes from the Umleang/ Umrei source in the Admiralty Islands have also been identified in later levels. Distance fall-off analysis of metric and technological attributes suggests that during the early phase of human colonisation of Remote Oceania, obsidian circulated within a series of separate, loosely connected social spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents results of an obsidian sourcing study on artifacts from Tonga and Fiji. New LA-ICPMS data on obsidian source locations on Tafahi in northern Tonga are discussed in relation to inter-island mobility during two important phases in the Central Pacific: the late-Lapita phase in Fiji-West Polynesia at 2700–2600 cal. BP and during the time of the rise of Polynesian chiefdoms at ∼1000–400 cal. BP. The sourcing results indicate that two sources of obsidian were exploited during Tongan prehistory. It is suggested that different modes of interaction were responsible for obsidian movement during the early and late phases of Tongan prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of AD 1300 climate change in widespread societal change in Palau and the Pacific Basin has recently been debated by Fitzpatrick (2010, 2011) and Nunn and Hunter-Anderson (2011). The central proposition examined here is the link between a sea-level driven food crisis and the outbreak of conflict, which is hypothesized in the AD 1300 event model to have led people to shift from unprotected coastal parts of large islands (e.g. volcanic Babeldaob) to more readily defensible offshore islands (e.g. limestone 'Rock Islands') during the transition between the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). Revision of radiocarbon dates from village sites in the Rock Islands suggests instead that permanent settlements were established on small offshore islands during the MWP with village abandonment during the LIA. Palaeoclimate records from equatorial islands show that during the LIA Palau had less rainfall from the southward movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The abandonment of multiple limestone islands by a population estimated at 4000-6000 people may have been influenced by decreased precipitation and more tentatively from a decline in near-shore marine foods as a result of sea-level fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses new evidence of long-distance interaction networks in Island Southeast Asia obtained from geochemical analyses using SEM-EDXA and LA-ICPMS of 101 obsidian samples from 25 locations including seven obsidian sources and 19 archaeological sites. Given that there are obsidian sources distributed throughout much of Island Southeast Asia, the potential for obsidian studies to provide greater understanding of patterns of mobility and exchange in the Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic periods would seem to be considerable. This potential, however, remains largely unrealised as obsidian sourcing has hitherto only been carried out intermittently in Island Southeast Asia using PIXE-PIGME, XRF and other methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper summarises research on obsidian findings across the region of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), from the first reporting of obsidian on Sumatra as a result of cave excavations in the early 1900s through to the latest published discoveries in 2009. These results are the background for the first region-wide research project focussing on obsidian characterisation and its role in prehistoric inter-island exchange. It is commonly held that distribution of obsidian in ISEA was only localised and inter-island transportation limited. The review, however, suggests that this hypothesis derives from an incomplete knowledge of obsidian distribution in the region rather than typifying prehistoric social patterns. Obsidian sourcing has been carried out only intermittently in ISEA since the 1970s and has generally been focussed only at the single site level, thus explaining this very partial understanding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We report new evidence from east Timor for the long-term prehistoric use of a single high-silicate obsidian source. Ten artefacts from Jerimalai shelter in east Timor analysed with SEM/EDXA and LA-ICPMS demonstrate the exploitation of this source began in the pleistocene by 42,000 calBP, and continued to be used periodically into the mid to late Holocene. The data supports previous results suggesting that a high-silicate obsidian of unknown location has been transported over considerable distance to rock shelter sites in the east of Timor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study regarding the provenance and technology of the lithic artifacts found in Teouma Lapita site in Efate, Vanuatu. It states that 56 obsidian artifacts and 141 non-obsidian artifacts are excavated in three field seasons, wherein the solid rocks are characterized using the Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). It says that the obsidians could be viewed as a by-product of exchange relations in marriage partners and goods of social value.

In 2006 volcanic glass deposits on Vanua Lava and Gaua Islands were re-visited and systematically sampled. Twenty-nine source samples were analysed using EDXA-SEM and LA-ICP-MS with a focus on detecting possible intrasource variation. The results show both Banks Islands deposits are readily distinguishable from each other and from other sources in the region and their chemical compositions are highly homogenous. Surface survey of other prospective areas established that these two are the only volcanic glass sources in the Banks Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crossing of the Wallacean islands and settlement of Sahul by modern humans over 50,000 years ago, represents the earliest successful seafaring of our species anywhere in the world. Archaeological research throughout this vast island archipelago has recovered evidence for varied patterns in island occupation, with accumulating evidence suggesting a significant change in cultural activities and interaction amongst island communities following the LGM. New forms of technology such as shell fish hooks and adzes appear alongside standardised forms of shell beads, indicating that these technological innovations were accompanied by shared styles of personal ornamentation. Simultaniously, obsidian from a single, off-island source is found in the archaeological assemblages on at least four islands. We explore these implied spheres of interaction across Wallacea, with a focus on the terminal-Pleistocene/early-Holocene cultural materials and customs linking the southeastern Wallacean islands of Alor, Timor, and Kisar, and other parts of greater Wallacea and Near Oceania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insular region of Wallacea has become a focal point for studying Pleistocene human ecological and cultural adaptations in island environments, however, little is understood about early burial traditions during the Pleistocene. Here we investigate maritime interactions and burial practices at Ratu Mali 2, an elevated coastal cave site on the small island of Kisar in the Lesser Sunda Islands of eastern Indonesia dated to 15,500–3700 cal. BP. This multidisciplinary study demonstrates extreme marine dietary adaptations, engagement with an extensive exchange network across open seas, and early mortuary practices. A flexed male and a female, interred in a single grave with abundant shellfish and obsidian at Ratu Mali 2 by 14.7 ka are the oldest known human burials in Wallacea with established funerary rites. These findings highlight the impressive flexibility of our species in marginal environments and provide insight into the earliest known ritualised treatment of the dead in Wallacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warfare is often considered as a key factor in the formation complex societies, but in the Pacific archaeological evidence for inter-group conflict during political centralization is rare. Most earthwork forts in Tonga are assumed to have been built in the nineteenth century when the traditional system of rulership collapsed, yet few forts on Tongatapu have been excavated or 14C dated. A fort in the chiefly center of the ancient Tongan state was mapped with theodolite and LiDAR, and excavated. Radiocarbon and traditional history indicate the fort known as the Lapaha Kolotau was made in the fourteenth century AD at the same time that chiefly architecture was being built at an unprecedented scale at the new elite center. The construction of an earthwork fort provides the first evidence that political centralization in Tonga was likely to have been contested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seaborne movement underpins frontier research in prehistoric archaeology, including water-crossings in the context of human dispersals, and island colonisation. Yet, it also controls the degree of interaction between locations, which in turn is essential for investigating the properties of maritime networks. The onset of the Holocene (circa 12,000 years ago) is a critical period for understanding the origins of early visitors/inhabitants to the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean in connection with the spread of Neolithic cultures in the region. The research undertaken in this work exemplifies the synergies between archaeology, physical sciences and geomatics, towards providing novel insights on the feasibility of drift-induced seaborne movement and the corresponding trip duration between Cyprus and coastal regions on the surrounding mainland. The overarching objective is to support archaeological inquiry regarding the possible origins of these visitors/inhabitants—Anatolia and/or the Levant being two suggested origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Philippine archipelago spans over two distinct biogeographic zones, Sundaland and Wallacea. We report in this paper on finds from Ilin Island just off the coast of SW-Mindoro, and El Nido in Northern Palawan. While the island of Palawan is linked to Sundaland, Mindoro and Ilin Island belong to Wallacea, east of Huxley's Line. Ongoing archaeological investigations at Bubog 1 Rockshelter on Ilin Island and Ille Cave & Rockshelter in northern Palawan, delivered obsidian artefacts, found in Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene layers. PXRF analysis of the obsidian samples from Mindoro and Palawan shows that they were coming from the same, yet unknown source. They clearly indicate that the two distinct paleogeographical regions were linked to each other, suggesting human interaction and maritime networks as early as ca. 12ka BP. The results of this study contribute substantially to our understanding of the mobility of early islanders during the Terminal Pleistocene and the processes of human island adaptation and enhance our current knowledge of subsistence strategies across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal manufacture and use of pottery was unknown in Australia prior to European settlement, despite well-known ceramic-making traditions in southern Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia, and the western Pacific. The absence of ancient pottery manufacture in mainland Australia has long puzzled researchers given other documented deep time Aboriginal exchange networks across the continent and the close proximity of pottery-bearing Lapita and post-Lapita maritime communities in the western Pacific with ocean-going watercraft and sophisticated navigation abilities. We report the oldest securely dated ceramics found in Australia from archaeological excavations on Jiigurru (Lizard Island Group) on the Great Barrier Reef, northeast Australia. Comprehensive radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling constrains ceramic deposition to between 2950–2545 cal BP and 1970–1815 cal BP. This timing overlaps with late Lapita and post-Lapita ceramic traditions of southern Papua New Guinea. Geological characterisation of the sherds strongly suggests local manufacture as the vessels belong to three temper and clay groups locally sourced to northeast Australia, and most likely to Jiigurru. The oldest occupation layers date to 6510–5790 cal BP, making Jiigurru the earliest offshore island occupied on the northern Great Barrier Reef. The results demonstrate that northeast Australian First Nations communities had sophisticated canoe voyaging technology and open-sea navigational skills and were intimately engaged in ancient maritime networks, connecting them with peoples, knowledges, and technologies across the Coral Sea region. • We report the oldest securely dated ceramics found in Australia. • Earliest known offshore island occupation on the northern Great Barrier Reef. • Ceramic analysis suggests local raw material sources and manufacture. • Results demonstrate that Australia was intimately engaged in ancient maritime networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picrolite artefacts comprise some of the most distinctive material remains in the prehistory of the island of Cyprus, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Picrolite exploitation dates from at least 12,000 years ago for the manufacture of personal ornaments and items with a symbolic function. It is commonly assumed that picrolite nodules were collected in secondary deposits on an ad hoc basis. This narrative, however, ignores the fact that picrolite carriers can only be found in very specific locations on the island, discrete from each other. Here we report initial outcomes of the application of handheld portable X-ray fluorescence (HHpXRF) and synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (SR-μXRF) to the analysis of picrolite raw materials performed at the newly opened PUMA beamline of the SOLEIL Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Our work refines the basic characteristics of the elemental constituents of the picrolite raw material and highlights key micro-structural differences between two distinct source regions on the Troodos Massif in western Cyprus. Picrolite source characterisation is expected to contribute significant new knowledge to the study of rare raw material consumption, prehistoric social organisation, networking and possible long-distance exchange of this idiosyncratic raw material within and beyond the island's geographic boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional studies were undertaken on simple, un-retouched flaked and pebble artefacts made from a variety of lithic raw materials, recovered from late Holocene (Lapita) sites in Vanuatu. Use-wear and residue analysis of macroscopic and microscopic evidence identified a wide range of craft, subsistence and social activities. These include cutting, pounding and grinding of non-woody plants; graving, drilling, scraping and sawing of soft wood; drilling shell and cutting and piercing soft elastic material such as skin. This is the first detailed functional analysis on a collection of stone artefacts from Lapita period sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new obsidian source from northwest Manus, Papua New Guinea, is reported for the first time. The chemical signature for this new source was obtained using the electron microprobe, ICP-MS, and PIXE-PIGME, and the results were compared with known sources and artifacts from this region. The results show for the first time a more complex scenario of obsidian procurement and exchange than previously thought. Archaeological excavation and survey of Manus is so far very limited, with only one excavated Pleistocene site. Much more archaeological work is needed to find more early sites, to assess the distributions of material from Lepong and other obsidian sources, and model obsidian transfers in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neolithic arrival in the Pacific involved, as in other parts of the world, the translocation of domesticated plants and animals by pottery-making cultures in prehistory. Globally uncommon, though, was the abandonment of pottery on some islands and the extirpation of the pig ( Sus scrofa/verrucosus) and dog ( Canis familiaris) - the two largest mammalian quadrupeds introduced to Oceania - from the subsistence and cultural systems. This paper examines the extirpation of pigs from the Palau Islands as a case study to understand why an important domesticate has such an uneven prehistoric distribution. When suids are fed agricultural produce required to sustain the human population, it has been proposed that competition and extirpation will result, especially on small islands with limited arable land. However, pigs are considered problem animals in many environments because of the damage they cause to horticultural production, particularly the effects of free-range pigs on gardens and plantations. It is suggested that extirpation and low-level animal keeping are a response to the threat that pigs pose to plant food yields and social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Measurements made at the Australian National University using laser ablation ICPMS show that none of the 88 analyzed obsidian artifacts from East Timor match either the known Papua New Guinea or the five Island SE Asian source samples in our ANU collections. There is a coastal journey of more than 3000km between the occurrence of obsidians from the Bismarck Archipelago volcanic province of Papua New Guinea and the Sunda-Banda Arc volcanic chain, yet obsidian artifacts from the two important PNG sources of Talasea and Lou Island are found at coastal Bukit Tengkorak in eastern Sabah at a similar distance along with material that has no known source. Timor lies south of the eastern section of the active volcanic Banda Arc island chain but it is within range of possible rhyolite sources from there. Although there is a continuous chain of around 60 active volcanoes stretching from west Sumatra to the Moluccas most are basaltic to andesitic with few areas likely to produce high silica dacite–rhyolite deposits. This does not exclude the possibility that the volcanic landscapes may contain obsidian, but without detailed survey and chemical analysis of sources from the Sunda-Banda Arc the attribution of the Timor obsidian artifacts remains to be demonstrated. Timor may seem to be an unlikely source for the presence of obsidians as it lacks reports of the silica-rich rhyolite volcanic centers necessary to produce this material. Despite the absence of detailed survey and analysis of Indonesian obsidian sources, especially from the volcanically active Banda Arc, this paper presents evidence that one of two obsidian sources is clearly from Timor while the other, with less certainty, is also from an unknown local source. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Underlines the role of royal funerals in unifying archaic states. • Identifies ritual behaviour in elite funerals over 700 years. • Demonstrates that canoe voyages of 150 km were made to collect volcanic funerary stones. • Recognizes that state ceremonies were supported by citizen networks that are poorly understood. • Finds that participatory networks were mechanisms for expressing cohesion or dissatisfaction. Archaic states were unstable entities and centralisation was threatened by fragmentation particularly at the death of semi-divine leaders. Royal funerals were therefore important state events as they engaged a significant proportion of the population in participatory behaviours and networks that linked individuals of different class and group affiliations to the politico-religious system. In the ancient Tongan state (CE 1250–1800), royal funerals involved the placement of exotic volcanic stones (kilikili) on the grave to mark the end of public mourning – a practice still followed by the Tongan royal family. To investigate the antiquity of the patterned ritual practice and the funerary contribution of specialists and non-specialists, we examined the composition of kilikili stones from chiefly tombs of known age. Analysis shows that voyages of 150 km were made to collect funerary stones from volcanic islands in Central Tonga for ~700 years. The development of royal tombs shows an increase in practical and ritual funerary activity that was likely overseen by a royal undertaker clan and participatory networks that spanned and integrated the scattered population of the Tongan maritime state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first peopling of Sahul (Australia, New Guinea and the Aru Islands joined at lower sea levels) by anatomically modern humans required multiple maritime crossings through Wallacea, with at least one approaching 100 km. Whether these crossings were accidental or intentional is unknown. Using coastal-viewshed analysis and ocean drift modelling combined with population projections, we show that the probability of randomly reaching Sahul by any route is <5% until ≥40 adults are 'washed off' an island at least once every 20 years. We then demonstrate that choosing a time of departure and making minimal headway (0.5 knots) toward a destination greatly increases the likelihood of arrival. While drift modelling demonstrates the existence of 'bottleneck' crossings on all routes, arrival via New Guinea is more likely than via northwestern Australia. We conclude that anatomically modern humans had the capacity to plan and make open-sea voyages lasting several days by at least 50,000 years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]