FOOD PRODUCTION, ENVIRONMENT, AND CULTURE IN CENTRAL-EASTERN MICRONESIA Maureece J. Levin
This project examines prehistoric and early historic food production systems in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Pohnpei, located in central-eastern Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean, was settled approximately 2000 years ago. Previous studies (e.g. Ayres and Haun 1990; Haun 1984) show that Pohnpeians developed an agricultural system based on permanent agroforests in the first millennium AD, which was followed by an increase in political centralization. The current project builds on earlier work by studying the relationship between arboriculture and environmental and social change in the Pohnpeian past. Geographically, the project focuses on Temwen Island, which is separated from the southeastern coast of the main Pohnpeian island by a narrow strait. The Nan Madol site, a collection of approximately 100 artificial islets that formed Pohnnpei’s most powerful political center from approximately 1000-500 BP, is located just off the coast of Temwen. Over the course of two and a half months, a team of archaeologists from the University of Oregon and the Australian National University along with local residents of Temwen Island, conducted intensive survey. During fieldwork, 50 new sites were identified. Features related to food production included yam cultivation enclosures, breadfruit fermentation pits, boulder alignments that may be related to terracing, and one cooking area. Several of these food production-related features were excavated; field flotation was performed to collect samples for plant macroremains and smaller sediment samples were collected to study plant microremains. Phytolith analysis from garden areas and agricultural-related features show that sediment disturbances are consistent with expected areas of use and indicative of potential swiddening practices and the historic introduction of pigs to the island. Plant macroremain and phytolith analysis combined at the cooking site provide strong evidence of breadfruit roasting (Levin, in review). Additionally, this project involves the production of a Pacific Islands phytolith reference collection. During fieldwork, economic plant taxa and other common locally occurring taxa were collected. Important plants were also collected in Manoa, O’ahu, Hawai’i, which were processed through dry ashing at the University of Oregon. Pacific plant specimens held at the Department of Archaeology and Natural History at Australian National University were also used and processed on site under the direction of Matiu Prebble. As phytolith production is highly variable between both taxa and plant part, the reference collection was analyzed to define potential applications and limitations of phytolith analysis in Pacific archaeological contexts. Future work will include further survey and excavation to sample a wider range of sites, as well as combined macrocharcoal and phytolith analysis to distinguish swiddening-related vegetation disturbance from that related to the introduction of pigs. Works Cited Ayres, W.S. And A.E. Haun 1990 Prehistoric Food Production in Micronesia. In Pacific Production Systems: Approaches to Economic Prehistory. Papers from a Symposium at the XVth Pacific Science Congress, New Zealand, edited by D. Yen and M.J.M. Mummery, eds., pp. 211-227. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra. Haun, A. 1984 Prehistoric Subsistence, Population, and Sociopolitical Evolution on Ponape, Micronesia. PhD dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene.
Maureece J. Levin, University of Oregon,
[email protected]
Keywords: Pacific Islands, Micronesia, Paleoethnobotany, Phytolith Analysis, Agriculture, central-eastern Micronesia Permanent URI: http://www.saa.org/CurrentResearch/pdf/saa_cro_227_Food_Production,_Environm.pdf Bounding coordinates (decimal degrees):
West: 1.22 North: 174.29 East: 12.89 South: 137.2
Citation Example: Maureece J. Levin (2015) Food Production, Environment, and Culture in Central-Eastern Micronesia. SAA Current Research 227, http://www.saa.org/CurrentResearch/pdf/saa_cro_227_Food_Production,_Environm.pdf, accessed (current date)
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