Tracking Changes in Nearshore Ecology over 2000 Years in Southern Yap, Western Caroline Islands
Author(s): Paul Gerard; Matthew Napolitano; Geoffrey Clark; Scott Fitzpatrick
Year: 2018
Summary
The initial human settlement of Yap, Western Caroline Islands (northwest tropical Pacific), is one of the least understood in Pacific prehistory, although new archaeological research is beginning to address this issue. Excavations at the southern site of Pemrang in Yap, western Caroline Islands (northwest tropical Pacific) have revealed multiple rich, well-stratified deposits of shell and pottery spanning the known occupation sequence of Yap and extended the date of early human activity by ca. 400 years to ca. 2400-2200 cal BP. A stark difference in the type of shell recovered from two deposits, supported by a suite of new radiocarbon dates, suggests rapid environmental change in southern Yap. This paper presents preliminary results of isotopic analysis (13C and 18O) of radiocarbon dated shell to identify nearshore ecological conditions in southern Yap at the time of initial human settlement.
Cite this Record
Tracking Changes in Nearshore Ecology over 2000 Years in Southern Yap, Western Caroline Islands. Paul Gerard, Matthew Napolitano, Geoffrey Clark, Scott Fitzpatrick. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 443457)
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Keywords
General
Coastal and Island Archaeology
Geographic Keywords
Pacific Islands
Spatial Coverage
min long: 153.633; min lat: -51.399 ; max long: -107.578; max lat: 24.207 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 22545