Multiscalar Island Colonization Estimates through Bayesian Calibration Models

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Constructing Chronologies II: The Big Picture with Bayes and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologically, island colonization may be estimated at different geographical and temporal scales. Whereas behaviorally, colonization is a single landfall event, identifying the location of this initial landing in the archaeological record is not always possible due to site preservation, taphonomic, and sampling issues. Further, unambiguously confirming a particular site as the colonization area is often problematic. Bayesian calibration modelling provides a means to develop colonization estimates at site-, valley-, region-, island-, and archipelago-scales. Such a multiscalar approach allows the development of multiple hypotheses on the temporal and spatial dimensions of colonization, and the evaluation of different models offers sensitivity analysis for the overall approach. We present estimates for the Polynesian colonization of the Hawaiian Islands to illustrate this method.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Constructing Chronologies II: The Big Picture with Bayes and Beyond   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32389