When Did Early Migrants Reach Pohnpei? Human Migration, Interisland Networks, and Resource Use in Eastern Micronesia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "When the Wild Winds Blow: Micronesia Colonization in Pacific Context" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Previous archaeological research on islands in eastern Micronesia hint at possible early human migration from Melanesia by the descendants of Lapita groups. However, hard archaeological evidence has remained largely ephemeral. In this paper, we discuss recent findings from new archaeological excavations on Lenger, a lagoon island located in northern Pohnpei where previous research by the local historic preservation office and Japanese scholars in 2008 found a single piece of obsidian that may have originated from the Admiralty Islands in Melanesia. Our new research program on Lenger, which began in early 2019, has recovered a significant quantity of calcareous sand tempered (CST) pottery and a variety of shell artifacts in the form of tools and ornaments at a depth of 1 m in a white beach sand layer that was below current sea level. Here we discuss the preliminary results from two field seasons at the site, how these data contribute to our understanding of long-term resource use, and how the artifactual assemblage fits within known and potentially other interisland networks of trade and exchange.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• When the Wild Winds Blow: Micronesia Colonization in Pacific Context   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33296