A new archaeological field survey of the site of Nan Madol, Pohnpei

Creator(s): Mark McCoy

Year: 2015

Summary

Nan Madol, sometimes called the ‘Venice of the Pacific,’ is a mortuary and administrative site built from columnar basalt, boulders, and coral. It is made up of artificial islets that stretch over 83 hectares of lagoon on the volcanic high island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia and is pivotal to our understanding of ancient Pohnpeian society. Nan Madol was first mapped in its entirety in 1910 by the German explorer Paul Hambruch and in the century since then the site has been re-surveyed and maps of varying levels of detail have been published. Here we report on the first full coverage field survey of the site’s artificial islets employing high precision GPS. The survey dataset has been made available for download as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) layer at the data clearinghouse website: The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). We also report a matching annotated list of variant place names used in the literature and some brief information on the function of islets from oral traditions. This report, the digital map, and the annotated list of islets are aimed to provide future researchers with a baseline database.

Cite this Record

A new archaeological field survey of the site of Nan Madol, Pohnpei. Mark McCoy. Rapa Nui Journal. 2015 ( tDAR id: 398498) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8M32WWT

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Reference System & Projection: Projected Coordinate System: WGS_1984_UTM_ Zone_57

Currentness & Update Notes: McCoy, M.D., Alderson, H.A., and Thompson, A. 2015. A new archaeological field survey of the site of Nan Madol, Pohnpei. Rapa Nui Journal 29(1):5-22.

Data Set Structure

Measurement Column
Count Column
Coded Column
Filename Column
Integration Column (has Ontology)

Table Information: Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.shp

Column Name Data Type Type Category Coding Sheet Ontology Search
the_geom VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Name Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Comments Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Area_m2 Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
BIGINT  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Breakwater Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
H_Id Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
BIGINT  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Form Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true
Precinct Fields: The fields used include: “Name” is the feature’s name as listed by Panholzer & Mauricio (2003) (e.g., Pahn Kedira); “Comments” with regard to individual features; “Area_m2” the surface area of each polygon (m2); “Precinct” referring to the two traditional sections of the site, Madol Pah and Madol Powe; “Form” details if polygon is representing an islet or wall; “Breakwater” lists a “Y” (yes) if the feature is part of the site’s outer breakwater; “H_Id” referring to the identification
VARCHAR  Uncoded Value uncategorized none none true

Keywords

Material
Building Materials

Site Type
Funerary and Burial Structures or Features

Investigation Types
Architectural Documentation • Architectural Survey • Systematic Survey

Geographic Keywords
Micronesia • Nan Madol • Pohnpei

Temporal Keywords
PREHIST0RIC

Spatial Coverage

min long: 158.023; min lat: 6.697 ; max long: 158.435; max lat: 7.104 ;

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.dbf 138.72kb Apr 29, 2015 6:29:24 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.prj 402.00b Apr 29, 2015 6:29:24 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.sbn 1.18kb Apr 29, 2015 6:29:24 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.sbx 204.00b Apr 29, 2015 6:29:24 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.shp 29.52kb Apr 29, 2015 6:29:25 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.shp.xml 2.44kb Apr 29, 2015 6:29:25 AM Public
Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015.shx 980.00b Apr 29, 2015 6:29:25 AM Public
  • Translated version Nan_Madol_McCoy_et_al_2015_translated.xls (66.50kb)
    Data column(s) in this dataset have been associated with coding sheet(s) and translated: