Overview
- This book offers the only comprehensive review of archaeological evidence for the original human settlement of Remote Oceania 1500 B.C. in the Mariana Islands
- The detailed findings change the fundamental outline of Asia-Pacific archaeology in terms of chronology, cross-regional connections, and ocean-crossing traditions
- This book offers full scientific details of the key discoveries of earliest Marianas sites written from first-hand accounts of the research
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Archaeology (BRIEFSARCHAE, volume 1)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book offers the only synthesis of early-period Marianas archaeology, marking the first human settlement of Remote Oceania about 1500 B.C. In these remote islands of the northwest Pacific Ocean, archaeological discoveries now can define the oldest site contexts, dating, and artifacts of a Neolithic (late stone-age) people. This ancient settlement was accomplished by the world’s longest open-ocean voyage in human history at its time, more than 2000 km from any contemporary populated area. This work brings the isolated Mariana Islands into the forefront of scientific research of how people first settled Remote Oceania, further important for understanding long-distance human migration in general. Given this significance, the early Marianas sites deserve close attention that has been awkwardly missing until now. The author draws on his years of intensive field research to define the earliest Marianas sites in scientific detail but accessible for broad readership. It covers three major topics: 1) situating the ancient sites in their original environmental contexts; 2) inventory of the early-period sites and their dating; and 3) the full range of pottery, stone tools, shell ornaments, and other artifacts. The work concludes with discussing the impacts of the findings on Asia-Pacific archaeology and on human global migration studies.
Reviews
From the reviews:
“The book is short: eleven chapters in only 149 pages, and presents results of vey recent research. It seems largely intended for the general reader, but should also be of interest to Oceanic archaeologists … . It is well illustrated and references are given for each chapter rather than in a full bibliography at the end. There is a curious mixture of clear presentation and illustration of basic data and highly emotive prose, verging in places on hyperbole.” (Janet Davidson, Archaeology in New Zealand, December, 2013)Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Dr. Mike T. Carson is a Research Associate at the Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam, Mangilao. He has completed more than a decade of archaeological research in the Pacific Region, with special focus on the earliest sites of the Mariana Islands.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: First Settlement of Remote Oceania
Book Subtitle: Earliest Sites in the Mariana Islands
Authors: Mike T. Carson
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Archaeology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01047-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-01046-5Published: 29 July 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-01047-2Published: 13 July 2013
Series ISSN: 1861-6623
Series E-ISSN: 2192-4910
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 149
Number of Illustrations: 76 b/w illustrations
Topics: Archaeology, Anthropology