Samoan plain ware ceramics of Tutuila Island, American Samoa: some thoughts on their spatial and chronological distribution

Abstract

The last decade has seen big changes in understandings of the amount and distribution of plainware ceramic sites on Tutuila. This paper reviews this new evidence and discusses the spatial and temporal distribution of sites. We suggest that the argument for late ceramics on Tutuila is weakened by recent discoveries and that the idea of ceramic use ending in the ~AD 400–800 period is strengthened. At the early end, we find few convincing data currently available to support ceramic use before ~500 BC. Decades of searching for Lapita sites outside the one known for ‘Upolu has been unsuccessful and we question the utility of continuing to posit their existence in models of Samoan prehistory. Inland settlement on Tutuila was not a late-period phenomenon; ceramic-bearing strata at several sites indicate inland settlement by ~200–100 BC. The minimal and rare decoration on Tutuila ceramics was not confined to the earliest period and likely continued to the end of ceramic use on the island