Samoa Digital Library

How dark are they? The Sāmoan dark ages, ~1500–1000 BP

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dc.contributor.author Rieth, Timothy
dc.contributor.author Addison, David J
dc.date.accessioned 2021-11-29T23:31:18Z
dc.date.available 2021-11-29T23:31:18Z
dc.date.issued 2008
dc.identifier.isbn 9780473145866
dc.identifier.uri ${digitallibrary.baseUrl}/handle/1/496
dc.identifier.uri ${sadil.baseUrl}/handle/123456789/710
dc.description pg 87-96 ; map ; tables en_US
dc.description.abstract The period from ~1500-1000 cal BP has been noted as a Dark Age in our understanding of Samoan prehistory. Research agendas have focused on earlier pottery bearing deposits and investigations of later monumental architecture. This has resulted in the Dark Age not as a historical reality but an artifact of archaeological research efforts. We examine seven general attributes of 18 archaeological deposits from across the Samoan Archipelago that date to this period. The results indicate a degree of variation in assemblages with respect to the types of artifacts present and associated architecture. Pottery is rare during this period and only present at three of the earlier deposits, suggesting that pottery production had ceased by ~1200 cal BP. Although our current knowledge of this period is still limited, the present synthesis of evidence offers minimal support for the ‘formative’ characteristics hypothesized by some researchers and used to explain the development of a hierarchical social structure and monumental architecture in later prehistory. en_US
dc.language.iso en_US en_US
dc.publisher Department of Anthropology & Archaeology; University of Otago en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Recent Advances in the Archaeology of the Fiji/West-Polynesia Region;
dc.subject Samoan en_US
dc.subject prehistory en_US
dc.subject Archaeological site en_US
dc.subject Radiocarbon dating en_US
dc.title How dark are they? The Sāmoan dark ages, ~1500–1000 BP en_US
dc.type Book chapter en_US


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