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

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.