Samoa Digital Library

Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations at Aganoa Beach, American Samoa: an early archaeological site in Western Polynesia

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dc.contributor.author Pearl, Frederic B
dc.contributor.author Sauck, William A
dc.date.accessioned 2021-11-30T23:44:00Z
dc.date.available 2021-11-30T23:44:00Z
dc.date.issued 2014
dc.identifier.uri ${sadil.baseUrl}/handle/123456789/820
dc.description pp 462 - 476 ; ill en_US
dc.description.abstract Archaeological investigations at Aganoa, a coastal site in American Samoa, western Polynesia, revealed a marine resources exploitation base for the early inhabitants of the island. A series of 19 radiocarbon age determinations indicates the principal period of site utilization began no later than 570 B.C., and probably earlier, and lasted for about 300 years. This site is squarely in the phase identified by previous scholars as “ancestral Polynesian.” Geophysical survey in the form of long, shore‐perpendicular transects showed the accretionary history of this beach and ridge area. Surprisingly, it revealed that the earlier ridges were directly below the modern ridge (i.e., progradation of this geomorphic feature had not occurred). The survey revealed a buried paleosol with little or no disturbance, which yielded a well‐preserved assemblage of plain and decorated ceramics, stone artifacts, fishhooks, and archaeofauna. No evidence of archaeological continuity was seen between the end of the terminal Lapita occupation and the later reoccupation of the site after about A.D. 700. This study demonstrates the utility and feasibility of using ground‐penetrating radar for the discovery of deeply buried coastal sites en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Wiley Periodicals, Inc en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Geoarchaeology: An International Journal;Volume 29
dc.subject Radiocarbon dating en_US
dc.subject Archaeological prospection - shoreline sediments en_US
dc.subject Paleoenvironmental reconstruction en_US
dc.subject Coastal site - American Samoa en_US
dc.title Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations at Aganoa Beach, American Samoa: an early archaeological site in Western Polynesia en_US


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