De-coding the archaeological landscape of Samoa: Austronesian origins and Polynesian culture

Abstract

The archaeology of Samoa relates to two key points in Asia-Pacific culture history that may or may not be inter-connected. First, the Samoan islands are situated near the eastern limit of the Austronesian Lapita-associated expansion into Remote Oceania about 2800 years ago. Second, these islands are near the western boundary of the Polynesian cultural region, where distinctive Polynesian language, cultural practice, and archaeological material signature developed by 1000 years ago. When considering how these two points might be inter-connected, variable potential interpretations are in need of updating according to the current archaeological evidence as reviewed here. Two primary viewpoints have characterized academic debates about the relationship between the earliest and latest material culture records of Samoa. One viewpoint stresses long-term continuity, so that a direct link is claimed between Austronesian origins and Polynesian identity. Another viewpoint stresses long-term transformation, so that a disjunction is claimed between first human settlement and later cultural developments. In fact, continuity and transformation are not mutually exclusive of each other, but rather they represent the different aspects of how a society has changed in some ways more slowly (stressing continuity) or in other ways more quickly (stressing transformation) over time. The relative values of continuity and transformation have been misunderstood the absence of clear archaeological evidence spanning the full chronological range in Samoa. For example, sites of the earliest settlement period 2800 – 2500 years ago are just very few in number, so their limited records are difficult to compare with the abundant evidence of the last 1000 years. Additionally, the sites dated in the 1500-year-long range between 2500 and 1000 years ago have been under-appreciated, despite their importance in comprehending a decline and eventual loss of pottery production, change in housing forms, and emergence of stonework monument-building traditions.