From Waka Kuaka | The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 131, no. 4 (2022):
OBSIDIAN POINT DISCOVERED ON KAPINGAMARANGI ATOLL, MICRONESIA:
IMPLICATIONS FOR POST-SETTLEMENT REGIONAL INTERACTIONSTAKUYA NAGAOKA. Pasifika Renaissance
PETER J. SHEPPARD, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland
CALLAN ROSS-SHEPPARD, McGill University
NINA KONONENKO, University of Sydney, Australian MuseumABSTRACT: An obsidian point was discovered by chance by local people on
Kapingamarangi Atoll, a Polynesian Outlier in Micronesia. In addition to use-wear
and residue analysis to identify its use, pXRF analysis conducted on it demonstrated
that it was brought from the Admiralty Islands in Papua New Guinea over about
900 km. The information on other Admiralty obsidian artefacts found in western
Oceania and other associated phenomena suggest that those artefacts were brought
from the source through an interaction network between Micronesia and Melanesia
during the first half of the second millennium AD. They had significant social value
as prestige goods in the peripheral areas of the Admiralty obsidian circulation, serving
as chiefly heirlooms and grave goods. In addition to skilful Caroline Islands seafarers,
Polynesian Outlier populations had an important role in the interregional interactions
during this dynamic period in the western Pacific, which was possibly activated by
Polynesian intrusion into the region related to a larger Polynesian expansion into
eastern Polynesia circa AD 1000. Further, we argue that the Saudeleur dynasty of
Pohnpei, which achieved the development of a famous megalithic politico-religious
centre, Nan Madol, was influential in the interaction sphere during its height in
AD 1000–1500. Thus, by using archaeological, linguistic, historical, ethnological,
oral traditional and DNA data, the interdisciplinary analysis of this rare obsidian
artefact has deepened our understanding of post-settlement interaction in the region.
