Dissertation Research: The Role of the Southern Cooks in East Polynesian Colonization and Differentiation

作为博士论文研究的一部分，梅林达·艾伦女士将对南部库克群岛的艾图塔基岛西海岸进行考古和地质调查。她将铺设从内陆海岸延伸的横断面图，并进行试掘和螺旋钻探。将在被发现具有很高考古潜力的地区进行额外的挖掘。收集到的数据将使人们能够重建艾图塔克的地质史，并提供有关该岛最早居民的信息。波利尼西亚群岛，许多岛屿之间有很长的水域隔开，迅速被一个航海民族从西到东殖民。虽然殖民的大体轮廓已经明确，但许多细节仍未解决。特别是，不知道波利尼西亚西部和东部之间的海洋是否构成了一个主要障碍，如果是的话，需要多长时间才能越过。南库克位于东波利尼西亚的西端。尽管到目前为止还没有找到相关的遗址，艾伦女士认为，各种地貌过程会导致最有可能的早期居住地的沉积物沉积，因此遗址被掩埋。在这项研究中，她将确定艾图塔基的沉积史，并试图确定早期遗骸的位置。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加我们对流动性和迁徙在人类适应中所起作用的理解。如果成功，它还将为考古学家提供在哪里以及如何在其他太平洋岛屿上寻找此类遗址的线索。

As part of her doctoral dissertation research, Ms. Melinda Allen will conduct an archaeological and geological survey of the West coast of Aitutaki Island in the Southern Cooks Islands. She will lay out transects running from the coast inland, and conduct test excavations as well as an auger survey. Additional excavation will take place in areas discovered to have high archaeological potential. The data collected will permit a reconstruction of the geological history of Aitutake and provide information on the island's earliest inhabitants. The Polynesian islands, many separated from each other by long stretches of water, were rapidly colonized from West to East by a seafaring people. While the general outline of the colonization is clear, many of the specifics remain unresolved. In particular it is not known whether the ocean between Western and Eastern Polynesia provided a major barrier and if so, how long it took to cross. The Southern Cooks lie at the Western extremity of Eastern Polynesia. Although they have not as yet yielded relevant sites Ms. Allen believes that a variety of geomorphological processes would have led to deposition of sediment in the most likely areas of early habitation and thus sites are buried. In this research she will determine depositional history of Aitutaki and try to locate early remains. This research is important because it will increase our understanding of the role mobility and migration play in human adaptation. If successful it will also provide archaeologists with clues of where and how to look for such sites on other Pacific islands.