Anthropological Study on Prehistoric Human Migration in the Cook Islands

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The main objective of this year research project was to make preliminary survey of physical anthropology, linguistics and archaeology in the southern group of the Cook Islands, in preparation for more substantial field survey to be held in 1991-1992. Physical anthropologists (Katayama, Tagaya and Houghton) looked for the prehistoric burial sites on the islands of Mangaia, Mitiaro and Rarotonga, which is promising to be excavated human skeletal materials next year, recording information on burial conditions at those sites. At the same time, they collected various kinds of data necessary to make clear the physical characteristics, demography, pathology and nutrition of prehistoric Polynesians, through the osteological examination of about a couple of burials at the Tuatini site of Mangaia and of human skeletal remains from the Lapita sites in other South Pacific regions. Archaeologists (Oshima and Sutton) surveyed the distribution of archaelogical sites on Rarotonga, Mitiaro, Mangaia and Aitutaki. Subsequently, they carried out the following work; planning the Te Unu site on Mitiaro; collecting a lot of stone tools including some flakes of newly discovered type through surface excavation around the Ivirua swamp on Mangaia; and gathering core samples for both the pollen and radiocarbon-dating analyses from some swamps on Rarotonga.