Life on the edge: prehistoric settlement and economy on Utrōk Atoll, northern Marshall Islands

Abstract

AbstractThe prehistoric settlement pattern and economy of Utrōk Atoll, situated near the northern limit of permanently‐inhabited atolls in the Marshall Islands, is described and interpreted from a complete intensive survey and excavations totalling 64 m2 (70.45 m3). Sites range from the most expansive, 25 hectare habitation and horticultural system on the largest islet, to smaller, temporarily‐occupied habitations situated on diminutive islets. A suite of 16 radiocarbon age determinations suggests human occupation of the atoll by the first few centuries AD (Beta‐103903). Four additional dating samples, collected from emerged beachrock, determined when the islets adjusted shape in response to changing sea levels and coastal processes.Some 173 prehistoric tools and ornaments included 39 shell adzes, pumice abraders, pearl shell scrapers, pounders and hammerstones, a trolling lure point, a single piece fishhook point and ornaments such as Conus shell rings, Spondylus beads and disks, pendants and a small drilled whale tooth.Of the 13,545 bones, 88.6% were of fish, mostly inshore taxa, with dog (Canis familiaris), Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), sea turtle (cf. Chelonia mydas), lizard and bird (Puffinus, Phaethon, Sula, Fregata, Egretta and Heteroscelus), as well as three human burials. Some 45.7 kg of shellfish representing 34 families was dominated by bivalves (67%) of mostly Tridacnidae. The Bullmouth helmet, Cypraecassis rufa, was extirpated as a result of human predation, although the archaeological evidence suggests that low human populations on this relatively dry atoll had little noticeable impact on the marine ecosystem, while the terrestrial landscape was markedly altered.