Nanmadol Research Articles

Links between climatic histories and the rise and fall of a Pacific chiefdom.

Sea level rise and climate change are shaping present societies, particularly those on oceanic islands. Few historical examples could serve as references for these changes. One such potential model is the Saudeleur Dynasty with its capital Nan Madol on the Pacific Island of Pohnpei. However, the timing of its construction, as well as the dynasty's fluctuations and potential environmental influences, has remained unresolved. Through the analyses of 230Th ages on 171 dates on corals fragments used as building materials and charcoal 14C ages from excavations, 2 major construction phases spanning from the 10th to the 15th century CE can be discerned. The results show that the first phase of the site's construction, spanning the 10th-12th century, marked the dynasty's rise. The second period, spanning from the late 12th to the early 15th century, provides the most substantial evidence for the demise of the island-scale chiefdom and a significant societal reorganization. The phases are centuries earlier than previously believed. With this new evidence, we propose the hypothesis that variations in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and subsidence-related sea level rise presented major challenges for building and maintaining Nan Madol, and thus, influenced the course of the island's history. This case serves as a compelling example of how adverse climatic conditions can spur investments-in this case, in seawater defense under high sea levels-yet ultimately may contribute to abandonment. It offers lessons for island nations, showcasing coastal resilience in the face of worsening catastrophic events that unfolded over generations.

Implications of anomalous relative sea-level rise for the peopling of Remote Oceania

Beginning ~3,500 to 3,300 y B.P., humans voyaged into Remote Oceania. Radiocarbon-dated archaeological evidence coupled with cultural, linguistic, and genetic traits indicates two primary migration routes: a Southern Hemisphere and a Northern Hemisphere route. These routes are separated by low-lying, equatorial atolls that were settled during secondary migrations ~1,000 y later after their exposure by relative sea-level fall from a mid-Holocene highstand. High volcanic islands in the Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei and Kosrae) also lie between the migration routes and settlement is thought to have occurred during the secondary migrations despite having been above sea level during the initial settlement of Remote Oceania. We reconstruct relative sea level on Pohnpei and Kosrae using radiocarbon-dated mangrove sediment and show that, rather than falling, there was a ~4.3-m rise over the past ~5,700 y. This rise, likely driven by subsidence, implies that evidence for early settlement could lie undiscovered below present sea level. The potential for earlier settlement invites reinterpretation of migration pathways into Remote Oceania and monument building. The UNESCO World Heritage sites of Nan Madol (Pohnpei) and Leluh (Kosrae) were constructed when relative sea level was ~0.94 m (~770 to 750 y B.P.) and ~0.77 m (~640 to 560 y B.P.) lower than present, respectively. Therefore, it is unlikely that they were originally constructed as islets separated by canals filled with ocean water, which is their prevailing interpretation. Due to subsidence, we propose that these islands and monuments are more vulnerable to future relative sea-level rise than previously identified.

Pacific royalty, past and present: German interactions with pre-existing elites on Pohnpei

The island of Pohnpei houses the ruins of Nan Madol, currently Micronesia’s only World Heritage site. It is now believed to represent the ceremonial centre of the Saudeleur dynasty, a vibrant period in Pacific Island culture. Western visitors to Pohnpei in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were fascinated by these ruins, often interpreting them as the dwelling place of kings long past. At the same time, they sought to comprehend the complex socio-political hierarchies of existing Pohnpeian society through the lens of monarchy, identifying multiple ‘kings’ among the island’s elites. This article examines German-speakers’ perceptions of, and interactions with, pre-existing elites on Pohnpei over the years 1870–1914. These dates correspond to a period of significant political change on Pohnpei, from nominal Spanish control to the establishment of an outpost of German imperialism.

Airborne LiDAR Reveals a Vast Archaeological Landscape at the Nan Madol World Heritage Site

An airborne LiDAR survey of the Nan Madol World Heritage Site and adjacent Temwen Island revealed a complex, irrigated cultivation system, the first found in the Central and Eastern Caroline Islands. This informs the goals of the sustainable conservation project, funded by the U.S. Department of State Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, that inspired the survey, and expands understanding of Nan Madol and its place in the network of Pacific island interaction and trade. Fieldwork verified the presence, across Temwen, of low, wet, cultivable areas, many of which are connected by water channels or separated by earthen berms. The berms themselves may also have been cultivated. In complexity, labor investment, and organization, the system is comparable to Nan Madol itself, the largest archaeological site in Micronesia, with structures on about 100 artificial islets built of stone and coral on a reef flat. Constructed over a millennium, Nan Madol was the seat of the Saudeleur Dynasty, which persisted from about 1200 to 1600 CE. The cultivation system appears to have been able to provide ample food for consumption, feasting, and redistribution or trade. If the landscape alteration described here proves to date to the time of the Saudeleur Dynasty, it will offer many avenues of research into the economic basis of Nan Madol’s regional dominance.

Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural stone

Archaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High- quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of the Pacific. Nan Madol is an ancient administrative and mortuary center and the former capital of the island of Pohnpei. It was constructed over 83 ha of lagoon with artificial islets and other architecture built using columnar basalt and coral. We employed geochemical sourcing of basalt used as architectural stone and high-precision uranium-thorium series dates (230Th/U) on coral from the tomb of the first chief of the entire island to identify the beginning of monument building at Nan Madol in AD 1180–1200. Over the next several centuries (AD 1300–1600) monument building began on other islands across Oceania. Future research should be aimed at resolving the causes of these social transformations through higher quality data on monument building.

A new archaeological field survey of the site of Nan Madol, Pohnpei

To archaeologists, ancient capitals are ideal places to learn more about how a region’s societies developed. In Polynesia, we find that administrative centers, such as Lapaha in Tonga (Clark et al. 2008; Hommon 2013) and the royal centers of the Hawaiian Islands (Kirch 2010), reflect the rise of archaic states. In Melanesia, when new colonial centers were built in the 19th century, traditional Fijian notions of chiefly power were explicitly incorporated in the architectural design to adapt to the local political scene (Chatan 2003). In Micronesia, one site stands out among others: Nan Madol on Pohnpei. Nan Madol, sometimes called the ‘Venice of the Pacific,’ is a mortuary and administrative site made up of artificial islets built over 83 hectares of lagoon (Figure 1). These islets were constructed using distinctive columnar basalt, boulders, and an impressive amount of coral rubble fill, and they appear to have inspired the construction of the site of Lelu on Kosrae (Ayres 1993:69). Our primary tool for studying large and complex archaeological sites, the ‘white paper’ field map, is today joined by a host of other spatial technologies – GPS, GIS, laser scanning, remote sensing, and so on (McCoy & Ladefoged 2009). While traditional survey remains at the heart of field archaeology, when it comes to sites like Nan Madol, it is time that digital spatial datasets start to add to the years of traditional survey work that has already been published. The lack of published digital data has consequences. Over the past several years, efforts to place Nan Madol on the Nan Madol, sometimes called the ‘Venice of the Pacific,’ is a mortuary and administrative site built from columnar basalt, boulders, and coral. It is made up of artificial islets that stretch over 83 hectares of lagoon on the volcanic high island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia and is pivotal to our understanding of ancient Pohnpeian society. Nan Madol was first mapped in its entirety in 1910 by the German explorer Paul Hambruch and in the century since then the site has been re-surveyed and maps of varying levels of detail have been published. Here we report on the first full coverage field survey of the site’s artificial islets employing high precision GPS. The survey dataset has been made available for download as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) layer at the data clearinghouse website: The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). We also report a matching annotated list of variant place names used in the literature and some brief information on the function of islets from oral traditions. This report, the digital map, and the annotated list of islets are aimed to provide future researchers with a baseline database. Nan Madol, a veces llamada “La Venecia del Pacifico”, es un sitio mortuorio y administrativo construido a partir de un basalto columnar, rocas y coral. Esta compuesto de islotes artificiales que se extienden a lo largo de 83 hectareas de laguna en la isla volcanica de Pohnpei, en los Estados Federados de Micronesia y es esencial para nuestro entendimiento de la antigua sociedad pohnpeiana. Nan Madol fue cartografiada en su totalidad por primera vez en 1910 por el explorador aleman Paul Hambruch, a partir de aqui y a lo largo del siglo el lugar ha sido estudiado de nuevo y se han publicado mapas con variedad de detalles. Aqui llevamos a cabo un primer y completo estudio de cobertura total de las islas artificiales del sitio, empleando GPS de alta precision. El conjunto de datos esta disponible para descarga a traves del GIS (Sistema de Informacion Geografica) en el sitio web de centro de intercambio de datos: The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). Tambien informamos una lista comparativa anotada de variantes de nombres de lugares utilizados en la literatura y una breve informacion de la funcion de los islotes en las tradiciones orales. Este informe, el mapa digital y la lista anotada de islotes estan dirigidos a proporcionar una base de datos en linea a los futuros investigadores.

Sourcing the Megalithic Stones of Nan Madol: an XRF Study of Architectural Basalt Stone from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Nan Madol is a massive 81 hectare prehistoric administrative and ceremonial complex made up of 93 constructed islets on the high volcanic island of Pohnpei. Built between A.D. 900 and 1650 over earlier settlement remains along the southern coast of Temwen Island within the fringing reef, the site is noted for its distinctive use of columnar basalt and large boulders. XRF analysis presented here suggests the site’s builders favoured columnar basalt from the island’s main shield building stage (7-8 mya) over post-shield material. Boulders incorporated in the architecture are primarily from post-shield stage Temwen Island but supplemented by some main shield boulders from mainland Pohnpei. Preliminary findings further suggest that there were shifts in the relative frequency of quarries used to construct different structures. These shifts could relate to exhaustion of accessible stone from specific sources or perhaps changing preferences for stone from different sources due to social or political imperatives.

Mortuary Contexts and Social Structure at Nan Madol, Pohnpei

ABSTRACT Archaeological studies of mortuary practices contribute to discussions of prehistoric social structure. Relatively little work has focused on mortuary practices in Micronesia, particularly those associated with societies that built the monumental earthworks of Palau, the Latte sets in the Mariana Islands, and the monumental centers of Leluh on Kosrae and Nan Madol on Pohnpei. This study utilizes multiple lines of evidence to consider mortuary contexts and their relationship to social structure at the site of Nan Madol. The mortuary context is interpreted as reflecting ascribed status in a stratified hierarchical system consistent with traditional histories. The study provides a base line for future studies of Pohnpeian mortuary practices and adds to archaeological knowledge of complex societies in Micronesia and the Pacific.

Biomolecular Catalysis: Nanoscale Science and Technology

Archaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High- quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of the Pacific. Nan Madol is an ancient administrative and mortuary center and the former capital of the island of Pohnpei. It was constructed over 83 ha of lagoon with artificial islets and other architecture built using columnar basalt and coral. We employed geochemical sourcing of basalt used as architectural stone and high-precision uranium-thorium series dates (230Th/U) on coral from the tomb of the first chief of the entire island to identify the beginning of monument building at Nan Madol in AD 1180–1200. Over the next several centuries (AD 1300–1600) monument building began on other islands across Oceania. Future research should be aimed at resolving the causes of these social transformations through higher quality data on monument building.

The effect of causeway construction on seagrass meadows in the Western Pacific ? a lesson from the ancient city of Nan Madol, Madolenihmw, Pohnpei, FSM

Two seagrass meadow sites were chosen at Nan Madal adjacent to the now permeable remnants of an ancient causeway constructed 500 to 700 years ago: one immedlately on the shoreward side of the causeway, and one immediately on the seaward side. The shoreward site had greater seagrass cover, canopy height, algal abundance, and epiphyte abundance and lower species diversity (both seagrass and macro-algae), as well as muddier sediments than the seaward site. The abundance of associated fauna did not appear to differ between sites, although the composition of the faunal communities was different. On the seaward site, average epiphyte cover was less than onetenth the epiphyte cover of that on the shoreward side. Halimeda species were the most common algae on the seaward side, while on the shoreward side Hypnea species were dominant. Cymodocea rotundata was the dominant seagrass species (54% of seagrass cover) on the seaward site, but was absent on the shoreward site, which was dominated by Thalassia hemprichii (84%) and Enhalus acoroides (16%). There was no difference in salinity between the two sites. Sediments had a higher proportion of fine mud shoreward. The beche-de-mer, Holothuria atra, was common on the seaward side of the causeway, but not on the shoreward side. The causeway is open to water flow at all tide heights and does not appear to influence water height in any way. The effects of even this simple permeable barrier on seagrass meadows are evident and include differences in seagrass species, algal species, and fauna. We discuss the management lesson from this historic location for present-day Pacific island causeway developments.

On the road of the winds: an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface and encompasses many thousands of islands, the home to numerous human societies and cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Island, and the famed traders of Melanesia. Recent archaeological excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography, have begun to reveal much new information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies and cultures. On the Road of the Winds synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40,000 years ago, and tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Questions that scholars have posed and puzzled over for two centuries or more are illuminated here: Where did the Pacific Islanders come from? How did they discover and settle the thousands of islands? Why did they build great monuments like Nan Madol on Pohnpei Island in Micronesia or the famous Easter Island statues? This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological and historical anthropological knowledge of these fascinating indigenous cultures. In particular, Kirch focuses on human ecology and island adaptations, the complexities of island trading and exchange systems, voyaging technology and skills, and the development of intensive economic systems linked to the growth of large populations. He also draws on his own original field research conducted on many islands, ranging from the Solomons to Hawai'i, as he takes us on an intellectual voyage into the Oceanic past.

Monumentality and the Rise of Religious Authority in Precontact Hawai'i [and Comments and Reply

Changes in temple labor investment and sacrificial offerings indicate that the rise in religious authority of the Hawaiian chiefly hierarchy correlates with an increase in political centralization and the intensifying role of the chief as divine intermediary through time. Initially, temples were small public courts akin to traditional Polynesian shrines used to reaffirm genealogical ties. During a period of internecine warfare and political instability and conflict in the I5th century A.D., temples became extremely large, a practical symbol of the burgeoning power of elites as they used ritual labor obligations to reaffirm chiefly genealogical relationships and enhance class cooperation. After island unification in the i6th century, chiefly religious activity shifted to sacrificial ceremonies and the consumption of surplus goods and foodstuffs as a result of status competition. By the time of European contact in the igth century, divinely sanctified rituals associated with war and levying taxes were instituted to enhance the status and power of the paramount chief through personal displays of material wealth. The Hawaiian case appears to follow a common trajectory among complex societies, where religious authority is increasingly expressed through the political economy, and serves as a contextual model of a complex chiefdom undergoing rapid political stratification.

Prehistory in the northwest tropical Pacific: The Caroline, Mariana, and Marshall Islands

The earliest identified settlement is in the Marianas, dated to about 3500 B.P., while the other islands in the region appear to be settled from about 2000 B.P. onward. The archaeological remains reveal diverse approaches to island living. While Nan Madol and Leluh in the eastern Carolines are major architectural achievements, a discussion of these sites does not detract, for example, from the terrace systems of Palau or the lattestone groups of the southern Marianas. Of equal interest is the settlement of atolls and their recently recognized potential for preservation of stratified deposits. As information allows, each island or group is considered on an individual basis in order to allow for each specific island context to be assessed. This is described within the broader themes of architecture, chronology, environment, material culture, settlement pattern, social organization, and subsistence. In conclusion, the current standing of prehistory in the region is outlined in relation to early settlement, environment, social organization, chronology, settlement pattern studies, portable material culture, subsistence, and atolls. Finally, suggestions for the future are made.

Upon a stone altar: a history of the island of Pohnpei to 1890

Upon a Stone Altar tells the history of a remarkable people who inhabit the island of Pohnpei in the Eastern Caroline Islands of Micronesia. Since the beginnings of intensive foreign contact, Pohnpei has endured numerous disruptive conflicts as well as attempts at colonial domination. Pohnpeians creatively adapted to change and today live successfully in a modern world not totally of their own making. Hanlon uses the vast body of oral tradition to relate the early history of Pohnpei, including the story of the building of a huge complex of artificial stone islets, Nan Madol.

Review

Archaeological Investigations at Nan Madol: Islet Maps and Surface Artifacts. By J. Stephen Athens. Pacific Studies Institute, Agana, Guam. 1980. Pp. xi + 194.The Discovery and Archaeolological Investigation of Nan Madol, Ponape, Eastern Caroline Islands: An Annotated Bibliography. By J. Stephen Athens. Micronesian Archaeological Survey Reports, No. 3. Historic Preservation Office, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Saipan, 1981. Pp. 20.