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Archaeological investigations in the Republic of Palau, Micronesia, have produced 409 radiocarbon age determinations from cultural contexts, indicating a range of Palauan occupation from about 3000 yr ago into the modern era. However, these dates are scattered among numerous sources (many difficult to obtain) and are presented in a number of different formats and calibrations. The goal of this paper is to compile a usable, systematic database of all of these Palauan cultural 14C assays. This database will be suitable for developing and evaluating chronological models, an effort being undertaken as a separate paper. Prior to constructing prehistoric colonization and cultural chronologies for Palau, the validity of each assay and the relative adequacy in sample size per cultural and environmental zones must be examined. After systematic recalibration, the reliability of the dates is evaluated in light of sample material, cultural context, and site formation processes. A method for dating monumental earthwork complexes through site formation analysis is presented. Sets of 237 valid and 58 potentially valid 14C dates remain to develop chronological models. The representation of Palau's environmental zones, site types, and regions within the dating pool is examined and compared to ensure meaningfulness in these chronological models. Newly obtained 14C age determinations are also provided.

Earth architecture is ubiquitous on Palau's volcanic islands, yet by European contact the often massive interior structures lay unoccupied and were conspicuously absent from the archipelago's rich body of oral traditions. To place these structural remains into Palau's cultural sequence, a suite of 131 radiocarbon dates representing 31 interior earthwork sites is combined with paleoenvironmental and material culture data. The resulting chronological model indicates that substantial interior use was underway by ca. 3100 BP with the initiation of earthwork construction by ca. 2400 BP or a little earlier. This marks the beginning of the Earthwork Era, which is divided into Early, Middle, and Late Phases corresponding to the growth, zenith, and decline of interior earthwork occupation. Between ca. 2050 and 1750 BP extensive clusters of modified terrain, each defining a sociopolitical district, contained earth structures reaching monumental proportions. This is centuries before monumental architecture appeared in most other Pacific island societies. By ca. 1200 BP, earthwork districts were no longer the cultural focal point, although minor construction of inland earthworks continued into the historic period.

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terra australis 35Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present. Dewey Number: 363.6909966 List of volumes in Terra AustralisVolumeCopyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2011. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Congress, and the US National Park Service. Donations from Palau's businesses and community members also contributed to the conference's success. The event was organised by the Palau Bureau of Arts and Culture, the Belau National Museum, Garcia and Associates: Natural and Cultural Resource Consultants, and Archaeology and Natural History in the School of Culture, History and Language in the Australian National University, with the assistance of the Palau Community Action Agency. The editors thank all the people and institutions who supported the Palau conference and this volume.The editors gratefully acknowledge publication support from the Micronesian Area Research Centre (MARC, University of Guam), the Guam Preservation Trust (Inangokkon Inadahi Guahan) and Garcia and Associates, Natural and Cultural Resource Consultants. terra australis 35The Pacific Island archaeology in the 21st century conference and this volume are dedicated to the memory of Rita Olsudong, Palau's National Archaeologist. Rita had a strong commitment and passion to preserve the cultural heritage of Palau and she was an inspiration and good friend to fellow Pacific Islanders and foreign researchers. Rita began her career in cultural preservation as an archaeological surveyor under Palau's Historic Preservation Program in 1991. After earning her MA in archaeology at La Trobe University in Australia in 1995, she returned to Palau to become the National Archaeologist, overseeing all archaeological work in the Bureau of Arts and Culture and for the Republic of Palau. At the time she was one of a small but steadily growing number of indigenous archaeologists working in the Pacific.Rita performed a number of key surveys during her tenure as National Archaeologist, identifying hundreds of significant cultural sites, and assisted the National Registrar to collect information for the Palau Historical and Cultural Advisory Board. The archaeological data obtained was vital in protecting significant historical properties and many new sites are known as a result of her detailed recording of cultur...