Stone tools from the ancient Tongan state reveal prehistoric interaction centers in the Central Pacific

Abstract

Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga's maritime polity, we geochemically analyzed stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly lithic artifacts associated with stone-faced chiefly tombs. The lithic networks of the Tongan state focused on Samoa and Fiji, with one adze sourced to the Society Islands 2,500 km from Tongatapu. To test the hypothesis that nonlocal lithics were especially valued by Tongan elites and were an important source of political capital, we analyzed prestate lithics from Tongatapu and stone artifacts from Samoa. In the Tongan state, 66% of worked stone tools were long-distance imports, indicating that interarchipelago connections intensified with the development of the Tongan polity after A.D. 1200. In contrast, stone tools found in Samoa were from local sources, including tools associated with a monumental structure contemporary with the Tongan state. Network analysis of lithics entering the Tongan state and of the distribution of Samoan adzes in the Pacific identified a centralized polity and the products of specialized lithic workshops, respectively. These results indicate that a significant consequence of social complexity was the establishment of new types of specialized sites in distant geographic areas. Specialized sites were loci of long-distance interaction and formed important centers for the transmission of information, people, and materials in prehistoric Oceania.Polynesian archaeology | geochemical sourcing | complex societies A rchaeological evidence for prehistoric interaction is critical to understanding the role of intersocietal contact and the power strategies used by elites in the formation of complex societies. In the first half of the second millennium A.D., a powerful and complex society emerged in the Tonga Islands (Fig. 1) that was unique in the Pacific for the way it aggregated an entire archipelago under a single political system. Considered a maritime empire/chiefdom (1-3), Tonga has recently been categorized as a primary/archaic state that, along with the late-prehistoric polities of the Hawaiian Islands, were the most complex societies in prehistoric Oceania (4, ref. 5, p. 146). The ancient Tongan state/ chiefdom was headed by the paramount Tui Tonga (Lord of Tonga) and administered by closely related chiefly families, and it was exceptional in Polynesia for a network of political and economic relationships that extended to other islands and archipelagos (2, 6). The control and redistribution of exotic goods is posited as an important source of capital used to support political centralization (7,8), but it has not been feasible to model prehistoric interaction in the expansive Tongan state using archaeological data because of the paucity of excavations at the central places of the chiefdom and the li...

Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga)

“…The most parsimonious explanation would be a significant mobility wherein people moved around both within the island and between nearby islands collecting and consuming a range of foods. Different geographical origins have been identified in the raw material of obsidian (north Tonga) and stone artifacts (south and central Tonga and east Fiji) (Reepmeyer et al, 2012;Clark et al, 2014). (Tables 4 and 5, for individual data see SD2): Vanuatu (Valentin et al, 2010, Bismarck Islands (Petchey and Green, 2005;Kinaston et al, 2015), and Fiji (Nunn et al, 2007; show an overlap of the collagen values, except for the female (Sk3.1), highlighting again her different dietary regime (Fig.…”

“…and Tridacna spp., and small circular flat beads that are similar to Lapita ornaments. Lithics items comprise adzes, flakes, grinding stones and oven stones whose raw material has a distinct geographical source with obsidian from northern Tonga and lithics from 'Eua (south Tonga), Samoa, east Fiji and volcanic islands within Tonga, suggesting significant population mobility (Reepmeyer et al, 2012;Clark et al, 2014). The deposit also includes features, such as 'hearths, ovens, oven rake outs, and burials, placed at the base of the deposit or interstratified within the midden.…”

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

“…Postcolonization voyaging between islands was essential for securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities (e.g., ref. 9), to obtain prestigious commodities from distant islands for elites (10), and for integrating far-flung communities under a centralized authority, such as the Tongan maritime state (11). Some, however, have opined that postcolonization voyaging and artifact transfer in East Polynesia were minimal (7,12).…”

“…The major sources of fine-grained basalt, the singular raw material used for adze manufacture across tropical Polynesia, are restricted to a few known localities. Previous studies have shown that these essential tools were sometimes transported more than 1,000 km within interaction spheres involving exchanges of goods and services (11,(13)(14)(15).…”

“…In this article, we resolve these issues by using the most comprehensively dated stratigraphic sequence of adze material now known for tropical Polynesia-from the Tangatatau rockshelter (site MAN-44) situated on Mangaia Island in the Southern Cook Islands, considered the gateway archipelago for prehistoric colonization and settlement of East Polynesia (16,21). Keying on the Tangatatau rockshelter assemblage provides a rare opportunity to examine the "uptake" of exotic goods at a well-dated habitation locale likely occupied by nonelites, in contrast to several recent studies that examine adze production and consumption at chiefly complexes and stately centers ruled by paramounts in Tonga (10), Hawaii (11), and the Austral Islands (18). Significantly, we used trace element and isotope geochemistry to assign 36 artifacts from site MAN-44 to an island or archipelago of origin and, when sufficient data are available, to specific quarries or sources, thereby resolving the difficulty of separating intraisland sources in the Cook Islands (ref.…”