Figure 3 - uploaded by Joel Klenck
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Location of Luatele, on Ta'u Island, in the counties of Maia and Leusoali'i, District of Manu'a, American Samoa. USGS Quadrangle: The Manua Islands East, Scale 1:24,000. USGS 2001 (JGA 4245 IV SWSeries X866).
Source publication
Archaeologist Joel Klenck authors an archaeological survey for prehistoric and historic properties covering approximately 50 acres conducted in and around Luatele or Judds Crater, on Ta’u Island, for the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (“NHPA”), as amended. The project r...
Context in source publication
Citations
... The area of contiguous terracing is roughly bounded on the northwestern side of the project area by an intermittent stream and by steep cliffs to the north. The inland boundary is more difficult to define, as archaeological remains continue slightly past the crater (Klenck 2016). However, a series of large cross-slope walls does mark an elevation at which the nature of the archaeological record changes from a dense concentration of terracing to more specialized features and more sporadic linear mounds. ...
... 340 masl in the center-west transect. It is above this point that there seems to be a shift in the nature of the archaeological record wherein terracing is more sporadic, linear mounds parallel to the slope are rare, and ritual sites are present (see Klenck 2016). ...
Successful settlement on Polynesian islands required the alteration of environments, and such alteration produced extensive cultural landscapes. While some of the characteristics of these landscapes are well-established, what drives the spatial and temporal structure of these settlements is not clear across the entire region. Here, we present data on the nature and structure of settlement along one geological substrate in the interior of Ta‘ū Island, Manu‘a Group, American Sāmoa. Our results suggest that variability in slope and soil fertility were key drivers of archaeological patterns. Early use of the area seems to meet expectations of an ideal free distribution wherein the community was dispersed and located in relatively optimal locations for settlement. Characteristics of the settlement in the 15th century a.d. and later are consistent with landscape packing and community integration, signaling a shift to an ideal despotic distribution.
Stone and earthen architecture is nearly ubiquitous in the archaeological record of Pacific islands. The construction of this architecture is tied to a range of socio-political processes, and the temporal patterning of these features is useful for understanding the rate at which populations grew, innovation occurred, and social inequality emerged. Unfortunately, this temporal patterning is poorly understood for many areas of the region, including the Sāmoan archipelago. Here, we describe a project directed toward establishing a robust chronology for the construction of these earthen and stone terraces and linear mounds on Ta‘ū Island. Using recent methodological improvements, we highlight the tempo at which different architectural types were constructed on the island and the implications for understanding demographic expansion and changing land tenure practices in the last 1500 years. This research suggests the construction of architecture was largely confined to the 2nd millennium AD with a small number of terraces plausibly built in the 1st millennium AD. This temporal patterning suggests that a reconfiguration of settlement patterns occurred within West Polynesia as people there moved into other regions of Oceania.
