Eric Conte- PhD
- CEO at University of French Polynesia
Eric Conte
- PhD
- CEO at University of French Polynesia
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66
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Introduction
Current institution
Publications
Publications (66)
Shellfish remains are ubiquitous to coastal archaeological sites in the Marquesas but have seldom been the focus of dedicated investigations into their contribution to past diet and daily life. On the island of Ua Huka, in the northern group of the archipelago, people have consumed a variety of shellfish since their arrival on the island around the...
Les rencontres entre Océaniens et Occidentaux, depuis les explorations espagnoles du XVIe siècle jusqu’aux périodes coloniales au XIXe siècle, furent marquées par des formes de violence di-verses, tantôt visibles, brutales et immédiates, tantôt durables et plus insidieuses, qui toutes affectèrent les sociétés insulaires de manière irréversible.
Ras...
Ethnopharmacological relevance
In French Polynesia, many pathologies common or endemic to the territory cause diarrhea. This is the case for rotavirus gastroenteritis, salmonella food poisoning, ingestion of water contaminated by bacteria, and ciguatera. To treat these ailments, the population may employ traditional medicine for cultural reasons, g...
The contribution of shellfish to ancient subsistence has been overlooked in many archaeological studies in Central-East Polynesia. Archaeomalacology, however, can shed light on a wider range of exploited mollusks. In this paper we investigate the exploitation of the chiton Acanthopleura gemmata from the Hane Dune site, Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands. A...
Traditional Polynesian cultures were characterized by a high-level of mobility. Core religious concepts emerging within the Ancestral Polynesian Society were subsequently transferred to the newly settled islands in the region a millennium ago, and continued to develop over at least seven centuries. At the center of the ancient Polynesian system lie...
Dossier d’Archéologie Polynésienne vol.6,
Bilan de la recherche archéologique en Polynésie française 2005 - 2015,
pp.277-284
ISSN: 1961-8506
http://www.culture-patrimoine.pf/spip.php?article942
Dossier d’Archéologie Polynésienne vol.6,
Bilan de la recherche archéologique en Polynésie française 2005 - 2015,
pp.315-322.
ISSN: 1961-8506
http://www.culture-patrimoine.pf/spip.php?article942
Dossier d’Archéologie Polynésienne vol.6,
Bilan de la recherche archéologique en Polynésie française 2005 - 2015,
pp.285-294.
ISSN: 1961-8506
http://www.culture-patrimoine.pf/spip.php?article942
Parrotfishes are commonly exploited in artisanal fisheries in tropical and subtropical areas. Given their prolonged use, they are common finds in archaeological sites from Oceania. Despite their high occurrence in archaeozoological assemblages, the degree to which they have been exploited is difficult to estimate without any length and weight data....
L’arbre Spathodea campanulata (Tulipier du Gabon) est une espèce envahissante introduite sur l’île tropicale de Tahiti (archipel de la Société) dans les années 1930 comme plante ornementale et déclarée « une menace pour la biodiversité en Polynésie française » par l’arrêté n°244CM du 12 février 1998. Aucune étude n’a porté sur la pluie de graines e...
The study of a significant and regionally unprecedented number of ichthyofaunal remains, uncovered at the Teouma site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, has provided new and original data on the prehistoric populations of Southern Melanesia. Out of 13,047 identified fishbones, 8560 have been associated with the Lapita period and the phase of initial settlemen...
The six-hectare site of Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia on Huahine Island in the Leeward Societies is renowned for its wealth of material culture typifying early East Polynesian settlement, including items of wood and fibre preserved by waterlogging, through the research of Yosihiko Sinoto and colleagues in particular. However, the stratigraphy for much of the...
The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) is a small commensal omnivore; its close association with humans throughout Polynesian prehistory suggests that dietary change in this species can provide insight into localized trends in site ecology and activity. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was applied to archaeologically recovered Pacific rat rema...
Stone tool geochemistry provides hard evidence for post-settlement voyaging and inter-island contacts in East Polynesia. This offers promising information on inter-community exchange networks that are not documented by ethnographic accounts. Drawing on “geochemical fingerprints”, provenance studies have slowly integrated geological data in order to...
Les travaux archéologiques conduits sur les îles Marquises s’inscrivent dans deux types d’espaces complémentaires propres aux paysages de l’archipel et tendent à considérer séparément les zones intérieures des vallées et les systèmes dunaires. Véritables interfaces entre les milieux maritimes et terrestres répondant au modèle de « distribution libr...
The question of demographic decline in the Marquesas Islands is here reinvestigated through an integrated approach to the particular case of Ua Huka. We first attempt to propose a new population estimate for the period prior to European contact, thanks to an archaeologically based method that relies on the length of sleeping areas available in the...
The Atiahara site is the first and only excavated site on Tubuai Island (Austral archipelago, French Polynesia). It was accidently discovered in 1994 and has been excavated on several occasions since then, over a surface of 197 m2. This paper aims to present a compilation of the data available from the excavations, with a specific focus on stratigr...
New excavations and survey on the island of Rapa have shown that a rockshelter was occupied by early settlers around AD 1200 and the first hill forts were erected about 300 years later. Refortification occurred up to the contact period and proliferated around AD 1700. Taro cultivation in terraced pond-fields kept pace with the construction of forts...
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NdYhJIY6m6kUfr7kqbub/full#.VSxi42aDqq4
We report on excavations and dating results from Maupiti Island, the smallest high island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands. Our discussion focuses on archaeological and paleo-ethnobotanical data from three coastal sites and two interior sites, in addition to presen...
Since the first excavations by Sinoto and Kellum in 1964–1965, the Hane dune site, situated on Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands, has been considered as a key site in central Eastern Polynesia and, as such, has been utilised in different colonisation models. However, some problems remained, particularly due to the lack of full publication of the original...
We present here a technological study of a collection of 17 archaeological pearl-shell tattooing combs. They have been discovered in three archipelagoes of French Polynesia. The study offers a reconstitution of the manufacturing processes involved in the “chaîne opératoire”. Then, the combs are integrated to the existing typologies. For the first t...
RÉSUMÉ L'étude technologique d'une collection de 17 peignes à tatouer en nacre, découverts en contexte archéologique dans trois archipels de Polynésie française, offre une reconstitu-tion des processus de fabrication intervenant dans la chaîne opératoire et permet aussi d'intégrer ces objets originaux aux typologies existantes. Les peignes en nacre...
Molecular anthropology has been widely used to infer the origin and processes of the colonization of Polynesia. However, there are still a lack of representative geographical studies of Eastern Polynesia and unchallenged genetic data about ancient Polynesian people. The absence of both of these elements prevents an accurate description of the demog...
New archaeological excavations were conducted in 2009 in the Hatuana dune site, Ua Huka, Marquesas archipelago (French Polynesia). The objectives of this research were to determine the complete stratigraphy of the western section of the site, and to obtain charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating. The results are presented here, updating previous da...
When first test excavated in 2003, the Onemea site on Taravai Island (site 190-12-TAR-6) yielded high densities of extirpated and extinct bird bones which, along with radiocarbon dates of AD 1000 to 1050, suggested a colonization phase occupation. Expanded excavations in 2005, reported here, revealed additional details of site stratigraphy, chronol...
Since 2001, a research program has been conducted on the high islands of the Gambier Archipelago (French Polynesia), of which the principal results are synthesized here. Beginning with a detailed presentation of data deriving from a number of sites situated on different islands, several themes are discussed: the period of human colonization of the...
Extending José Garanger’s work on Oceanian fishhooks, this paper proposes a new objective method of measurements. To study the fishhook fragments found in large quantities in excavations, a process of morphological reconstruction has been developed and tested on a collection from the Manihina site (Ua Huka, Marquesas islands). This method can be us...
Use of Ethnographic Information in ArchaeologyEthnoarchaeological Approaches in PolynesiaConclusion
AcknowledgmentsReferences
DES HABITANTS DES GAMBIER L'archipel des Gambier est sans doute, avec l'île de Pâques et la Nouvelle-Zélande, l'une des dernières terres atteintes par l'homme dans son exploration du Pacifique. Ainsi s'achevait un phénomène d'expansion d'une ampleur extraordinaire – de Madagascar à l'île de Pâques – de populations locutrices des langues dites « aus...
An assessment of Marquesan population at diff erent moments in its history (before and aft er contact with Europeans) is of great interest for understanding the organization of the pre- Contact society and for estimating the drastic impact of post-Contact epidemics on the demography of the archipelago. Several sources, including narrative accounts...
During archaeological research studies on the island of Temoe (Gambier archipelago) in 2002 and 2003, a thorough record of the structures, cairns and pavings, was carried out along with numerous test pits. The funeral function of the seaside cairns has been confirmed through the excavation of these particular coral structures. Here are presented th...
Radiocarbon dates are presented and discussed for two sites with deep stratigraphy on Va Huka Island, Marquesas. The lowest layer at the Hokatu site dates to the eleventh to thirteenth centuries A.D. At Hatuana, earlier radiocarbon-age estimates extended to the sixth to ninth centuries A.D. New results from the Waikato and Oxford Radiocarbon labora...
Since 1991, an ethnoarchaeological research program has been carried out on the island of Ua Huka (Marquesas Archipelago, French Polynesia). The program included test excavations of early sites, the examination of dwelling and funerary sites, an inventory of surface monuments, an analysis of space utilization in recent periods, and ethnographic obs...
The study of present seaweed consumption in Ua Huka Island, Marquesas, documents a little-known practice in French Polynesia, as well as giving us information on the dietetary habits of the ancient inhabitants of the Marquesas, from whom it originates. This study raises interesting comparative questions, within as well as without French Polynesia,...
Les cinq archipels qui composent l'actuelle Polynésie française comptent 120 îles dont des îles volcaniques et des atolls, essentiellement aux Tuamotu. Comme pour la plupart des îles du Pacifique, les recherches archéologiques dans cette région en sont encore à leurs balbutiements - les premières fouilles ne datent que des années cinquante - et les...
L'isolement, plus ou moins tot apres l'installation sur les iles, est considere comme l'un des facteurs principaux, et souvent comme le plus puissant, de la differenciation culturelle des societes de Polynesie orientale. Les recherches en cours, comme une examen critique des arguments invoques, permettent de douter de la realite d'un tel isolement....
Nous n'avons voulu donner ici qu'un apercu rapide de l'information recueillie en abordant deux points qu'il etait possible d'evoquer brievement : la gestion du milieu et les problemes lies aux transformations techniques. Il reste que l'analyse des techniques de peche et le recueil des connaissances indigenes sur le milieu et les poissons, qui const...
