Scott M. Fitzpatrick

• PhD Anthropology
• Professor at University of Oregon

Once considered a backwater of New World prehistory, the Caribbean has now emerged from the archaeological shadows as a critical region for answering a host of questions related to human population dispersal, Neotropical island adaptations, maritime subsistence, seafaring, island interaction networks, and the rise of social complexity, among many o...

A synthetic history of human land use Humans began to leave lasting impacts on Earth's surface starting 10,000 to 8000 years ago. Through a synthetic collaboration with archaeologists around the globe, Stephens et al. compiled a comprehensive picture of the trajectory of human land use worldwide during the Holocene (see the Perspective by Roberts)....

Human settlement of the Caribbean represents the only example in the Americas of peoples colonizing islands that were not visible from surrounding mainland areas or other islands. Unfortunately, many interpretive models have relied on radiocarbon determinations that do not meet standard criteria for reporting because they lack critical information...

Significance We provide global assessment of the possible link between Pleistocene hominin arrival and island extinction. The existing records on islands around the world do not support a significant and detrimental impact on island biotas following island colonization prior to the Holocene. This suggests that models using island extinctions as evi...

Islands are useful model systems for examining human-environmental interactions. While many anthropo-genic effects visible in the archaeological and paleoecological records are terrestrial in nature (e.g., clearance of tropical forests for agriculture and settlement; introduction of nonnative flora and fauna), native peoples also relied heavily on...

Introduction Elasmobranchs, such as sharks and rays, are among the world’s most endangered vertebrates, with over 70% loss in abundance over the past 50 years due to human impacts. Zooarchaeological baselines of elasmobranch diversity, distribution, and exploitation hold great promise for contributing essential historical contexts in the assessment...

Prehistoric colonization of East Polynesia represents the last and most extensive of human migrations into regions previously uninhabited. Although much of East Polynesia is tropical, the southern third, dominated by New Zealand—by far the largest Polynesian landmass—ranges from a warm- to cool-temperate climate with some islands extending into the...

The ability of humans to colonize islands in the ancient past required centuries of innovation in boat construction and the development of increasingly sophisticated seafaring technologies and wayfinding strategies. Nowhere is this more evident than in the vast expanse of the Pacific, where around 3000 years ago, Micronesian and Polynesian voyagers...

For centuries, glass money beads (udoud) have played a critical role in cultural and economic exchanges in the Palauan archipelago (western Micronesia) since their first appearance ca. AD 600-950 from East Java and mainland Southeast Asia. Later, as part of their stone money (rai) quarrying activities, visiting Yapese islanders negotiated access to...

The Caribbean Sea is the most species-rich sea in the Atlantic, largely due to its vast coral reef systems. However, its high biodiversity and endemism face unprecedented anthropogenic threats, including synergistic modern pressures from overfishing, climate change and bioinvasion. Archaeological data indicate initial human settlement of the Caribb...

Humans and the diverse ecosystems we inhabit face numerous sustainability challenges due to climate change, rising seas, population growth, overfishing, natural habitat destruction, accelerating extinctions, and more. As an interdisciplinary paradigm that leverages both natural and social sciences to better understand linkages between humans and th...

The Florida Keys are currently experiencing unprecedented loss of lifeways, biodiversity, and cultural heritage due to sea-level rise, catastrophic storm events, unsustainable traditions of resource exploitation, and land development. Yet, these islands have a long history of human occupation and socioecological systems underlying their current sus...

Scientists recognize the Caribbean archipelago as a biodiversity hotspot and employ it for their research as a “natural laboratory”. Yet, they do not always appreciate that these ecosystems are in fact palimpsests shaped by multiple human cultures over millennia. Although post-European anthropogenic impacts are well documented, human influx into th...

Objective: To document and differentially diagnose facial pathology found in an isolated skull from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, southeastern Caribbean. To directly date this individual using radiocarbon dating. Materials: Isolated skull recovered from Petite Mustique Island. Methods: Describe facial pathology occurring in this individual and...

Archaeological investigation at the Walkers sand quarry in St. Andrews, Barbados, revealed Late Ceramic A (AD 700-1000) ceramics interspersed with historic pottery, ground shell implements, faunal remains, and a historical human burial with grave goods. Observable stratigraphy was generally lacking in the investigated area with mixing of Indigenous...

The majority of archaeological sites in the Caribbean are under threat from various natural and cultural processes. This is particularly true for the smaller and more vulnerable islands in the Lesser Antilles. Here we report on the 2001 rescue recovery of human skeletal remains that were observed to be actively eroding into the sea at Boiling Rock,...

The abundance of marine mollusks found in Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Caribbean has made them enticing sample types for radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, a paucity of local marine reservoir corrections (ΔR) for most of the region limits building chronologies using marine-based carbonates. Here we present a suite of 33 new ΔR values f...

Prehistoric Indigenous groups in the Eastern Caribbean often used local materials in the manufacturing of ceramics and frequently transported raw materials and/or finished pottery as they traveled between the islands. Given the ubiquity and diversity of ceramics in the Caribbean they are particularly amenable for helping to discern past movements,...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Western Micronesia encompasses several major archipelagos and islands, including the Marianas, Yap, and Palau. Language and human biology suggest Western Micronesia was most likely colonized from Island Southeast Asia in a complex process, possibly involving multiple population movements from different areas during prehistory. A key archaeological...

Between c. AD 1400–1900, Yapese islanders in western Micronesia travelled to the Palauan archipelago to carve large circular or ovoid-shaped disks. Often referred to as ‘stone money’, they were made from a speleothem flowstone variety of limestone that formed by calcite precipitation along cave walls. These disks were an engineering marvel, and the...

Guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) have a long association with humans. From as early as 10,000 years ago they were a wild food source. Later, domesticated Cavia porcellus were dispersed well beyond their native range through pre-Columbian exchange networks and, more recently, widely across the globe. Here we present 46 complete mitogenomes of archaeological...

Objective: To explore the frequency and severity of temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) and its causative factors in a skeletal assemblage from the prehistoric site of Chelechol ra Orrak, Palau, western Micronesia. Materials: 50 temporomandibular joint surfaces (mandibular condyles and articular eminences), representing a minimum of...

In the early 1990s, Peter Drewett began investigating the pre-colonial site of Heywoods, situated along the northwestern coast of Barbados. Initial survey and excavation identified this site as one of the largest on the island, with later development of the area as part of the Port St. Charles marina, leading to a series of salvage excavations over...

The Florida Keys are a small island chain along the Atlantic coast that preserve unique data on human-environmental interactions in prehistory, overlooked in earlier research but now the focus of new investigations. These investigations were spurred in part by the threat of sea level rise and the need to better understand human adaptations to chang...

Stable isotope studies of early human populations in Remote Oceania, the last major region to be settled by humans, have the potential to shed light on our understanding of dietary adaptations to small island environments. However, little research has focused on western Micronesia, which was settled ca. 3500–3000 cal B.P., contemporaneous with the...

Centuries ago in western Micronesia, Yapese islanders sailed to the Palauan archipelago 250 miles away to carve their famous stone money disks (rai) from limestone and then transported them back for use as exchange valuables in various social transactions. While rai were not strictly currency, their value is similar to other traditional and modern...

The California Islands provide a case study that suggests that historical depictions of many islands as marginal environments for hunter-gatherers have been exaggerated by the ecological effects of the introduction of exotic plants and animals, historically or prehistorically. The perception of island marginality is traditionally based on variables...

Documentation exists for very widespread traditional human consumption of psychoactive drug materials over thousands of years. However, the worldwide chronology, biological diversity, and geographical range of human use of mind‐altering drug substances are neither complete nor unchangeable. Numerous psychoactive species of plants and fungi, and the...

The use of islands as ‘model systems’ has become particularly relevant for examining a host of important issues in archaeology and other disciplines. As papers in this special issue of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology demonstrate, islands can serve as critical and ideal analytical platforms for observing human populations in the past a...

Mind-altering substances have been used by humans for thousands of years. In fact, ancient societies sometimes encouraged the consumption of drugs. Focusing on the archaeological study of how various entheogens have been used in the past, this volume examines why humans have social and psychological needs for these substances. Contributors trace th...

Recent archaeological fieldwork on the island of Simbo in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands has identified several new prehistoric sites. Here, we present the results of our research along with the first radiocarbon dates from Simbo. These dates and associated ceramic sherds provide a chronological and stylistic link to other islands with...

Research at the Chelechol ra Orrak rockshelter in Palau has revealed an extensive cemetery with at least 50 interred individuals, their graves overlain by later occupational deposits. Previous radiocarbon dating placed this sequence of burial and occupation at c. 3000 cal BP, making it one of the earliest Pacific Island cemetery sites. To provide a...

In this study, we conducted the first petrographic analysis of pottery from several Pre-Columbian archaeological sites located in Bocas del Toro province along the Caribbean coast of Panama. The fifty-four sherds examined in this study included surface finds collected from the sites of Red Frog (RF) and Punta Vieja Arriba (PVA) on Bastimentos Islan...

Recent excavation at Ucheliungs Cave in Palau has provided new evidence in the debate concerning the colonisation of the Palauan archipelago. An abundance of faunal material and the presence of transported artefacts contradict a previous interpretation that the site represents an early burial cave containing purported small-bodied humans. New radio...

In Palau, Micronesia, marine resources, particularly shellfish, played a vital role in human subsistence for millennia. Despite the vast array of molluscan species in archaeological assemblages, there is a dearth of data on nearshore palaeoecology or prehistoric shellfish foraging practices. In this study, we analysed stable oxygen isotopes (δ¹⁸O)...

Review: For more than a century, archaeologists and anthropologists have searched for evidence of when and how peoples first settled the Caribbean islands. Research on this area is pivotal for understanding the migration of peoples in the New World and how small and large populations develop biologically and culturally through time. This unique co...

In a controversial study published in Nature, Holen et al. (2017) claim that hominins fractured mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at od...

In the face of environmental uncertainty due to anthropogenic climate change, islands are at the front lines of global change, threatened by sea level rise, habitat alteration, extinctions and declining biodiversity. Islands also stand at the forefront of scientific study for understanding the deep history of human ecodynamics and to build sustainab...

In the face of environmental uncertainty due to anthropogenic climate change, islands are at the front lines of global change, threatened by sea level rise, habitat alteration, extinctions and declining biodiversity. Islands also stand at the forefront of scientific study for understanding the deep history of human ecodynamics and to build sustaina...

Archaeologists routinely reconstruct the types of marine environments fished by past human societies in order to understand economic systems, foraging behaviour, maritime technology and seafaring abilities. These reconstructions are based on ecological data provided by archaeofish identifications, but can be problematic where coarse-grained designa...

Significance The colonization of Remote Oceania between ∼3400 and 800 B.P.—from multiple origin points and across hundreds or thousands of kilometers of open ocean—represents some of the most impressive population dispersals on Earth. For decades, scholars have sought to explain when and how these occurred. Here we show that seafaring simulation te...

Across the world’s seas and oceans, archaeological research focused on islands has generally privileged those that are larger in size. Explanations for this phenomenon range from the (mis)perception by scholars that prehistoric peoples were more attracted to the presumed greater number and diversity of resources typically available on larger island...

Across the world’s seas and oceans, archaeological research focused on islands has generally privileged those that are larger in size. Explanations for this phenomenon range from the (mis)perception by scholars that prehistoric peoples were more attracted to the presumed greater number and diversity of resources typically available on larger island...

Abstract: The Chelechol ra Orrak site is one of the largest and oldest cemetery sites in the Pacific Islands. Dating back to at least 2800 BP, the site contains the remains of descendant Palauan populations that may represent individuals who lived within 20-25 generations of the archipelago’s first colonists dating back to between ca. 3300-3000 BP....

The bioarchaeological record of the southern Caribbean reflects a diverse population history due to the eventual replacement of founding indigenous groups by European and African populations as a result of colonial incursion and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This complex history can present problems for proper dispensation of human skeletal remain...

In Palau, Micronesia, marine resources such as shellfish, played a vital role in human subsistence for millennia. At the Chelechol ra Orrak site (Fig. 1), nearly 100 shellfish species have been identified in archaeological assemblages, but there is a dearth of data on nearshore paleoecology or prehistoric shellfish foraging practices. To address th...

Given their sheer number and evidence for long-term prehistoric occupation, atolls occupy a unique position in the peopling of the Pacific. However, they have frequently been overlooked in favor of larger islands due to a host of logistical and other issues. Once viewed as marginal environments, current research is now showing that small islands li...

Pottery is the most ubiquitous artifact type in the Caribbean prehistorically, yet there are few geochemical and mineralogical studies that help illuminate how ancient Amerindian groups acquired and used different raw materials for their production. We applied actualistic sand/temper provenance techniques pioneered by Dickinson in the study of Paci...

A massive undertaking: examining stone money in its archaeological context - Volume 76 Issue 292 - Scott M. Fitzpatrick

In the first issue of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology published 10 years ago, Erlandson and Fitzpatrick (2006) outlined eight topics which demonstrated why island and coastal archaeology were relevant to understanding a host of issues related to human cultural and biological evolution across time and space. Here, we evaluate recent tren...

While atolls are the most ubiquitous island type in the Pacific, there has been a general dearth of archaeological research to help elucidate when they were settled prehistorically and how they fit into regional systems of exchange and interaction, particularly in Micronesia. Recent fieldwork on Mwoakilloa (Mokil) atoll in the Eastern Caroline Isl...

Archaeological investigation at the Coconut Walk site on the island of Nevis (northern Caribbean) revealed midden deposits that accumulated over at least a 900 year period between ca. AD 760-1440. While the site had been excavated by the British Time Team television show in 1998, there had been only cursory examination of faunal remains (NISP = 451...

Holdaway and Fanning have demonstrated that the scatters of stone artefacts that drape much of the Australian landscape are not necessarily undifferentiated and undatable. With careful consideration of the geoarchaeological context, these assemblages can be analysed and interpreted in useful ways.

Historically, archaeologists have pursued two basic approaches to prehistoric Caribbean colonization: those relying on historical narratives and those informed by theoretical modelling. With few exceptions, the latter have not been widely employed. Here, we introduce a behavioural ecology model used in Pacific archaeology, the ideal free distributi...

First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective. Bellwood Peter . 2013. Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, UK. xvii + 308 pp. $39.95 (paper), ISBN-978-1-4051-8908-8. - Volume 79 Issue 3 - Scott M. Fitzpatrick

In this study, we conducted one of the most detailed and comprehensive analyses to date of a pre-Columbian mollusk assemblage in the Caribbean. The robust sample, from the island of Nevis in the northern Lesser Antilles, comprised more than 58,000 individuals recovered from a 25 m2 (40 cm deep) midden deposit at the Late Ceramic Age (ca. AD 890–144...

Archaeological research on Carriacou in the southern Grenadines has demonstrated that despite its relatively small size, the island was inhabited prehistorically for at least a thousand years (ca. AD 400-1400) and has an unusually large number of sites. Over the past decade we have conducted research at two major coastal village sites— Grand Bay an...

The prime movers behind the prehistoric colonization of Remote Oceania, and in particular the large c. 2000-year temporal gap (i.e. ‘long pause’) seen between West and East Polynesia, has long been major point of interest in the Pacific. To address these events and the processes that may have led to the known chronological disparity of these diaspo...

For more than a decade, a movement has been gathering steam among geoscientists to designate an Anthropocene Epoch and formally recognize that we have entered a new geological age in which Earth's systems are dominated by humans. Chemists, climatologists, and other scientists have entered the discussion, and there is a growing consensus that we are...

How and when humans dispersed across the globe in prehistory are some of the most enduring and investi-gated questions in archaeology. From the first step that hominins took out of Africa to the colonization of the New World and settlement of islands in Remote Oceania, human diasporas across the globe in ancient times— and the impetus for why they...