X-ray fluorescence analysis and intra-island exchange in the Society Island archipelago (Central Eastern Polynesia)

We apply X-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical analysis to a collection of 'Opunohu Valley lithic artifacts from Mo'orea island to investigate the local scale of raw material procurement, adze production, use, and exchange within the Society Island archipelago. We use these data to document the distribution of non-local versus local volcanic artifacts in 'Opunohu Valley house sites, ritual sites, and specialized sites, as a means for establishing intra-site production and consumption patterns, and access to exotic, possibly superior, stone resources, and how these two themes correlate with site function or household wealth and status. Overall, 30% of the artifacts analyzed via WDXRF derive from non-local sources, notably two other islands in the archipelago outside of the political boundaries of Moorean chiefdoms. Our case study thus provides the first direct material evidence of intra-archipelago trade and exchange in the Society Islands. Intra-archipelago trade in adzes was certainly in place by as early as A.D. 1350, if not earlier, and continued up until the time of European contact. In addition, our analyses have identified a local adze production locale in the Afareaitu district of Mo'orea island. The patterns of local versus non-local adze production and exchange strongly suggest that dual interaction spheres were involved. The correlation between adzes and adze-related debris produced from off-island sources and sites with specialized use, which were often reserved for the social, ritual, and political elites in Ma'ohi society suggests that some of the exotic adzes derived from gift exchange between Mo'orea and ruling elites in Tahiti and the Leeward Islands. These adzes from afar would have solidified socio-political and ideological alliances between elites in the Windward and Leeward sectors of the archipelago.     

Interpolating geochemical patterning of activity zones at Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age settlements in eastern Hungary

The Late Neolithic of southeast Hungary is known almost exclusively from excavations of large settlement mounds, or tells. Geochemical analyses of sediments collected from boreholes at small, flat Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age settlements in Hungary's Körös River basin provide data necessary to interpret the spatial organization of small settlements for the first time in this region. Principal Components Analysis of multi-element data produced a workable number of variables. Spatial analyses of these components via interpolation in ArcGIS 9 identified specific task areas, and when combined with sediment characterizations, phosphate ‘spot-tests’ and pH, suggest long-term cultural traditions in the location of activity zones within small farmsteads. The results demonstrate the usefulness of multi-element geochemistry as an intra-site prospection method.