Pining this down is good news
and it appears independent of Radio carbon methods. Dating this has always been controversial and
this should end it.
It also confirms that it came
about shortly after the collapse of the global maritime empire centered in the Atlantic about which we have posted much. Thus it also coincides with the extensive
cultural upheaval that took place elsewhere and may even have been a
contributing factor.
Do note that I suspect maritime
activity continued on a more local basis everywhere for well into the Roman
period and possibly never ended in quite the same way it did with the rise of
Islam in European waters.
This was the last great expansion
and came up with scant rewards.
Coral files reveal time of first Polynesian settlements
by Staff Writers
This shows pristine (upper) and used (lower) surfaces of an Acropora
coral file used to sculpt and smooth wood and shell surfaces. Credit: Burley D,
Weisler MI, Zhao.
Polynesia was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by
humans, and new techniques reveal that this settlement first occurred within
a 16 year window nearly 3000 years ago.
The research, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by David
Burley and colleagues from Simon Fraser University, Canada, reveals that the
first human settlers lived in a founder colony on the islands of Tonga between
2830 to 2846 years ago.
To arrive at this precise figure, the researchers used a high-precision
technique to estimate the age of coral files that early settlers used to sculpt
and smooth wood and shell surfaces.
As Dr. Burley states, "This degree of precision is impossible
using radiocarbon and other dating techniques.
It provides significant new opportunities for our understanding of the
exploration and settlement of the far distant islands spread across the South
Pacific."
Citation: Burley D, Weisler MI, Zhao J-x (2012) High Precision U/Th
Dating of First Polynesian Settlement. PLoS ONE 7(11): e48769. doi:10.1371/
journal.pone.0048769
No comments:
Post a Comment