Oceania: Historical Archaeology

Introduction

Oceania is a vast region containing many thousands of islands that entered the modern world along a diverse range of trajectories over a period of about four centuries. Only a small proportion of these islands have seen archaeological investigations focused on this period. Where it has occurred, this research has generally concentrated on either the recent past of indigenous oceanic societies or on those of new settler communities, with a small number of studies exploring the middle ground of new social and community identities forged through the engagement of these two worlds.

Definition

Oceania is centered on the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. Precise definitions of its boundaries vary, but the term is used here to encompass the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (Fig. 1). Prehistoric human settlement had begun by c. 40 kya in the west but did not reach the southern margins of Polynesia until the thirteenth century CE. European...