Multi-phase Construction Sequences and Aggregate Site Complexes of the Prehistoric Windward Society Islands (French Polynesia)

Abstract

In the Society Islands, concentrations of temple sites, as are found in aggregate site complexes, are considered material equivalents of kin-congregations where lineages proliferated and segmented through time. Such site complexes are ubiquitous in the Windward Society Islands; however, few have been studied in detail, leaving the precise timing of their construction and use unknown. Excavations at ‘Opunohu Valley aggregate complexes in the 1960s suggested that major marae complexes served as elite centers and were a late phenomenon. Here I present a new suite of radiocarbon determinations from ‘Opunohu Valley structures in five aggregate site complexes. The expanded chronology identifies two different phases of site construction, the first dating to ca. AD 1400–1500 and associated with a major inland expansion, the second post-dating AD 1600 and related to a period of intensified chiefly competition whereby new temples and elaborate house sites were constructed or enlarged and elaborated. The initial construction of temple structures within aggregate sites is both earlier than once thought and multi-staged, linked to community and regional socio-political change expressed at the local level. I briefly outline the implications for aggregate site construction and use and correlate these to ethnohistoric references regarding shifting patterns of political control through time.

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