An Archaeological Survey of the Manu'a Islands, American Samoa

Terry L. Hunt · Patrick Vinton Kirch

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Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies Archaeological and Geological Studies Historical Studies in Central America

Abstract

As a legacy of colonial history, the Samoan archipelago is politically divided into the independent state of Western Samoa (Samoa i Sisifo), comprising the large islands of 'Upolu and Savai'i along with Apolima and Manono, and American Samoa, comprising Tutuila, 'Aunu'u, the Manu'a Group, and the diminutive outliers of Rose and Swains Islands. Extensive archaeological work in Western Samoa, beginning during the co-ordinated, multi-institutional Polynesian Culture History Pro gramme of the 1960s, produced the outline of a three-millennium-long prehistory beginning with Early Eastern Lapita pottery and continuing through to the development of uniquely Samoan cultural traits (Green and Davidson 1969, 1974; Jennings et al. 1976; Jennings and Holmer 1980; Davidson 1979). In striking contrast, the archaeology of American Samoa is poorly known, and it has remained impossible to outline a local cultural sequence, yet there is no reason to expect that the archaeological resources of American Samoa are any less abundant or significant than those of Western Samoa, or that the eastern islands have been occupied for a shorter period. The problem is simply that of a scarcity of archaeo logical exploration and study. The first modern archaeological survey in American Samoa was car ried out by Kikuchi (MS 1963,1964) on Tutuila and 'Aunu'u in 1961-2. Kikuchi provided an overview of the main types of surface sites, but was neither intensive nor systematic in his coverage. In 1962, Kikuchi and Sinoto extended the survey to Manu'a, and conducted minor test ex cavations on Ta'? and Tutuila (Emory and Sinoto 1965). Until recently, the only other major field project in American Samoa was that of Frost (MS 1978), who conducted minor excavations at seven sites on Tutuila. Several limited cultural resource surveys were carried out under contract to the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Ladd MS 1970; Kikuchi, Silva, and Palama MS 1975; Silva and Paiama MS 1975; McCoy MS 1977). In 1980, Clark compiled a summary of all recorded archaeological sites for the American Samoan Historic Preser

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References

1983Margaret Mead and Samoa, The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth.1982Tikopia, the Prehistory and Ecology of a Polynesian Outlier 1931Samoan Material Culture 1986Prehistory in the Pacific Islands 1930Social organization of Manua 1983Man's Role in Modifying Tropical and Subtropical Polynesian Ecosystems 1985Anomalous Westerlies, El Niño, and the Colonization of Polynesia 1980Archaeological excavations in Western Samoa

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1996An Early Settlement in the Polynesian Homeland: Excavations at 'Aoa Valley, Tutuila Island, American Samoa 1991Towards an Understanding of Samoan Star Mounds 1990An Ancestral Polynesian occupation site at To'aga, Ofu Island, American Samoa 1993Radiocarbon Dates from American Samoa 1994Wait for the West Wind 2020Pofatu, a curated and open-access database for geochemical sourcing of archaeological materials

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