Last millennium climate change in the occupation and abandonment of Palau's Rock Islands
Date
2012
Authors
Clark, Geoffrey
Reepmeyer, Christian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sydney University Press
Abstract
The role of AD 1300 climate change in widespread societal change in Palau and the Pacific Basin has recently been debated by Fitzpatrick (2010, 2011) and Nunn and Hunter-Anderson (2011). The central proposition examined here is the link between a sealevel driven food crisis and the outbreak of conflict, which is hypothesized in the AD 1300 event model to have led people to shift from unprotected coastal parts of large islands (e.g. volcanic Babeldaob) to more readily defensible offshore islands (e.g. limestone 'Rock Islands') during the transition between the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). Revision of radiocarbon dates from village sites in the Rock Islands suggests instead that permanent settlements were established on small offshore islands during the MWP with village abandonment during the LIA. Palaeoclimate records from equatorial islands show that during the LIA Palau had less rainfall from the southward movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The abandonment of multiple limestone islands by a population estimated at 4000-6000 people may have been influenced by decreased precipitation and more tentatively from a decline in near-shore marine foods as a result of sea-level fall.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: AD 1300 event; Climate change; Pacific Basin; Radiocarbon
Citation
Collections
Source
Archaeology in Oceania
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
2037-12-31
Downloads
File
Description