Geochemical sourcing of volcanic materials imported into Teti'aroa Atoll shows multiple long-distance interactions in the Windward Society Islands, French Polynesia

Abstract

Teti’aroa, located 28 nautical miles (52 km) north of Tahiti, lies at the periphery of the Windward Society islands. At the end of theeighteenth century, this atoll was presumably controlled by the chiefdom of Porionu’u, which included the districts of Pare and Arue on thenorth coast of Tahiti. This situation is confirmed by a number of ethnohistorical accounts and oral traditions describing an intense traffic ofbasic resources between the atoll and Tahiti island as well as the specific function of Teti’aroa for Tahitian social elites visiting the atoll forceremonial or recreational purposes. However, the prehistory of the atoll remains largely unknown and the time-depth of dominance byTahitian elites on the atoll is unclear. In this paper, we investigate potential inter-island relationships between Teti’aroa and other islandsin the archipelago and beyond. We present geochemical analyses (energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupledplasma-atomic emission spectrometry) of stone tools and elements of ceremonial architecture (marae), which were necessarily importedgiven the complete subsidence of the volcanic substratum of the island. Our results confirm the regional origin of a majority of artefacts,but also indicate several later long-distance relationships maintained by Tahitian chiefs.