Book Review: Tangatatau Rockshelter: The Evolution of an Eastern Polynesian Socio-Ecosystem

Abstract

Archaeologist Patrick Kirch here cuts through an archaeological situation of un-certainty to find a mother-lode—a site that immediately throws an immense amount of light on a prehistoric situation that was hitherto obscure. Tangatatau rockshelter on the Polynesian island of Mangaia was one such lode, offering a well-focused lens into one of the most fundamental ques-tions in Pacific prehistory. What happened when fecund humans discovered tiny and extremely remote islands, filled them up rapidly with more humans, overexploited wild resources, despite importing the crops and animals behind much of their subsis-tence economy, and then faced the envi-ronmental and demographic consequences of their actions? The prehistoric human trajectory on the island of Mangaia, set-tled by its first humans (Polynesians) about 1,000 years ago, exposes these questions in exquisite detail.