Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

EXOTIC AND INDIGENOUS : CERAMIC SHERDS FROM THE ISLAND OF ROTUMA

1998; Polynesian Society; Volume: 107; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

2230-5955

Thegn N. Ladefoged, Jonathan J. Wall, Paul Black, William R. Dickinson,

Asian American and Pacific Histories

Rotuman oral traditions refer to interactions with Tonga, Samoa and Fiji (Gardiner 1898; Churchward 1937a, b, 1938; Trouillet n.d; see also Howard 1985,1986, and Ladefoged 1993,1995). The Rotuman language is also suggestive of multiple inter island voyages as 40 percent of the Rotuman wordstore are Polynesian loan words (Pawley 1996:86). Archaeological evidence of this interaction has been limited to connections with Tonga, based on the morphology of Rotuman burial mounds (Ladefoged 1993, 1995) and an analysis of limited skeletal material (Shutler and Evard 1991). Recent excavations on Rotuma have recovered a range of artefactual material including, for the first time, a small pottery assemblage that sheds light on prehistoric interactions with other islands. Through a p?trographie analysis of the ceramic temper, it is possible to determine if the excavated pottery was manufactured on the island or imported from afar. The geology of Rotuma dictates the availability of temper material for indigenously made Rotuman pottery, and therefore provides the context for determining if the sherds were imported.