Otago Archaeological Research ClusterAbout the ResearchThe Otago Archaeological Research Cluster (OARC) is a group of scholars who investigate the prehistoric and historical archaeology of New Zealand, the Pacific and South East Asia, and address questions of global significance including the origins and meaning of domestication, the emergence of social hierarchies, and the interplay of human resource use, environmental change and cultural diversity. Facilities include the Otago Archaeological Laboratories which provide specialised analysis of artefacts, fauna, lithics and sediments. Established partnerships with the leading archaeological heritage management agencies throughout the region facilitate the continued development of new research projects. CoordinatorResearchers
Research ProjectsCurrent and recent projects include: Origins of Angkor (Charles Higham)This research programme is designed to trace the origins and the course of increasing cultural complexity in Thailand during the prehistoric period through the excavation of a series of prehistoric sites in Northeast Thailand and Cambodia. The most recent excavations have centred on Ban Non Wat, a moated site dating from the Neolithic (about 2100 BC) until the early historic period (about 400 AD). As well as disclosing data bearing on prehistoric technology, subsistence and trade, this site also shows a sharp rise in social complexity at the beginning of the Bronze Age, and this has come as a major contribution of our programme, since it was hitherto unexpected. The excavation ranks now as arguably the most important, and the largest, to have been undertaken on any prehistoric site in Thailand. Prehistoric Significance of Bracken (Helen Leach; Landcare Research)Bracken became abundant in New Zealand during early Maori settlement, and its starchy rhizome made up a highly significant, but unquantified, part of the prehistoric diet. The University of Otago sub-contract within this project assessed how Maori obtained fernroot and processed it, and identified the tools associated with its preparation. It also examined European perceptions of bracken consumption by Maori in the 18th-19th centuries. The Landcare scientists examined regional patterns of bracken abundance in the late prehistoric landscape, and using an ecophysiological model of bracken productivity attempted to estimate bracken starch availability. The Emergence of Pakeha Culture (Ian Smith; Auckland Museum)This project examines the ways in which one major group of early European settlers, the shore whalers, adaptated their imported social patterns and material inventory to the physical and cultural settings of their new homeland, and through this contributed to the development of New Zealand's distinctive Pakeha culture. It involves archaeological excavations at two whaling stations, and historical research into the identity of the occupants of those sites and the broader social and economic context within which they operated. By comparing the domestic, social, industrial and economic patterns reconstructed for early New Zealand whaling communities with those of their contemporaries in Australia, the emergence of characteristics that reflect adaptation to the New Zealand setting will be identified. Neolithic dispersal in East Asia (Glenn Summerhayes; Australian National University)This project is part of the 'The Asian Fore-Arc Programme' (AFAP) with Professors Anderson and Bellwood of the ANU. It investigates the transition of mainland Asian cultures to a world of islands from 6000-3500 years ago by an archaeological and palaeoenvironmental study of near-Asian islands including the Philippines, Taiwan and southern Ryukyu Islands. This transition is the formative process that saw island colonisation extend out into the Pacific and Indian Oceans in subsequent millennia Fieldwork planned for 2005 will concentrate on early settlements within the Yaeyama Islands, southern Ryukyus, Japan. Outcomes include a new and more detailed account of Neolithic expansion including accounts of settlement pattern, subsistence development and environmental relationships. Archaeology and Culture History of Vella Lavella (Richard Walter; University of Auckland)An archaeological and anthropological study of socio-political change in a non-Austronesian society in the Solomon Islands. Focussing on the last 1000 years, this work provides a comparison with the Roviana Project located in an Austronesian community 100 km southeast of Vella Lavella and which was completed in 2001. Emergence of the Tongan Maritime Empire (Geoffrey Clark)The Tongan maritime empire was the most widespread and complex socio-political entity known to exist in prehistoric Oceania. At its height, from AD 1000 to AD 1500, Tongan influence extended to the neighbouring archipelagos of Fiji and Samoa, as well as to the islands of Rotuma, Futuna and 'Uvea, an area of more than one million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean. This project focuses on the Central Pacific -- comprising Tonga and adjacent islands -- with the purpose of establishing the origins of the Tongan empire, the pattern of its expansion beyond Tonga's shores, and the nature of relations between Tongans and other Pacific Islander populations. Archaeological Wetland Garden Systems in Northland (Ian Barber)This project investigates the archaeological nature and values of remnant Maori wetland horticultural systems in Northland using both archaeological and microbotanical methodologies. The archaeology of northern New Guinea, a cultural corridor between Asia, Island Melanesia and the Pacific (Glenn Summerhayes; Australian National Univiversity)This project, funded by the Australian Research Council, aims to define the chronology, and clarify the dynamics of prehistoric human colonisation, settlement, subsistence and exchange in a key area for understanding human settlement in the coast and islands of northern New Guinea. Summerhayes' research has concentrated on the coastal areas of Wewak and the offshore Schouten Island group. The second season of fieldwork on the Schouten Island group will begin in December 2005. Assessing Impacts on Coastal Archaeological Sites (Ian Barber, Richard Walter)Many archaeological sites and landscapes along New Zealand's dynamic coastline are threatened by terrestrial and/or marine events and processes (e.g. dune building, river sedimentation and erosion, tidal surges and storms, sea level rise) and direct human impacts (e.g. land and residential development), but little research has been undertaken to measure and ameliorate the loss of archaeological site and other cultural values. This project investigates the long-term nature and impact of erosion and development on archaeological sites or landscapes evaluated from several New Zealand regions (currently Northland, Nelson and Otago). Processes of site formation and damage are compared over time so as to assess and predict the nature and pace of loss by region. Methods include historical aerial photographic and map research, site evaluation, inspection, mapping and monitoring, and rescue excavation and analysis of selected sites. Puna Kei'a Project (Richard Walter)An historical anthropology project set in the Kei'a district of the island of Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands. This is a multi-disciplinary study of a cultural landscape that incorporates the fields of history, archaeology and oral tradition. The three fields of knowledge are woven together to create a richly textured view of Mangaia, its history and its people. Archaeology of the South Island West Coast (Richard Walter)A regional archaeology project with a primary focus on 'archaic' settlement patterns, exchange systems and economics. Anir Island - prehistoric connections between New Guinea and Oceania (Glenn Summerhayes)This project aims to investigate prehistoric social and economic interaction over a 3000 year period leading to the ethnographic present and the role played by a stepping stone island, Anir (incorporating Ambitle and Babase Islands), in the regulation and distribution of goods and ideas between the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands and beyond. Anir's location makes it a central node in the transfer of goods passing from the Bismarcks out into the Western Pacific, and this should be evidenced in the archaeological record. Seven field seasons have been undertaken to date. The results from this project have exceeded all expectations with the discovery of, first, a major Lapita site known as Kamgot, paralleling those from Mussau and the Arawes, and secondly, numerous surface finds containing Buka ceramics from the last 800 years. Of particular importance was an intra-site analysis of spatial structures within Kamgot, a 3,000 year old Lapita site. This allowed the investigation of the social dynamics of the Austronesian populations who colonised the Western Pacific in the late 4th millennium BP, by focussing on the internal spatial structure of the Lapita village site. Unlike most Lapita sites, Kamgot is uniquely well preserved which will allow the identification of the spatial limits of Lapita households and discrete functional areas. This study produced new insights into the spatial structure of a Lapita village settlement and in modelling the social use of space within Lapita society. Work is near completion with specialist report of faunal and shell pending. Publications arising from this research are now appearing, and a monograph on this project will be forthcoming in 2006. Another book, written in Melanesian Pidgin for local community use, will be finalised late 2006. Southeast Solomon Islands Project (Richard Walter; University of Auckland)An archaeological study of art styles and culture areas with a particular focus on 'uki island and the Makira district. This project is now entering its final stages which involves the completion of a book authored by the three collaborators. Excavations at McSkimming's Potteries, Benhar (Richard Walter, Dimitri Anson)This project entails the excavation of factory waste dumps to recover examples of domestic pottery produced at McSkimming's Potteries. The object is to collect examples of the glazes and shapes produced and to build up a reference collection of use to ceramic historians and historical archaeologists. Analysis of Carvings in Tomoana's meeting house (Dimitri Anson)Because of variations in carving style it has been argued that the carvings making up this house may derive from more than one original building. To define and better understand this variation micro-motif analysis and classification of the carved motifs is being employed. Publication of catalogues of items in held museum collections (Dimitri Anson)Three separate publications on ancient lamps and cylinder seals for publication in Mediterranean Archaeology. Analyses and Classification of Decorated Mycenaean Pottery (Dimitri Anson)This project aims to build up a new classification of Mycenaean pottery as a means of sharpening our focus on various kinds of problems connected with that world. The approach taken involves an analysis of design motifs in correlation with a fine-grained statistical fingerprinting of each shape. This is achieved by fitting of ellipses on a computer image taken from photographs of each pot to features known to be circles in the original 3D space to make measurements that are inter-comparable from photograph to photograph. This new approach may, therefore, open up a whole field of study of value to the archaeologist. Analysis of Ban Chiang Ceramics (Brian Vincent)Ban Chiang, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is famous for its outstanding painted pottery and enigmatic ceramic rollers. This most important complex in Northeast Thailand was excavated in 1974-5. The large ceramic assemblage recovered is being analysed using detailed petrographic methods. Petrographic techniques can provide key evidence as to pottery sources and manufacturing methods so that local and exotic wares can be scientifically identified, avoiding the often vague conclusions reached in stylistic studies. Petrographic techniques will also be applied to ceramic materials recovered during recent field work in the Eastern Sepik region of Papua New Guinea with Professor Glenn Summerhayes.
Researcher ProfilesDr Dimitri Anson, Curator of Humanties at Otago Museum and Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has research interests that include the use of computer graphics and software to enhance archaeological techniques; innovative methods of classification; and the development of reference collections for research and study. Dr Ian Barber, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, is involved in research in New Zealand archaeology, with special interest in Maori resource use, archaeo-zoology, cultural change and contact, archaeological resource management and politics. Dr Yanbin Deng, Post-doctoral Fellow for the Otago Archaeological Research Cluster, is currently engaged in a project that is aimed at developing laboratory facilities and procedures for the identification of wood and charcoal from New Zealand archaeological sites so that they can be used to examine the inter-relationships between human activities and palaeoecological changes in New Zealand. Professor Charles Higham, James Cook Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has devoted much of his academic career studying Southeast Asian prehistory from 10,000 years B.C. until the development of the first states.
Dr Martin Jones, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, and Director of Analytic Research Ltd, is involved in research in the development of techniques for archaeometry, for example, radiocarbon dating and microfossils in the study of land use. Professor Helen Leach in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology and Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand has research interests that include Polynesian prehistory, stone technology, evolution of human diet, and prehistoric horticulture. Associate Professor Ian Smith, in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Division of Humanities, is engaged in research into both prehistoric and historical archaeology in New Zealand, with specialist interests in archaeozoology, environmental reconstruction and material culture studies. Professor Glenn Summerhayes, Head of the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has research interests in Pacific archaeology, in particular Melanesia; the archaeology of trade and exchange; the development of social complexity; the archaeology of East Asia; archaeometry; cultural heritage management; archaeology and the school curriculum in Papua New Guinea. Dr Tim Thomas, Lecturer in Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has research interests in the archaeology and historical anthropology of Oceania, with a focus on the islands of Melanesia and Polynesia; material culture of the Pacific region; socio-cultural landscapes; exchange and personhood; cross-cultural contact in Oceania; the archaeology of colonisation; social networks and technology and human diversity.
Dr Richard Walter , Associate Professor in Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has research interests in the prehistory and archaeology of Oceania with a special interest in Melanesia and Polynesia; material culture analysis; history of archaeological method and theory; ethnoarchaeology; faunal analysis. Dr Brian Vincent, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has spent over three decades studying Southeast Asian pottery to help understand cultural processes. Postgraduate ResearchRecently completed and current research by Masters and PhD students linked to the research cluster: PhD
Masters
|
 |