Archaeology in the Marquesas
Learn about the project and how to join
Summer opportunity for students and the general public
Verdant forest, rugged peaks, and turqoise seas. The Marquesas are one of the best known yet least visited archipelagoes in the South Pacific. The Polynesian discovery and settlement of these stunningly beautiful islands some 1000 years ago represents one of humanity’s momentous achievements. By the time Captain Cook reached these shores, Marquesan chiefdoms were distinguished by their monumental architecture, elaborate art, and a religious system in which important ceremonies demanded human sacrifices.
Our project charts the efflorescence of this unique culture. Now in its seventh year, the project focuses on Tahuata, one of the most traditional islands in the group. Here, in the neighboring valleys of Vaitahu and Hanamiai, beuatifully intact remains of residential and ceremonial centers lie amidst coconut plantations and forests of breadfruit, banana, and mango. Join the excitement of rediscovering this ancient Polynesian chiefdom.
Herman Melville, who did not attend college, recognized his early years in the South Pacific as the formative experience of his life. In 1842 Melville jumped ship in the Marquesas and spent three weeks as the only foreigner living among the Taipi tribe of Nuku Hiva. Typee, Melville’s breakthrough novel, published when he was twenty-eight years old, is a mainly autobiographical narrative of this adventure.
AFAR also recognizes the unique educational value of full immersion, hands-on field experience in a foreign setting. With this goal, the Marquesas project offers a one month archaeological field experience on Tahuata, a remote island with a rich history. Participants are fully immersed in a small community while working with Marquesans and living as the only foreigners on an island with no airport, no hotels, and no restaurants.
“A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
The Hanamiai dune lies on the coast of one of the best ports in the Marquesas. Capt. James Cook was here in 1774. His accurate maps and glowing description attracted a steady stream of whaling ships and sandalwood traders.
Stone towers at the entrance to the French fort built in 1842.
Hanamiai
Copper sheathing and a clay tobacco pipe fragment. The site is rich in early nineteenth century trade goods.
The French navy arrived in 1842 to claim the Marquesas as a colony. They built a massive fort on the hill overlooking Hanamiai. This fort, with a dry moat, draw bridge, and high stone walls, was manned by three hundred soldiers from 1842 until 1860.
Our field team works Monday through Friday. The 2010 project combines excavations at the Hanamiai site (a 20 minute walk from the village) with work at the Tahuata Museum, the first community-based archaeology museum in French Polynesia. The project includes an international team of students and members of the local community. It is directed by Barry Rolett and Emily Donaldson.
Our discoveries are exhibited in the Tahuata Museum, which features artifacts from our excavations, as well as ones fortuitiously discovered and collected by the Marquesans of Tahuata during their everyday lives. The Museum also houses exceptional carvings in wood and stone by contemporary Marquesan artists.
Many of the artifacts in this museum have interesting, even extraordinary stories to tell. For example, there is a stone tiki shaped like a fish that elders in the community say local fishermen once took to sea with them to ensure a successful catch. One of our project themes for 2010 is to research and record the local history of artifacts such as this unusual tiki. Students will be involved in investigating the significance of the artifacts and in interviewing the people who discovered them. We will incorporate these findings into the exhibits, to present the artifacts as remnants of history with strong ties to the local community, rather than simply as pieces of art.
Who and what is in the Tahuata Museum?
Barry Rolett, Project Director. Barry Rolett is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii and President of the Andover Foundation for Archaeological Research. He is a specialist in the archaeology of Polynesia and southeast China. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1989 and joined the University of Hawaii faculty during the same year. He taught at Harvard University for two years (1998/99 and 2000/01) as Visiting Associate Professor of Archaeology.
Rolett first visited the Marquesas in 1981 during a year-long Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship project to retrace Captain Cook’s route through the South Pacific. Rolett’s field experience includes 14 archaeological expeditions throughout the Marquesas and 5 field projects in southeast China (Fujian and Penghu Islands) to study Neolithic seafaring and the ancestral origins of the Polynesians.
Emily Donaldson, Assistant Director. Emily Donaldson loves adventure, and since 2001 she's been finding more than her fair share in the Marquesas. As a Landscape Historian for the National Park Service, she investigates the historic value of cultural resources in the United States. When she's not at her desk, however, she is exploring the culture and history of the Marquesas Islands. First introduced to this part of the world as one of Prof. Rolett's summer field school students, she wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on the islands and received her BA in anthropology from Harvard in 2003. In 2006, she obtained her MA from the University of Chicago, and since then has lectured regularly on board the Aranui, a combined cruise ship and freighter that tours the Marquesas.
Ms. Donaldson has also returned to the islands several times as a teaching assistant on the AFAR Marquesas project, and most recently researched and wrote a forthcoming phrasebook on the Marquesan language; the first of its kind. Her field experience includes archaeological digs in Honduras and the Marquesas, and ethnographic studies in Chicago and the Marquesas. After almost nine years, her ongoing fascination with history, artifacts, and enduring cultural tradition continues to draw her back to these remote and unparalleled islands.
