Lithic industries of Central Polynesia : know-how and techno-economic dynamics

• Main Author: Hermann, Aymeric
• Other Authors: Polynésie française, Conte, Eric
• Format: Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Préhistoire; Archéologie; Ethnohistoire; Polynésie; Iles Australes; Chefferies; Technologie lithique; Géochimie; Echange; Prehistory; Archaeology; Ethnohistory; Polynesia; Austral Island; Chiefdom; Stone tools; Lithic technology; Geochemistry; Exchange; archeo; museo; Austral
• Online Access: http://www.theses.fr/2013POLF0001/document

The ubiquity of stone adze blades in archaeological sites and museum collections resulted in their use as “cultural fossils” to draw cultural evolutionary changes in the Polynesian islands. The typological approach proves useful for understanding the archaeological diversity in Oceania. Yet, it lacks efficiency when it comes to shedding light on the technical and economic choices involved in the production processes.After a discussion of previous knapping experimentations performed in Polynesia, I propose a panel of diagnostic criteria for identifying the use of hard and soft hammerstone in the manufacture of adze blades. Then, I focus on the production of blades from assemblages collected on the North coast of Tubuai Island (Austral Archipelago, French Polynesia). Along with the need to consider the whole manufacturing process and the post-production exchange networks comes the necessity to connect different archaeological assemblages. Geochemical characterisation of the geological sources and artefacts discovered within archaeological contexts were used to settle the favoured framework for understanding the series of production sequences and for identifying the transfer of tools produced within and outside the island. Among the different supply networks identified on the island, I chose to investigate the operational sequences located within two sites: a quarry complex involving several workshops and a coastal dwelling site.Through the investigation of manufacture, maintenance and exchange processes regarding stone adze blades, I propose a new insight on the economic system in the chiefdoms of central Polynesia. The technical tradition documented on Tubuai is related to the production and transformation of flakes used as blanks for adze blades manufacture. This association of flaking and shaping processes originated in Western Polynesia but was also spread over Eastern Polynesia. The size and the form of these adzes were directly linked to one’s capacity for producing standard-sized blanks and for shaping ...