Critical examination of the archaeology of the Pacific Islands, spanning Melanesia (including the Island of New Guinea), Micronesia and Polynesia. The course examines the settlement of remote islands, and the subsequent cultural and environmental changes through to the period of early contact with European explorers, missionaries and traders. In this region there is evidence for open sea voyaging in the world, unique hunting and gathering adaptations to tropical rainforest environments, the mass extinction of species of birds and other vertebrates with initial human settlement on many islands, the development of over a quarter of the world's modern languages, and the construction of the mysterious Easter Island statues.

Indicative assessment: Tutorial attendance (10%), two 4000 word essays or projects (45% each).

Normally offered every year.
2 hours of lectures, 1 hour of tutorial and/or workshop per week

Kirch, P. On the Road of the Winds: an Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact, University of California Press, 2002.

Spriggs, M. The Island Melanesians, Blackwell, 1997.