Ancient Micronesia

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: Islands of the west Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines

Micronesia

Micronesia (mi-kroh-NEE-zhuh) is the group of 2,500 volcanic and small atoll islands that make up the western section of Oceania; the other two groups are Polynesia and Melanesia. Micronesia lies in the tropical western part of the Pacific Ocean, extending some 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) from east to west and some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from north to south. The total area of the islands is no more than 1,100 square miles (2,850 square kilometers), of which Guam accounts for 207 square miles (537 square kilometers). It is not unusual to find smaller islands less than 1 square mile (2.5 square kilometers) in size. Micronesian islands are either low (atoll) or high (volcanic), a characteristic that partially provides the basis for cultural distinctions. Among the main island groupings for Micronesia are the Palaus, Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls, and Gilberts. What is known about Micronesia has been pieced together from ethnography, ethnolinguistics, ethnohistory, and some spotty archaeology, providing more information for recent than early history.

Cultural formation

Scholars have determined that western and eastern Micronesia followed different developmental paths. Western Micronesia (Palau, Marianas, and possibly Yap) was settled directly by immigrants from Indonesia or the Philippines, presumably since Neolithic times if not earlier. Eastern Micronesia and Polynesia were probably settled by immigrants from a region in eastern Melanesia distinguished by the Lapita culture. Micronesia and Polynesia may have had a direct connection with Japan based on the type of fishing gear commonly found. Contact among Micronesian islands leading to cultural borrowing is presumed, notwithstanding periodic connection with Polynesia. The reason for this division between east and west is that the languages of western Micronesia have been traced linguistically to Indonesia and the Philippines, and the eastern Micronesian languages have been traced to New Hebrides Island in Melanesia. All belong to the Austronesian (formerly Malayo-Polynesian) linguistic family. Eight intergrading, often mutually unintelligible, linguistic groups have been recognized: the Chamorros of the Mariana Islands, Palauans, Yapese, eastern Carolines, western Carolines, southwestern Micronesian islands, the Marshallese, and the Gilbertese.

Archaeological artifacts

Early excavations in Micronesia date to the l930’s and have continued sporadically to the twenty-first century. Materials salvaged include limited stone adzes, widespread shell fishhooks, and pottery. Universal use of shell throughout Micronesian history makes it difficult to date earlier tools. Skeletal evidence of pigs, dogs, and fowl is unevenly distributed. The dating sequence provided by ceramic artifacts—which exists only for western Micronesia—places the earliest date at 1800 b.c.e. Megalithic stone monuments, ruined pavements, walls, house platforms, and occasional stone carvings of human faces have similarly been found. Sites of extensive stonework and coral rubble such as those in Yap, Palau, and Ponape point to the development of societies with complex sociopolitical integration that could be called chiefdoms and states. These structures have been interpreted as having been associated with elaborate priesthoods and ceremonials, aristocratic chiefs and noble kings, and even empires. Money objects of various forms—shells, large stones, and glass beads—attest to the existence of complex trading networks. However, this part of Micronesian cultural history belongs to the more recent ages and has continued into historic times.

Origin and cultural theories

Scholars have long held the view that Micronesia was populated directly from insular Southeast Asia to the west or via intervening New Guinea to the east. However, no early stone tools of insular Southeast Asian origin have yet been found. The few simple, untanged, oval or lenticular stone adzes that have been found point to a Melanesian origin. In insular Southeast Asia, the stone flake (Tabonian) industry that separates it from mainland Southeast Asia is estimated at 30,000 b.c.e., lasting until 9000 b.c.e. This tradition was succeeded by a flake-blade industry often coterminous with the beginnings of ceramic industries and enriched by later metal traditions. The chronology of cultural traditions in all Southeast Asia and Oceania varies in detail from place to place. The keeping of dogs, associated with Micronesian cultural history, is the result of multiple migrations and invasions from the outside as well as the creative adaptations undertaken by the migrants after arrival.

Current theories on the origins of Micronesians are based on linguistic theories. The traceable homeland of the Austronesian languages before their expansion into Oceania and even mainland Southeast Asia is insular Southeast Asia itself, in particular the islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. These Austronesians carried with them the Neolithic complex of horticulture, pig and fowl domestication, burial practices, and pottery in various combinations. Among the plants associated with subsistence in the Pacific are tubers, breadfruit, bananas, coconut, and later rice. Both Micronesia and Polynesia formed a tuber/tree cultivation complex, and Melanesians depended mainly on tuber production.

The linguistic explosion and expansion of the Austronesian speakers probably took place between 5000 b.c.e. and 3000 b.c.e., using at first land bridges and later watercraft. Some of these migrations must have been undertaken by small family groups and later may have involved more organized, large colonizing expeditions. Conceivably, laps of these journeys extended many centuries and over distances of thousands of miles from their embarking points. Population transfer due to severe winds has been known to occur in modern-day Micronesia and could be entertained as a possible means of migration. By about 1500 b.c.e., the closer islands of Polynesia were settled, providing for further expansion beyond. The same was true for Micronesia.

The earliest pottery date provided by the Marianas Red shards is circa 1755 b.c.e. Marianas Red shards bear resemblance to Philippine shards found in a cave in Masbate Island, dated at 1000 b.c.e. but estimated to have been started somewhere in central Philippines at least by 1500 b.c.e. The Marianas Red ware is thin and red-slipped, usually plain, and a few reconstructed vessels seem to have had flat bases and carinations. Some have lime-filled decoration in rows of stamped circles, lines, and zigzags reminiscent of dentate stamping. Association of these shards with shell artifacts at this time zone is not yet conclusive. Other Marianas Red artifacts date much later, about 100 b.c.e. Marianas Red was replaced by plain, unslipped ceramic after 700 b.c.e. and is said to bear no resemblance to the Lapita ceramic culture. Lapita pottery has been estimated to have reached Melanesia from insular Southeast Asia around 1500 b.c.e., about the time the Marianas were being colonized from the west.

By 800 c.e., the Marianas Red pottery culture was eclipsed by the Latte phase of Marianas and western Micronesian cultures. However, pottery production continued until modern times. Considered among the most remarkable examples of stone architecture in Oceania, the Latte consists of two parallel rows of upright coral or volcanic rocks slotted at the top and set on with generally hemispherical capstones. Used as platforms and status markers for houses and other buildings, the rows are usually set 13 feet (4 meters) apart and vary in length with the longest having been reported at 72 feet (22 meters) long.

To the east, atoll Nukuoro is the only island to have received archaeological attention. Radiocarbon dates point to first settlement between the mid-1500’s and 1300 b.c.e., with continual occupation thereafter. The continuity from prehistory to colonial contact is sometimes demonstrable, as in the case of the Nan Madol ruins in the Carolines first reported in 1835 and later in 1857. Nan Madol is often described as a small town and a ceremonial center covering an area of 0.2 square mile (70 hectares). Although considered historic, Nan Madol represents a sociocultural synthesis that is dynastic in scope, bridging the connection between ancestral and present-day Ponapeans.

Physically, Micronesians are predominantly of Mongoloid phenotype, suggesting close ties to Southeast Asia. However, gene flow from Melanesia is also demonstrable. This Mongoloid strain at the time of Austronesian expansion conceivably would have been already mixed with other earlier groups. The pre-Neolithic Negrito, the Ainoid, and the Veddoid are populations suggested to have predated the Southeast Asian Mongoloids. For now, despite a rich reservoir of ethnographic knowledge, the Micronesian past remains a puzzle, archaeologically and otherwise. Only the Marianas have so far provided some useful evidence.

Bibliography

Bellwood, Peter. Man’s Conquest of the Pacific. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Spoehr, Alexander. Marianas Prehistory. Chicago: Chicago Natural History Museum, 1957.

Wuerch, William L., and Dirk Anthony Ballendorf. Historical Dictionary of Guam and Micronesia. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994.