Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Histories of Archaeology in Oceania

616 Pages·2022·40.461 MB·English

by  Hilary Howes, Tristen Jones, Matthew Spriggs

Uncovering
Pacific Pasts
Histories of Archaeology
in Oceania

Uncovering
Pacific Pasts
Histories of Archaeology
in Oceania
Edited by Hilary Howes,
Tristen Jones and
Matthew Spriggs
PACIFIC SERIES
Published by ANU Press
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Email: [email protected]
Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au
ISBN (print): 9781760464868
ISBN (online): 9781760464875
WorldCat (print): 1317737248
WorldCat (online): 1317737252
DOI: 10.22459/UPP.2021
This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.
The full licence terms are available at
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph: Anthropomorphic motif
(Site SE-RF-2), Anthropology Photo Archive, University of Auckland.
This book is published under the aegis of the Pacific Editorial Board of ANU Press.
This edition © 2022 ANU Press
Contents
List of figures ix
Abbreviations xix
Contributors xxi
List of participating institutions xxix
1. Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Histories of Archaeology in Oceania
– An exhibition 1
Tristen Jones, Hilary Howes and Matthew Spriggs
Part 1: Early European exploration in the Pacific, 1500s – 1870s
2. European interests and ideas on the diversity of human
cultures in the Pacific (1500s – 1870s) 15
Matthew Spriggs
3. ‘Artificial curiosities’ and the Royal Navy 29
Alison Mann
4. 1800: How the ‘South Seas savages’ became
‘antique monuments’ 41
Emilie Dotte-Sarout
5. The mystery of the Moscow ki‘i 65
Elena Govor and Ekaterina Balakhonova
6. Watercolour of Fijian man, painted by Charles Pickering 75
William Scates Frances
7. Idol speculations: Aneityum Nelcau and Dr Turner’s
missionary archaeology 87
Eve Haddow and Andy Mills
Part 2: The first archaeological excavations,1870s – 1910s
8. The first archaeological excavations (1870s – 1910s) 105
Matthew Spriggs
9. Sir Julius von Haast and Roger Duff 133
Emma Brooks
10. The Pacific archaeology and ethnography of Hjalmar Stolpe
and the Vanadis Expedition, 1883–85 145
Aoife O’Brien
11. Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922), founder of the
Polynesian Society 155
Sascha Nolden
12. Alfred Haddon: A ‘palaeontologist’ in the Torres Strait 173
Anita Herle and Duncan Wright
13. Patterns of connection: The Wanigela shells revisited 187
Elizabeth Bonshek
14. Superiority complex: Rudolf Pöch’s interpretations of
archaeological finds at Wanigela 201
Hilary Howes
15. Global journeys of Lapita potsherds from the Bismarck
Archipelago 223
Hilary Howes
16. Shell trumpets sounding in the stone city: Paul Hambruch
and Nan Madol 241
Hilary Howes
17. Huli hele nā wahi pana (seeking out storied places):
The contributions of John F.G. Stokes to the field of Hawaiian
archaeology 257
Mara A. Mulrooney and Jillian A. Swift
18. Intelligent eyes: Visualising Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
archaeology 271
Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Part 3: The burgeoning field of anthropology and archaeology,
1918–45
19. The burgeoning field of anthropology and archaeology
(1918–45) 287
Matthew Spriggs
20. A collector of ideas: Roland Burrage Dixon and the beginnings
of professional American anthropology in the Pacific 305
Tristen Jones and Ingrid Ahlgren
21. Searching for origins: Archaeology and the government
officers of Papua 325
Anna Edmundson
22. Father Wilhelm Schmidt, Indigenous beliefs and Oceanic
collections in the Vatican’s Anima Mundi Museum 341
Katherine Aigner
23. H.D. Skinner 357
Moira White
24. The vicissitudes of Lapita pottery, 1909–45: The Melbourne
witness 371
Matthew Spriggs
25. Looking beyond Australia’s shores in the 1930s: F.D. McCarthy
in Southeast Asia 387
Campbell Macknight
Part 4: Archaeology as a profession in the Pacific,1945–present
26. Archaeology as a profession in the Pacific (1945 – present) 401
Matthew Spriggs and Hilary Howes
27. The first Lapita pottery found in Fiji: Links to an early
Pacific world 429
Matthew Spriggs
28. Ratu Rabici Logavatu and Aubrey Parke: Two archaeological
pioneers of the Fijian Administration 443
Matthew Spriggs
29. Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Museum’s research in the
Marquesas and on Rapa Nui/Easter Island, 1955–63 459
Reidar Solsvik
30. Aurora Natua and the Motu Paeao site: Unlocking French
Polynesia’s islands for Pacific archaeologists 469
Emilie Dotte-Sarout, Tamara Maric and Guillaume Molle
31. Jack Golson in New Zealand 489
Louise Furey
32. An emerging major centre: Pacific archaeology at
The Australian National University (1961–79) 501
Mirani Litster, Tristen Jones and Hilary Howes
33. Roger Curtis Green (1932–2009) 517
Peter Sheppard and Louise Furey
34. Sue Bulmer and New Guinea archaeology 527
Glenn R. Summerhayes
35. Then and now: W.H. Davenport’s 1966 archaeological
expedition to Santa Ana with new data on the plainware
pottery 535
Adria H. Katz and Marie-Claude Boileau
36. Conclusion: Highlights from the Uncovering Pacific Pasts
exhibition 549
Tristen Jones, Hilary Howes and Matthew Spriggs
Appendix: Statement by Rakival people 557
Index 563