The Monumental Earthworks of Palau, Micronesia

Description

This work applies a landscape archaeological perspective to an investigation of the monumental earthworks of Babeldaob, in Palau, Micronesia. The specific perspective employed considers both cultural and environmental concerns of landscape theory. Although it is focused on the monumental earthworks, those cultural remains are viewed as but one cultural unit within the history of the settled landscape of Palau. Therefore, emphasis is placed on elucidating the context/s – social and environmental – that led to the construction of these monumental structures, and these places, and the study attempts to view elements of the cultural context from an emic perspective. Once the theoretical and methodological framework has been laid out, the work proceeds through a description of the physical characteristics and archaeological sequence of the archipelago, details of excavations, clay analysis, pollen and phytolith analyses and an ethnographic pottery study, before gathering the results into a final discussion situated in that theoretical framework.