A Chronostratigraphic analysis of landbird extinction on Tahuata, Marquesas Islands

Abstract

The Hanamiai archaeological site (Tahuata, Marquesas Islands) has yielded a stratified assemblage of bird bones associated with prehistoric Polynesian artefacts, cultural features, and other faunal materials spanning an 800-year period beginning atc. ad 1025–1100. The majority of thec. 650 identifiable bird bones are from seabirds, most species of which are extirpated on Tahuata. Indigenous landbirds (rails, pigeons, doves, parrots, kingfishers, warblers) are represented by 70 bones of 10 species, among which two rails, a pigeon, a dove, and three parrots no longer occur on Tahuata. The stratigraphic distribution of bird bones suggests that exploitation of indigenous species was most intense early in the Hanamiai cultural sequence (Phase I;c. ad 1025–1300). Byc. ad 1450 or before, the seven extirpated species of landbirds (and probably other species not recorded in the small bone sample) either had been eliminated or had become uncommon enough to elude archaeological sampling. A similar chronostratigraphic pattern of prehistoric landbird extinction has been documented for Mangaia, Cook Islands. While details of timing and taxonomy vary from island to island, an overall trend of early prehistoric depletion of birds is the rule across East Polynesia and all of Oceania.