A Radiocarbon Chronology for Human-Induced Environmental Change on Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, Polynesia

Abstract

A suite of 23 14C age determinations, from a well-stratified rockshelter and from 3 pollen cores on Mangaia Island is reported. The rockshelter has yielded significant evidence for avifaunal extinctions during the period cal. A.D. 1000-1600. The Lake Tiriara pollen cores span a period from ca. 6500 cal. b.p. to the present, and palynological analysis of the TIR 1 core indicates major anthropogenic disturbance on the island's vegetation after ca. 1600 cal. B.P. These sites, and the radiocarbon ages associated with them, provide the first chronologically secure evidence for human impacts on the island ecosystems of the southern Cook Islands.