Pottery found in Savaii

By Cherelle S Jackson

Samoa Observer - Fragments of Polynesian plain ware and complete stone tools were found at the village of Siutu, Savaii during an archaeological excavation.
The discovery was made by Tomo Ishimura a Doctoral Student and Tomohiro Inoue an undergraduate student from Kyoto University in Japan.
Ishimura said: “We dug a small pit, an extent of one by one meters and two meters deep and found a small number of artifacts, stone tools and fragments of pottery.”
The type of pottery they found is called the Polynesian plain ware, which is a successor to lapita Pottery.
“A rough estimation of the era of Polynesian ware is maybe 2500 to 1800 BP,” Ishimura said.
Also discovered at the site were shells and Ishimura was particularly thrilled about the pieces as it is directly involved with his interests.
“The shells will give me an idea about the eco-system of pre historic Samoans,” he said.
The shells could determine what people ate and how much they relied on the eco-system for survival in a certain era.
The artifacts have already been sent to Kyoto University for radiocarbon dating and will be returned to Samoa after the tests.
This excavation may answer some questions about the history of Samoa and the origin of its people especially the ones who first settled Savaii.
According to Ishimura, Siutu is a newly discovered pottery-bearing site.
He said they chose to excavate in Siumu because other sites were hard to work on.
“Mulinuu is submerged so we could not work there,” Ishimura said.
Despite the discovery of the items the two students were not fully satisfied with the results of their excavation.
“It was partly successful, the object of our study was to find lapita pottery but we haven’t!”
Still, their finds will benefit the National University of Samoa who will inherit the artifacts upon their return
The excavation is part of an Archaeological Field Research by the Department of Archaeology at Kyoto University.
In a report by the university it states: “This project aims at collecting fundamental archaeological data, such as artifacts, fauna/floral remains, samples from radiocarbon dating and other pertinent facts about Samoan past. Analyzing these data, the project intends to reconstruct the prehistory of Samoa archaeologically.”
The report noted the need for substantial research in Samoa as it “plays an important role in the history of Polynesian migrations.”
They said that the area has been the “least studied from the prehistoric viewpoint.”
Kyoto University works hand in hand with Dr Geoffrey Clark from the Australian National University and staff of Kon-tiki Museum in Norway on the archaeology of Samoa.
The research study is also affiliated with the Institute of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa.
Results of the radiocarbon dating will be publicly announced and published in a bulletin by the National University of Samoa as soon as they return.