Description: Excavations at Tangatatau Rockshelter on Mangaia Island produced one of the richest stratigraphic sequences of artifacts, faunal assemblages, and archaeobotanical materials in Eastern Polynesia. More than 70 radiocarbon dates provide a tight chronology from AD 1000 to European contact in about 1800.
Brief description: Patrick Vinton Kirch is a Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and the Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology and Integrative Biology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Curator of Oceanic Archaeology in the P. A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley.
Review Quotes: "The monograph is exemplary as both a final archaeological site report from Polynesia and a multi-faceted contribution to Polynesian island settlement studies. On both counts, it should serve as a high benchmark for others to follow." --Ian Barber, Archaeology in Oceania, 2018