Where: French Polynesia (16.7° S, 151.0° W: paleocoordinates 16.7° S, 151.0° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• The site lies below the modern water table at the edge of a northwest-facing coastal lagoon near the village of Fare. The stratigraphy is fairly uniform across the site. Layer I (thickness 10-20 cm) consists of humus, grass roots, and sand. Layer II (thickness 6-17 cm) is a yellowish-gray sand. All artifacts and bones are concentrated in Layer III, a brownish-gray silty sand 10-15 cm thick (Sinoto and McCoy, 1975: Table 1, Figures 3-5; Sinoto, 1979: Figures 3 and 4; Sinoto, 1983; Pigeot, 1986: Figures 3, 29-31). [This culturally and faunally rich stratum has been called Layer V at Vaito' otia and Layer III (or C) at Fa' ahia.] Layer III is darker, more organic, and siltier than the other layers. It intercepts the modern water table and is underlain by white, clean, culturally sterile beach sand (Layer IV). That the cultural layer is underwater today is due to regional tectonic subsidence. The radiocarbon (14C) chronology of Fa'ahia has not been summarized in detail. An unstated number of 14C dates on wood, charcoal, and whalebone collagen range from 1145 +/- 90 to 770 +/- 90 yr B.P. (Sinoto, 1983). Sinoto (1988: 114,127) stated that the site was occupied from A.D. 650-700 to A.D. 1150. It is likely that most bird bones from Fa' ahia predate A.D. 1000 because interisland comparisons of diagnostic lithic and shell artifacts suggest that most cultural activity at the site probably occurred in the earlier part of the occupational time interval. It also may be that the initial occupation of the Fa'ahia site slightly predates the earliest 14C date currently available.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal; unlithified, silty sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: D. W. Steadman. 1989. A new species of starling (Sturnidae, Aplonis) from an archaeological site on Huahine, Society Islands. Notornis 36:161-169 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 194675: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 25.06.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)