Polynesia
p. 75 · Read in the full issue
Tonga discoveries are oldest in Polynesia
Radiocarbon tests of material excavated recently from an archaeological site at Tufu mahina, on the Tongan island of Tongatapu, have been dated to the sth century BC. This is the earliest date of human occupation yet determined in Polynesia.
The previous oldest —120 BC —was established by Dr. Robert C. Suggs from material obtained at Ha’atuatua on Nukuhiva in the Marquesas Islands (PIM, Sept., 1963, p. 89).
The material from Tonga was excavated in 1963-64 by Mr.
Jens Poulsen, a Danish archae logist, who was working under the auspices of the Australian National University in Canberra.
Tonga’s “Chronicle” reported recently that artifacts obtained by Mr. Poulsen from Nukuleka and a site near the Nukualofa lagoon, north of ’Atele College, had both been dated to about the 14th century. Artifacts from the Pea Middle School area had yielded dates from the 15th to 16th centuries.