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Nan Madol reportedly was the ceremonial and
political seat of the Sau Deleur dynasty which united Pohnpei's estimated
25,000 people in late prehistoric times. Oral history as well as
archaeological evidence substantiate Nan Madol's position as the island's
preeminent political and religious center up until the A.D. 1500s when
the centralized system collapsed. Today Nan Madol forms an archaeological
district covering more than 18 sq. km and includes the stone architecture
built up on a coral reef flat along the shore of Temwen Island (Nan Madol
Central), several other artificial islets, and the adjacent Pohnpei main
island coastline. The site core with its stone walls encloses an
area approximately 1.5 km long by 0.5 km wide and it contains nearly 100
artificial islets--stone and coral fill platforms--bordered by tidal canals.
I estimate that between 500,000 and 750,000 metric tons of building material
were transported from varying distances into the site.
My research provides basic information on
Nan Madol and more than 200 other Pohnpeian sites useful for placing it
in an island-wide context. Individual platforms and large artificial
islets mapped in my projects illustrate complex distributions of surface
architecture, artifacts, and food refuse. Excavations designed to
reveal architectural building stages and style changes verify more than
2000 years of occupation and possibly a 1000 year span of major construction
activity from A.D. 500 to 1500.
In 1986 three field seasons were planned to
establish the overall Nan Madol developmental sequence and to clarify its
relationships to other Pohnpei sites. The project has been supported
by the National Endowment for the Humanities, private matching funds, and
substantial donated field time by myself and other participants.
The Historic Preservation Offices of Pohnpei State and the Federated States
of Micronesia have been centrally involved in these projects.
Portable artifacts recovered at Nan Madol
number several thousand and include shell tools and ornaments, pottery,
and stone tools. Food remains that provide a basis for dietary and
activity pattern reconstructions have been collected from a variety of
contexts. Nan Madol ceramic collections show considerable variability
suggestive of major stylistic changes and non-local production sources
typical of chiefly exchange. The results of islet mapping and
testing provide chronological control over intra-site stylistic and functional
variation in ceramics and shell artifacts. Representative samples
of the site's major architectural clusters and of other sites which represent
different functional and temporal variations are available. Patterning
studies indicate a correlation between high status remains (artifacts,
food remains, and architecture) and certain islets. Computer-generated
artifact point plots have been useful and isometric projections of several
islets and architectural features provide detailed reconstructions.
Underwater archaeological survey and provenance studies of building materials
are also being completed. A good overview of all Nan Madol islet
types and locations, a significant sample of subsurface deposits, detailed
maps and reconstructions of more than 20 islets, and good controls over
the architectural buildup at the site are available.
Questions remain about Nan Madol's purpose
and context within the broader Pohnpeian sociopolitical system, and thus
a comprehensive assessment and integration of available information is
essential. I am now working on new data related to prehistoric artifact
and building sequences, analyzing architectural features with their associated
artifact surface distributions, and relating the development of this unique
site complex to long-term cultural change and structural evolution on Pohnpei
and on Pacific islands in general.
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