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Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS The Archaeology of Pouerua. Douglas Sutton, Louise Furey, and Yvonne Marshall. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003. 262 pp., figures, tables, index, NZ$49.99. ISBN 1869402928. Reviewed by IAN BARBER, University of Otago During the 1980s, the volcanic landscape tive trench and large area excavations. incorporating the modified cone known as Given the ambitious nature of this project, Pouerua in the inland Bay of Islands, New it is no surprise to learn that "the complex­ Zealand, was the subject of a large-scale ar­ ity of the excavations and the large number chaeological investigation. The results of of stratigraphic layers identified ... made this work have been reported and inter­ analysis and interpretation difficult" and preted in university theses, several pub­ that a form of the Harris matrix was lished papers, and three volumes. The first employed to sequence stratigraphic con­ two volumes as edited by project director texts (p. 29). Sutton present a series of reports on the ar­ The greater part of the book is taken up chaeology of undefended settlements and with the documentation and interpretation smaller pa (defended earthwork sites) of the of excavation results, including summary Pouerua area. The last volume of the proj­ tables of events and layers, clear line ect is under the multiple authorship ofSut­ drawings, some well-resolved photographs ton and two colleagues. It is a full report (chapters 5-11), an integrated cone se­ on the archaeology of the large, extensively quence (chapter 12), and radiocarbon results terraced and defended Pouerua cone itself (chapter 13). The focus of these chapters is and has been long awaited in New Zealand on identified "events" that are separated archaeology. out for description, labeled, and related by This publication is without question one stratigraphy (where possible) for and be­ of the most important archaeological re­ tween several discrete excavation areas. The search statements on New Zealand pa. investigation units include the elevated, Chapter 1 begins with a critique of pa constructed parts of the rim (tihi), defensive scholarship that sets out the fundamental ditches and scarps, and separated terraces assumptions of the volume. The authors and terrace clusters from the upper to the imply that earlier views ofpa as period arti­ lower parts of the cone. This has resulted facts or settlement types are inappropriate in a detailed excavation report focused on for the investigation of a complex sociopo­ excavated soils, layers, features, and objects. litical site such as Pouerua. Chapters 1 The detail is a little overwhelming in through 3 propose that the only way to ad­ places, where the reader may need to refer vance our understanding of a place like back to the helpful summary overview of Pouerua is to identify in fine stratigraphic chapter 4 (intended to "help make the detail examples of the many events of the complex excavation data more accessible," site's history. This is achieved through ex­ p. 30). Even so, the writing is generally tensive survey and a combination of selec- clear and straightforward and the report co- Asian Pcrspca;llcs, VoL 46, No. I © 2007 by the University of Haw;lj'j Press. 234 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 46(1) . SPRING 2007 herent. By the time one reaches the discus­ edging the current consensus of a shorter sion of the form of the cone and its chang­ Maori archaeological sequence c. 800 years ing use over time in chapters 14 and 15, old). the major identified events and features at The only real quibble I have concerns least are familiar, and their interpretation is the commendable expectation raised in generally satisfactory. chapter 1 that Pouerua is to be considered The careful description and sequence of in the context of "archaeological, ecolog­ construction events supports a compelling ical, economic and socio-political contexts" and somewhat surprising conclusion about (pp. 9-10). In this regard, it is acknowl­ Pouerua's complex history. The cone is edged that Pouerua cone is at the center of interpreted as a place of defended and a "vast horticultural landscape," where "it undefended uses that changed over time, would never be possible to understand the where the most considerable settlement nature of settlement ... without also un­ activities occurred before and after the derstanding the nature of horticulture on time of its strongest and most conspicuous the surrounding lava field" (p. 10). Indeed, fortification. In short, when the greatest some of the adjacent stone field walls and number of people were living on or using rows begin on the cone's lower slopes (p. Pouerua most intensively, the cone itself 18). The discussion of this larger horticul­ was only lightly defended at best. This is tural landscape is brief, however (primarily an important contribution to our under­ on pp. 18 and 19 respectively, with refer­ standing ofpa as sociopolitical monuments. ence to short published descriptions only), "People were not cowering in defended while the suggestions of terrace gardening settlements up on the Pouerua cone," the on the cone (pp. 158, 164) are not ex­ authors contend: They were instead "ad­ plored further or related to the greater vertising their presence, wealth and situa­ area and sequence. It is unclear also why tion ... in a highly visible, even command­ the intriguing "possibility" of early terrace ing, manner" (p. 233). In conclusion, the gardening (p. 181) is raised when evidence authors interpret Pouerua and by compari­ of garden soils is conspicuously absent from son other pa as places that combined "cere­ these excavated features (pp. 172, 181). It is monial, symbolic and defensive purposes" to be hoped that the important archaeologi­ (p. 237). cal evidence of crop production at Pouerua The difficult task of presenting and cor­ can be presented more fully at some stage. relating the complex excavation results is The volume, in short, is an admirable handled well overall. As one might expect example of a thoroughly presented excava­ with shared rather than multiple edited au­ tion report for a complex earthworks site. thorship, the Pouerua volume presents a It offers a stimulating interpretation that more coherent interpretation than the ear­ joins a number of calls in New Zealand ar­ lier monographs of the project. There is chaeology to reconsider pa as places with some repetition of detail through the data complex histories and uses, where defen­ and interpretation chapters, but in general sive purposes are part of the picture only. the complexities of the stratigraphic rela­ Some readers of this journal may be less tionships justify ongoing reminders and ref­ convinced by the discussion that considers erence points. Radiocarbon data are pre­ pa and other monumental Pacific earth­ sented fully and calibrated and interpreted work sites in relation to stone religious carefully. Suggestions for the very early architecture in Polynesia (pp. 234-237). construction and sustained use of a pit from In my view, the record of multiple con­ the smaller Haratua's Pa of the Pouerua structed open spaces and bounded areas of area in the 1993 monograph are referenced variable form and size over the huge obliquely and not advocated otherwise in Pouerua cone justifies the comparison and this volume, while a reported radiocarbon helps to relate the too-often marginalized error from the 1993 publication is also cor­ archaeology of New Zealand to its larger rected (pp. 198, 22; see also p. 1 acknowl- Pacific context. BOOK REVIEWS 235 Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia: Unraveling the Nusantao. Wilhelm G. Sol­ heim II, with contributions from David Bulbeck and Ambika Flavel. Foreword by Victor Paz. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2006. 316 pp. + xvi, illustrations, maps. ISBN 9715425089. Reviewed by JOHN A. PETERSON, Carcia and Associates, Kailua, Hawai'i Bill Solheim founded this journal, Asian sense, this volume presents the history of Perspectives, which first appeared in 1957. an idea as well as the fieldwork and analyses For over 50 years he has been a leader and that Solheim has done over the past half contributor to Southeast Asian archaeolog­ century. Unraveling the Nusantao is at the ical studies. He has been prolific, and his same time a recounting of the data, a histo­ work has been foundational for studies in riography of the concept, a personal intel­ the region. He has recently revised and lectual biography, and also a vision of a vi­ republished his Archaeology of the Central brant maritime culture that has inhabited Philippines: A Study Chiif/y of the Iron Age the region since the Late Paleolithic. It is a and Its Relationships (Solheim 2002) as well compelling argument for his model of dis­ as updated earlier reports in "Archaeolog­ persive and expansive settlement in South­ ical Survey in Papua, Halmahera, and Ter­ east Asia. nate, Indonesia" (chapter 6 in this volume The concept has evolved considerably under review). He also recently revisited from its earliest presentations as a Neolithic ceramic collections in the Sarawak Mu­ era "Nusantao" culture, and this volume seum from the Gua Sirah project, which he reflects not only the emergence of data but is currently preparing for publication. In also an emerging and quite sophisticated other words, Solheim has been vigorous model of migration. The theme is central and productive since his "retirement" from to theory and interpretations of migration teaching in 1991 from the Department of throughout the region and is currently Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i. controversial in its opposition to models He is currently on the faculty of the Ar­ that focus on Taiwan as the fulcrum of chaeological Studies Program at the Uni­ Austronesian Neolithic period diffusion. versity of the Philippines in Diliman. The Solheim examines this alternate model and festschrift Southeast Asian Archaeology was compares it unfavorably to the data, as well published in 2005 in his honor by his col­ as to his own theory.
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