Robert Carl Suggs and the Transformation of Pacific Archaeology: A Retrospective View

Authors

Keywords:

Robert C. Suggs, Polynesian archaeology, history of archaeology, seriation, culture history, Polynesian origins

Abstract

The 1950s were a pivotal era in Polynesian archaeology, with the beginnings of stratigraphic excavations and application of radiocarbon dating. Robert Carl Suggs played a key role with his seminal work on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. Suggs’s use of artefact seriation, and his focus on architecture along with portable artefacts, were key methodological contributions. Unlike other contemporaries, Suggs brought a holistic anthropological perspective to his interpretations of culture change. Even though the chronology he proposed for Marquesan prehistory has been revised, his sequence of cultural periods remains relevant to current discussions of the Polynesian past.

Author Biography

Patrick V. Kirch, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa

Patrick Kirch is Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD from Yale University (1975) and has conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork throughout Melanesia and Polynesia over more than 50 years and published extensively on related topics. His honours include election to the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Robert C. Suggs cover

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Published

2021-11-01

Issue

Vol. 130 No. 3 (2021): September 2021

Section

Shorter Communications

License

Copyright © 2022 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be made to:

Dr Marcia Leenen-Young, Editor
The Polynesian Society
c/o School of Māori and Pacific Studies
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
New Zealand

email: m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz