Kosrae Pottery, Clay, and Early Settlement

Athens, J. Stephen (1990). "Kosrae Pottery, Clay, and Early Settlement". Micronesica. Mangilao, GU: University of Guam (Suppl. 2): 171–186. ISSN 2374-801X.

• Has attachment: File:VBA53KTH.pdf

Abstract: Athens reports the first confirmed discovery of prehistoric pottery on Kosrae, using it to address early settlement and cultural development on the island; describes deeply buried and submerged deposits at Lelu dated between 108 B.C. and A.D. 244, with pottery manufacture ceasing by roughly the fifth or sixth century; notes that the assemblage is small, spatially restricted, and relatively short-lived, suggesting a brief initial occupation rather than long-term island-wide ceramic tradition; compares the ceramics to Late Lapita Plainware and to assemblages on Pohnpei and Truk, supporting a common ancestral background; argues that Kosrae’s limited clay resources, young basaltic geology, and lack of suitable depositional environments help explain the disappearance of pottery; rejects purely functional explanations and proposes that pottery may initially have served as a cultural marker within Lapita-derived populations before losing social significance in a more isolated island context; and concludes that Kosrae’s ceramic record reflects both environmental constraint and shifting social meaning within broader Micronesian settlement history.