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The temporal occurrence and possible uses of obsidian mata'a on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile)
Author(s) -
STEVENSON CHRISTOPHER M.,
WILLIAMS CAITLIN
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
archaeology in oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1834-4453
pISSN - 0728-4896
DOI - 10.1002/arco.5145
Subject(s) - archaeology , stone tool , period (music) , spear , flake , assemblage (archaeology) , blade (archaeology) , deforestation (computer science) , chronology , geography , history , geology , art , biology , computer science , programming language , aesthetics , fishery
ABSTRACT One of the more visible tools in the Rapa Nui archaeological record is a large flake modified to form a broad blade and tang. Referred to as mata'a , these implements have conventionally been interpreted as “spear points”, or weapons of war, which are proposed to have been made in large numbers during a period of internal conflict in the late seventeenth century. Obsidian hydration dating of 63 mata'a fragments from the southern coast of Rapa Nui indicates that their usage peaked in the sixteenth century, declined in frequency afterwards, and briefly spiked in the early AD 1700s. This non‐convergence with the period of warfare recorded in the oral history, and the decline in frequency of the tool within the lithic assemblage, argues for an alternative interpretation. The results of previous experimental archaeology focusing on tool breakage patterns and micro‐wear studies, coupled to island deforestation, suggests that the tool had a role to play in forest clearance.