Archaeological Research Facility

This monograph represents the first attempt in Polynesian archaeology to systematically examine rock art in the Marquesas Islands in relation to settlement patterns and excavation data. Sidsel N. Millerstrom’s groundbreaking archaeological research is based on more than 15 years of field work in the islands. Surveying the dramatic landscapes of the deep valleys and thick forests of the Marquesas, Millerstrom and her team found a significant quantity of rock art. They learned that every image was not randomly placed but rather purposefully positioned according to prehistoric Marquesan cultural norms. The images were found on public and private prehistoric architecture, on outcrops, rock shelters, walls of underground pits, narrow ridges and springs. Based on our present understanding of science, Millerstrom also explains what the prehistoric petroglyphs, pictographs and anthropomorphic sculptures probably signified to the past inhabitants.