Moturiki (Lomaiviti group, Fiji)

In 2007, María Cruz Berrocal and Sidsel Millerstrom started a field project on different islands in the Fijian archipelago. Our initial aim was to study the rock art (Cruz Berrocal and Millerstrom 2013). On one of the islands, Moturiki (Lomaiviti Group), we developed two field seasons, in 2008 and 2010, where we carried out systematic archaeological survey.

We found drastic changes in the settlement patterns through time. In the beginnings of the colonization of the island, people settled by the coast. A few centuries afterward, people started to move inland, deforesting the slopes towards the interior of the island.

Remains of human habitation and cultivation were widespread around most of the interior of Moturiki. People had intensively worked on Moturiki, building terraces, and also raising defended villages with ditches and possibly palisades. The island was heavily populated during most of prehistory. However, by 1800 AD, the interior of the island appears to have been mostly abandoned, and people have returned to the coast (Cruz Berrocal et al 2015).

This seems to be consistent with an important demographic decline. The causes and the process need to be determined.

Caption: Panoramic view of Moturiki (NAO project)
Published in Cruz Berrocal et al 2015
Caption: Published in Cruz Berrocal et al 2015

Gallery

A view of Moturiki: different altitudes, different landscapes. The vegetation occupies well defined niches at different heights of this high island (MCB for NAO)
Caption: A view of Moturiki: different altitudes, different landscapes. The vegetation occupies well defined niches at different heights of this high island (MCB for NAO)
The forest covers the archaeological record. In this example, a housemound has been partially destroyed by a banyan tree (MCB for NAO)
Caption: The forest covers the archaeological record. In this example, a housemound has been partially destroyed by a banyan tree (MCB for NAO)
The forest covers the archaeological record. In this example, a housemound has been partially destroyed by a banyan tree (MCB for NAO)
Caption: The forest covers the archaeological record. In this example, a housemound has been partially destroyed by a banyan tree (MCB for NAO)
Antonio Uriarte records location while in survey in 2010 (MCB for NAO)
Caption: Antonio Uriarte records location while in survey in 2010 (MCB for NAO)
Repeated burning of the vegetation leads to the overgrowth of creeping vegetation. The forest cannot recolonize these areas. Moturiki, September 2010 (NAO project)
Caption: Repeated burning of the vegetation leads to the overgrowth of creeping vegetation. The forest cannot recolonize these areas. Moturiki, September 2010 (NAO project)
On Moturiki, depopulation led to the return to slash-and-burn agriculture using rotating plots in the forest (MCB for NAO)
Caption: On Moturiki, depopulation led to the return to slash-and-burn agriculture using rotating plots in the forest (MCB for NAO)

Publications

Cruz Berrocal, M., Uriarte, A., Millerstrom, S., Consuegra, S., Pérez, J., Ormeño, S. 2015 Archaeological history of a Fijian island: Moturiki, Lomaiviti Group. Asian Perspectives 53 (2), Fall 2014: 162-194

Cruz Berrocal, M., Millerstrom, S. 2013 The archaeology of rock art in Fiji: evidence, methods and hypotheses. Archaeology in Oceania 48: 154-165

Millerstrom, S.; Cruz Berrocal, M. 2010 Fiji revisited. Rock art survey project 2009; a field report. Rapa Nui Journal 24 (1): 27-35

Millerstrom, S.; Cruz Berrocal, M. 2009 Fijian rock art sites revisited. Rapa Nui Journal 23 (1): 40-47

Outreach

Cruz Berrocal, M.; Uriarte, A.; Millerstrom, S.; Consuegra, S.; Pérez, J.; Ormeño, S.; Conkey, M. 2011 Archaeology in Moturiki, Lomaiviti Group, Fiji Islands. International Symposium on Oceanic Environment and Culture of the Matsu Archipelago, Taiwan. Cultural Affairs Office, Matsu: 255-263

Cruz Berrocal, M. A different kind of art: Fijian rock art in modern times. Pacific Arts Association Europe Annual Conference, Recent Research in Pacific Arts. Museo de América (Madrid). July 2-4 2015

Cruz Berrocal, M., Uriarte, A., Millerstrom, S., A comparative approach to the study of fish traps in the Pacific: field work results from Nananu-i-Ra, Fiji Islands. 9th International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific (EIPC 2015). Cultural and environmental dynamics. June 21-26 2015. Ethnological Museum Dahlem, Berlin

Cruz Berrocal, M., Long-term settlement patterns in Moturiki, Lomaiviti Group, Central Fiji Islands. International Symposium on Language, History, and Society: Global perspectives on the Asia-Pacific Region, NTNU, Taipei, Taiwan. May 26 2014

Cruz Berrocal, M., Uriarte, A., Vicent, J., Possibilities and constraints of archaeological survey in a tropical environment. A case study from Moturiki Island (Fiji). International Mediterranean Survey Workshop (Madrid, 29-30 de abril de 2011). April 30 2011. Instituto de Arqueología de Mérida (CSIC)

Cruz Berrocal, M., Lecture “Hacer arqueología en el Pacífico: metodología, hipótesis, y resultados en Moturiki, grupo Lomaiviti, Fiji”. Seminario de Estudios sobre Filipinas y el Pacífico ‘Leoncio Cabrera Fernández’. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. December 16 2014

Cruz Berrocal, M., Guest lectures “Early colonialism in Asia-Pacific. An archaeological example from Hoping Dao, Taiwan” y “Archaeology in Moturiki, Lomaiviti Group, Fiji Islands”, Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan. October 24 2013

Cruz Berrocal, M., International Symposium on Oceanic Environment and Culture of the Matsu Archipelago, Taiwan. Invited lecture, “Archaeological investigation of Moturiki, Lomaiviti Group, Fiji Islands”. Cultural Affairs Office, Matsu. October 2011.

Cruz Berrocal, M., 2008 Brown Bag Lecture “Archaeological fieldwork in the Fiji Islands, 2007-2009 seasons”. Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley, California, USA. November 5 2008

Since 2012, projects in Fiji selected for the permanent exhibition of the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid (2014 – ).

Reports

María Cruz Berrocal 2011 Prospección Arqueológica y Documentación de Arte Rupestre en el Pacífico: informe de la campaña 2010, Islas Fiji. Ministerio de Cultura

María Cruz Berrocal 2011 Archaeological Survey and Rock Art Recording. Fieldwork Season 2010, Fiji Islands. Archaeological Department, Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji

Sidsel Millerstrom, María Cruz Berrocal 2009 Fiji Islands revisited: Rock Art Survey Project 2009, A Field Report. Archaeological Department, Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji

María Cruz Berrocal, Sidsel Millerstrom 2008 Fieldseason report: archaeological activities in the Lomaiviti Group, September 2008. Archaeological Department, Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji

María Cruz Berrocal, Sidsel Millerstrom 2007 PACIFIC RIM

María Cruz Berrocal, Sidsel Millerstrom 2007 Fiji Rock Images: A Survey Report. Archaeological Department, Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji

Funding

2008 “Survey of prehistoric rock art on Fiji Islands”, Pacific Rim Program, University of California, 08 T PRRP 01 0012 (with Dr. Margaret Conkey). 1/8/2008 to 30/06/2009

2010 “Documentación de Arte Rupestre en el Pacífico”, SGIPCE/AMC/cmm (Arqueología exterior), Ministerio de Cultura de España

Team

Dr. María Cruz Berrocal

Dr. Sidsel Millerstrom (University of California, Berkeley)

Antonio Uriarte González (CCHS, CSIC)

Juan Gaspar Leal Valladares

MCB kindly thanks Sitiveni Namua his full support in 2007

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