ABSTRACT
In the islands of Pacific Oceania, people definitely increased their use of land-based resource zones in inland and upland settings by 500 B.C., resulting in broad-spectrum resource-use patterns that no longer relied too heavily on the shoreline habitats. During prior centuries of lowering sea level, nearshore resource depression had diminished the capacity of shoreline-oriented settlements, thus leading to a shift to relying more on foods gathered or produced in the more stable inland or upland areas that were unaffected by changing sea level and coastal ecology. During the period of 500 B.C.–A.D. 100, the emergence of broad-spectrum patterns can be examined through the spatial distributions of habitation sites, compositions of food middens, and other evidence linked with notions of resilience, sustainability, and long-term cultural continuity versus transformation.
