Ancient cities in Pacific were much older than previously thought, study finds

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The first cities in the Pacific were established much earlier than previously thought, in keeping with a brand new study.

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) used aerial laser scanning to map archaeological websites on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga.

They discovered that urbanisation in the Pacific was an indigenous innovation that developed earlier than Western affect.

“Earth structures were being constructed in Tongatapu around AD 300. This is 700 years earlier than previously thought,” study co-author Phillip Parton mentioned in a press release.

“As settlements grew, they had to come up with new ways of supporting that growing population. This kind of set-up – what we call low-density urbanisation – sets in motion huge social and economic change. People are interacting more and doing different kinds of work,” he added.

Studying urbanisation has been difficult in the Pacific attributable to challenges in accumulating knowledge.

But by combining high-tech mapping and archaeological fieldwork, researchers are overcoming these hurdles.

Studies utilizing lidar mapping in Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia have unravelled patterns in the traditional constructed environments related to profound societal adjustments such because the rise of social establishments, agglomeration results, and settlement progress.

The newest discovering will increase our understanding of early Pacific societies.

“We can see clues that Tongatapu’s influence spread across the southwest Pacific Ocean between the 13th and 19th centuries,” Mr Parton mentioned.

“When people think of early cities they usually think of traditional old European cities with compact housing and windy cobblestone streets. This is a very different kind of city,” he added.

The collapse of this sort of low-density urbanisation in Tonga was because of the arrival of Europeans, researchers say.

“It didn’t collapse because the system was flawed; it was more to do with the arrival of Europeans and introduced diseases,” Mr Parton defined.

“This is just the beginning in terms of early Pacific settlements. There’s likely still much to be discovered,” he added.