ANH uncovers signs of lost island giants
	Cave man: Prof Atholl Anderson excavates a cave site in Fiji
By Shelly Simonds ANU researchers have recently discovered the first sites yielding fossil animals in Fiji, including remains of a land-dwelling crocodile and a prehistoric bird, not unlike a giant chicken. The find was part of a project into the pre-history and colonisation of Oceania and the Central Pacific led by Professor Atholl Anderson, of the Department of Archaeology and Natural History in RSPAS. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the early pre-history of the islands through a series of case studies including archaeological excavations. Questions about cultural origins, patterns of colonisation, early communications and subsistence adaptations will be investigated. The project also involves taking samples from swamps and analysing their pollen content to understand more about the pre-history of crops, deforestation, the use of fire and humans' relationship to the development of agriculture. By linking evidence of human settlement, flora and fauna, the archaeologists hope to build a picture of change on the islands before and after human arrival. The New Zealand Royal Society and Australian Research Council-sponsored project, begun in 1996, involves the work of four researchers from RSPAS and the Faculty of Arts as well as archaeologists and other researchers from Sydney University, New Zealand and several Pacific islands. The first fossil remains of pre-historic animals in Fiji were found three months ago during excavation of a cave site and included the remains of the land crocodile (about 2 metres long or more), and giant bird or "megapode" (70 to 80 cm tall) as well as giant iguanas (at least 1.5 metres long) and large frogs. More fossil remains were found last month in a large limestone crevasse, in which animals fell and were trapped. The remains have yet to be carbon dated, but Prof Anderson suspects dating will reveal that the most recent finds were deposited during the last 5000 years. The first human settlement on Fiji was about 3000BC. According to Prof Anderson, one of the goals of the project is to close the gap between dates for the first human colonisation and the extinction of fauna and deforestation to better understand the impact of humans on the environment. He suspects many animals became extinct after the arrival of humans to Fiji, although he said some theories suggest they could have become extinct due to environmental changes associated with climatic change, such as the El Niño phenomenon - which probably became a major climatic event around 3,000­5,000BC. "My view is that most of these changes were due to the arrival of humans, and that they happened very rapidly and with much devastation," Prof Anderson said. Fiji is one case study in what will be an extensive project covering six Pacific island groups. Each group was selected because of the distinct way its geography influenced the development of human culture. While Fiji represents an archipelago of many large and small islands where intercommunication and trade was possible, another island being studied, Niue, is an example of a small isolated island where encounters with other cultures were rare. "Lack of intercommunication created a different kind of society on a small isolated island like Niue where you were stuck and couldn't easily get off," said Prof Anderson. Norfolk Island, where Prof Anderson in 1995 discovered a colonisation site, is an example of where human settlement was established (in about 700BC) but quickly failed. The project is also studying the limits of oceanic colonisation south of New Zealand. As a control case, the study is looking at the flora and fauna of Lord Howe Island, never inhabited by pre-historic people. Other islands in the study include Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The department of Archaeology and Natural History in RSPAS is comprised of Prof Anderson, Dr Geoffrey Hope, Prof Rhys Jones, Dr Susan O'Conner, Dr Mike MacPhail and Dr Wal Ambroise. Last year the department's natural history section and small dating facilities and were moved to the Research School of Earth Sciences.