HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL CHANGE ON AITUTAKI, COOK ISLANDS - LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND HUMAN RESPONSE

Holocene sea-level changes profoundly affected the Pacific's human pop ulations in the prehistoric past. Geoarchaeological studies on Aitutak i, southern Cook Islands, suggest sea-level fall coincident with the p eriod of human occupation. The coastal beach barrier which formed alon g Aitutaki's central western coast after sea-level fall became the foc us of human habitation over the last millennium. Faunal and floral ass emblages from the earliest in-situ cultural occupation on the island d emonstrate significant anthropogenic influences on the environment at 1000 BP, suggesting human colonisation occurred at an earlier, but as yet undetermined, date. Failure to unearth direct evidence of colonisi ng settlements may in part be the consequence of a more exposed coastl ine prior to the Holocene sea-level fall.