Dr. Geoffrey Clark, a Research Fellow from the Department of Archaeology at Australia National University, together with his colleague, Dr. Christian Reepmeyer, is in the country for another research project on the Rock Islands. They visited the Museum last week to meet with Museum Board members Scott Yano and Roberta Louch and Director Olympia Morei and to see the ceramic vessel once again.
Dr. Clark said he excavated the ceramic vessel in 2003 from Ulong Island.They brought it to Australia National University for radiocarbon dating.
“It took us a long time to get the radiocarbon date,” said Dr. Clark. They restored it back and when it was time, it was sent back Palau thru the Museum.
Dr. Clark added that stuff like the ceramic vessel are very hard to find these days in Palau because with mangroves and sedimentation, they are already too far down. “It’s very hard to find them because they are way, way down. But on Ulong, they could’ve been there longer, but we don’t know that.
We have just been lucky to have found it.”
According to the Museum record, the residue sample from the base of the vessel revealed the conventional age of 2260 BP. “This supports the well-known knowledge of settlements in the Rock Islands specifically 2200 to 3000 years ago on Ulong Island.”
The 3000-year old pot was repatriated to Palau last year.It was included in the Museum’s exhibit on Micronesia Archaeology.
Together with the ceramic pot, Dr. Clark also repatriated 18 stone adzes which he collected from Oikull, Angaur and Ulong Island.
Morei is hopeful that more and more archaeologists and researchers would repatriate Palauan artifacts in the future.
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