High-resolution lidar analysis of the Fisi Tea defensive earthwork at Lapaha, Kingdom of Tonga
Year: 2022
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In many prehistoric societies, earthwork defences were among the costliest and largest built structures and required a significant investment in resources, particularly labour, land and materials. Consequently, the construction of major defences was not undertaken lightly and they were frequently built in response to an imminent threat of intense violence (Keeley 1996). Earthwork defences often enclosed residential communities and elite centres, whereas others were larger and included hinterlands and appear to have defended a regional area (Connah 2000; Fox 1976; Scherer and Golden 2006; Webster et al. 2007). In both cases, defences protected the areas most important to the community and represent emic statements of group territory (Webster et al. 2008:349). Long defensive systems and ‘great walls’ that protect settlements and their hinterlands have been something of a puzzle to archaeologists (Arkush and Stanish 2005:10). While the perceived logistical challenge of occupying long defensive systems may be the primary source of confusion, traditional archaeological and survey methodologies often limit the amount of spatial data that can be gathered. Long defensive systems require considerable resources to map and to record in detail the various defensive elaborations, in addition to the regional geography of the areas on both side of the defences.
Source: ANU Press eBooks
Institution: Australian National University
Language: English
Subfield: Space and Planetary Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4220879108