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Artifacts recovered from the excavations
*****Although few artifacts were recovered, quite a number of important observations resulted from them. Specifically the basalt scrapers and cutting tools. These showed varying amounts of patination and calcareous deposits or encrustations. The encrustations appeared more numerous in the basalt specimens recovered from the deepest layers, especially those from near or below the water table. While those recovered from the upper 30cm, appeared almost free of them. Only further controlled excavation will reveal whether the encrustation's are the result of exposure to saturated conditions, deep burial, and or prolonged periods of interment. It will be of critical importance to discover whether or not it is possible to demonstrate a specific chronology in relation to the presence and or abundance of encrustations.
*****A partial list of the artifacts recovered, includes, fishhook fragments and blanks, adze fragments and blanks, hammerstones, cutting and piercing flake tools, choppers, scrapers, graters, branch coral files, sea urchin spine files, porites coral sanding blocks, coral rasps etc. I must be noted that the objectives of the excavations were not specifically directed towards the recovery of artifacts, per se, but rather more strongly oriented towards stratigraphy.

Important Discoveries
*****In this regard I think we have now verified to a certain extent the premise that, in the main, most of the cultural deposits, and even those of the earliest periods are likely to be found within 40 cm of the surface. This immediately suggests that many of the artifacts, from the earliest to the latest, have been already brought to the surface. Modern farming methods, such as deep ploughing and tilling will have thoroughly mixed many of the cultural deposits. Thus within the present collection of artifacts recovered from these farmed areas, one can expect to find the whole array of Tubuai's artifact history.
*****This is a very exciting possibility, for it suggests that some of the many artifacts already recovered may be from the earliest periods. Further to this, the nearly ideal environment for artifact preservation in Tubuai's extensive sandy coastal plain, is now yielding an abundance of specimens. After a number of years of extensive fossicking, the Tubuai collection of artifacts well surpasses that of most other islands.
*****A comparative study of the Tubuai artifacts, reveals that the Early Eastern Polynesian Culture as defined by Bellwood (1979, 317) is in all probability, the same culture which is responsible for the bulk of the early Tubuai artifacts. Current theories concerning the source and spread of this culture, are varied, and conflicting. This is largely due to a lack of information and the subject remains one of the greatest enigmas confronting modern Archeology. Imagine then the importance of these ancient clues, now coming to light in Tubuai.

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