Introduction : defining Oceania -- Discovering the Oceanic past -- The Pacific islands as a human environment -- Sahul and the prehistory of "old" Melanesia -- Lapita and the Austronesian expansion -- The prehistory of "new" Melanesia -- Micronesia : in the "sea of little islands"--Polynesia : origins and dispersals -- Polynesian chiefdoms and archaic states -- Big structures and large processes in Oceanic prehistory

A first study from an archaeological perspective of the elaborate systems of Polynesian chiefdoms presents an original account of the processes of cultural change and evolution over three millennia.

Aileen Fox, a pioneer of archaeology at Exeter University, was one of the first women to hold a senior post at a British university and was a committed supporter of local archaeology throughout a career that spanned six decades. This highly personal and engaging memoir records her life and work in great detail, from her birth in affluent Kensington in 1907, through a career alongside Mortimer Wheeler and other luminaries with prehistoric excavations in south Wales and southern England to her productive decade in New Zealand.

Examines and interprets the archaeological evidence at Maori hill forts (pas), discusses the defences, structures and planning within the pa and compares them with those of Celtic hill forts.