The Rima Rau Burial Cave, Atiu, Cook Islands

ABSTRACT

Despite the interment of the dead in burial caves being a common prehistoric mortuary practice on the makatea (fossilized limestone coral reef) islands of Polynesia, detailed and scientific recording of these burial caves is rare. Te Ana Rima Rau—“The Cave of the Five Hundred”—is a burial cave on the makatea island of Atiu, in the southern Cook Islands, Polynesia. The Rima Rau cave environment represents an ideal, confined area in which spatial analysis of human remains can potentially reveal specific prehistoric mortuary practices and behaviors. The aim of this report is to detail a novel approach to cave recording that combines traditional cave survey methods with bioarchaeological strategies. The main axis of Te Ana Rima Rau is approximately 28 meters long and from the complex network of three main chambers and several side passages, the cave floor has roughly an area of 190 m². More than 600 disarticulated and commingled skeletal elements were identified, and the skeletal remains interned within Rima Rau potentially represent the largest known number of prehistoric human burials from a single cave site on the island, or even the southern Cook Islands.

Keywords:

• bioarchaeology
• cave survey
• human remains
• makatea
• mortuary practices
• Polynesia