Introduction
Timothy Rieth is a Senior Archaeologist and Manager at International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. (IARII) and International Archaeology, LLC (IA). He has served as an IARII Project Manager since 2010 and Manager of International Archaeology, LLC since 2014.
Research
Timothy Rieth focuses island colonization, chronological modeling, population interaction, and human-environment interactions. His research emphasizes the creation and use of Bayesian calibration models for estimating the date of archaeological events. Theoretically, Mr. Rieth’s research is based on Darwinian evolutionary theory and evolutionary ecology. Since 1997, he has conducted archaeological inventory- and reconnaissance-level surveys, subsurface testing, mapping, data recovery, and monitoring in Hawai‘i, Guam, Tinian, Palau, American Samoa, Fiji, Rapa Nui, South Korea, and Japan.
Timothy has been conducting investigations in the Pacific region since 1997. He has field, laboratory, and research experience in Hawai‘i, Guam, Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, Palau, American Samoa, Fiji, and other Pacific islands. His areas of expertise concern establishing accurate and precise island colonization estimates and post-colonization settlement histories, cultural transmission, and foraging behavior. He has been at the forefront of critically evaluating radiocarbon dating procedures and chronology development in the Pacific. His research has led to the refinement of chronologies for Hawai‘i and Samoa, and methodologically has put forward modeling approaches for integrating archaeological and paleoenvironmental data sets, comparing settlement chronologies between island groups, and calculating the number of radiocarbon determinations required for statistically valid dating results.
Tim is also interested in cultural transmission as evidenced by artifact styles and transfer. In collaboration with other researchers, he has examined variability in pottery attributes within Samoa and the distribution of Samoan basalt and volcanic glass tools/material within and beyond the archipelago.
In addition to chronological and cultural transmission research, Tim conducts zooarchaeological research using evolutionary theory, particularly foraging theory and prey choice models. Such studies in Hawai‘i, Samoa, and Fiji have examined the effects of human predation on marine taxa over centuries to millennia.
Read more about Mr. Rieth’s research
- Chronological Modelling of East Polynesian Settlement
- Archaeology of the Hawaiian Islands
- Human Palaeoecology in the Pacific Islands
Selected publications
- Coming Soon