Hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological features emerged from a 2017 survey in Palauli, Savai‘i, offering evidence of inland settlement and suggesting a larger population before European contact than researchers had previously proposed. The National University of Samoa’s Centre for Samoan Studies describes the discoveries in its Samoan Heritage Project account. Staff, students, volunteers and villagers surveyed five sections, each measuring 300 metres by 300 metres, in inland areas of Faaala, Vaitoomuli and Vailoa. The work took place over three intensive field school weeks between April and June. Researchers combined field investigation with LiDAR maps supplied through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and aerial drone footage provided by SkyEye Pacific. The university says the resulting discoveries supported evidence of extensive inland villages. Its account does not provide a numerical estimate of the earlier population. The survey belonged to a wider effort to document archaeological and built heritage places alongside their histories and oral traditions. An earlier field season, completed in June 2016, recorded 30 sites across Upolu. The project treated remembered history as part of the archaeological record. Its description identifies genealogies, village histories, proverbs, songs and other traditions as sources that can connect places with accounts of the past. The Palauli discoveries also prompted work on heritage tourism. The university records that, during 2018–2019, it worked with government partners and villages to help develop a Palauli Heritage Trails Trust connected to the findings. These are documented stages of an earlier project, rather than confirmation of present visitor arrangements. Their lasting significance lies in what the surveys revealed: an inland landscape containing substantial evidence of Samoan life that had yet to enter the archaeological record.
