Burial Monument, Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia)

3D Model

The archaeological site of Nan Madol in the Federated States of Micronesia was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 2016. This 3D scan of Nandauwas Islet shows the tomb of the first chiefs to rule the island of Pohnpei. It was made with a FARO Focus 3D scanner and in this low res version (17MB) much of the islet’s vegetation has been removed to show the tomb’s architecture.

For more about this research see:

McCoy, M.D., Alderson, H.A., Hemi, R., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L. (in press). Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural stone. Quaternary Research.

This research was funding through a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Mark D. McCoy, Associate Professor Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University mdmccoy@smu.edu