[graffis-l] LONGEST SEA VOYAGE IN PRE-HISTORY

[Guest guest]

Unraveling the Mystery: The Hawaii and

Tuamotus Connection

 

 

Posted by: " Mark Graffis "

mgraffis

mgraffis

 

 

Fri Oct 5, 2007 5:31 am (PST)

http://www.bishopmuseum.org/media/2007/pr07093.html

Unraveling the Mystery: The Hawaii and Tuamotus Connection

University of Queensland Archeologist and Bishop Museum Associate,

and Australian Earth Scientist Use Chemistry to Track Ancient Migration

and Trade Routes

As a young scholar of Polynesian anthropology, Bishop Museum

ethnologist Kenneth Emory conducted ground-breaking fieldwork in the

Tuamotus in the early 1930s. Little did he know that several stone adzes

(hafted woodworking tool) he obtained then, would solve one of the

long-standing problems in ancient Polynesian migration and trade.

Left: From the Collection of Bishop Museum. A typical late

prehistoric style, fine-grained basalt (hawaiite) adze collected from the

low coral island of Napuka, northwest Tuamotus in central Polynesia.

Isotope and trace element data indicate that the source rock for this

adze was obtained from Kaho'olawe, 4000 km distant.

(Photo courtesy Betty Lou Kam, Bishop Museum).

Although Hawaiian oral histories mention voyaging from Hawai'i to

Tahiti and back via the Tuamotus, a total open ocean journey of more than

8,000 kilometers, until now, no objects originating from Hawai'i had ever

been identified in central Polynesia.

This mystery has now been solved in a paper titled " Stone Adze

Compositions and the Extent of Ancient Polynesian Voyaging and

Trade " that was published in today's issue of the prestigious

journal Science.

Read commentaries on this discovery here and here.

Volcanic rocks do not naturally occur on the low coral atolls of the

Tuamotus. The lead isotope composition and trace element chemistry of one

adze shows that it was manufactured from a volcanic rock that came from

Hawai'i, rather than from a volcanic island in central Polynesia.

Former employee and long-time research associate of the Bishop Museum

, archaeologist Dr Marshall Weisler (now Head of the Archaeology Program,

School of Social Science , University of Queensland , Australia )

enlisted the technical expertise of geochemist, Professor Ken Collerson

(Earth Sciences, UQ) to determine the source of the adze. Surprisingly,

the adze was made from rock from Kaho ' olawe, approximately 4000 km

distant from where it was collected in the northwest Tuamotus.

Some 25 years ago Weisler began experimenting with different

geochemical methods used to " fingerprint " the unique properties

of Polynesian stone tools. These fingerprints are used to assign

artifacts to geological sources or quarries and ancient migration and

trade routes could then be reconstructed.

The Kaho ' olawe adze has a similar chemistry to rocks found along

the westernmost point of the island at Lae o Kealaikahiki (literally,

" cape or headland of the way to Tahiti " ). Before beginning

voyages south from Hawai'i, the ancient voyagers in their sea going

canoes most likely stopped near Lae o Kealaikahiki. Here they apparently

collected rocks, like that from which the adze was subsequently made, to

take on their voyage, either as ballast or as gifts.

Using knowledge of the chemistry and the unique isotopic compositions

of mantle sources of volcanic rocks in Polynesia, Collerson and Weisler

have identified the sources of every one of the 19 adzes in their study.

 

The varied chemistry of the adzes showed that they were obtained from

throughout East Polynesia, including the Marquesas, Austral and Society

Islands, and the Pitcairn Group and reaffirms the Tuamotus as the

" cross-roads of Polynesia. "

This innovative multi-disciplinary research by The University of

Queensland researchers has provided the first physical confirmation of

the remarkable voyages from Hawai'i to central Polynesia that are

documented in the oral histories.

By confirming the extent of ancient interisland trade within East

Polynesia they have also resolved a fundamental and long-standing

archaeological problem concerning migration and cultural exchange within

East Polynesia , the last region on Earth settled by humans during

prehistory. This uninterrupted travel between Hawai'i and the Tuamotus

represents the longest documented voyage in world prehistory. nAt 02:40 AM 10/6/07, you wrote:

Unraveling the Mystery: The Hawaii

and Tuamotus Connection

Posted by: " Mark Graffis " mgraffis

mgraffis

Fri Oct 5, 2007 5:31 am (PST)

http://www.bishopmuseum.org/media/2007/pr07093.html

Unraveling the Mystery: The Hawaii and Tuamotus Connection

University of Queensland Archeologist and Bishop Museum Associate, and

Australian Earth Scientist Use Chemistry to Track Ancient Migration and

Trade Routes

As a young scholar of Polynesian anthropology, Bishop Museum ethnologist

Kenneth Emory conducted ground-breaking fieldwork in the Tuamotus in the

early 1930s. Little did he know that several stone adzes (hafted

woodworking tool) he obtained then, would solve one of the long-standing

problems in ancient Polynesian migration and trade.

Left: From the Collection of Bishop Museum. A typical late prehistoric

style, fine-grained basalt (hawaiite) adze collected from the low coral

island of Napuka, northwest Tuamotus in central Polynesia. Isotope and

trace element data indicate that the source rock for this adze was

obtained from Kaho'olawe, 4000 km distant.

(Photo courtesy Betty Lou Kam, Bishop Museum).

Although Hawaiian oral histories mention voyaging from Hawai'i to Tahiti

and back via the Tuamotus, a total open ocean journey of more than 8,000

kilometers, until now, no objects originating from Hawai'i had ever been

identified in central Polynesia.

This mystery has now been solved in a paper titled " Stone Adze

Compositions and the Extent of Ancient Polynesian Voyaging and

Trade " that was published in today's issue of the prestigious

journal Science.

Read commentaries on this discovery here and here.

Volcanic rocks do not naturally occur on the low coral atolls of the

Tuamotus. The lead isotope composition and trace element chemistry of one

adze shows that it was manufactured from a volcanic rock that came from

Hawai'i, rather than from a volcanic island in central Polynesia.

 

Former employee and long-time research associate of the Bishop Museum ,

archaeologist Dr Marshall Weisler (now Head of the Archaeology Program,

School of Social Science , University of Queensland , Australia )

enlisted the technical expertise of geochemist, Professor Ken Collerson

(Earth Sciences, UQ) to determine the source of the adze. Surprisingly,

the adze was made from rock from Kaho ' olawe, approximately 4000 km

distant from where it was collected in the northwest Tuamotus.

Some 25 years ago Weisler began experimenting with different geochemical

methods used to " fingerprint " the unique properties of

Polynesian stone tools. These fingerprints are used to assign artifacts

to geological sources or quarries and ancient migration and trade routes

could then be reconstructed.

The Kaho ' olawe adze has a similar chemistry to rocks found along the

westernmost point of the island at Lae o Kealaikahiki (literally,

" cape or headland of the way to Tahiti " ). Before beginning

voyages south from Hawai'i, the ancient voyagers in their sea going

canoes most likely stopped near Lae o Kealaikahiki. Here they apparently

collected rocks, like that from which the adze was subsequently made, to

take on their voyage, either as ballast or as gifts.

Using knowledge of the chemistry and the unique isotopic compositions of

mantle sources of volcanic rocks in Polynesia, Collerson and Weisler have

identified the sources of every one of the 19 adzes in their study.

 

The varied chemistry of the adzes showed that they were obtained from

throughout East Polynesia, including the Marquesas, Austral and Society

Islands, and the Pitcairn Group and reaffirms the Tuamotus as the

" cross-roads of Polynesia. "

This innovative multi-disciplinary research by The University of

Queensland researchers has provided the first physical confirmation of

the remarkable voyages from Hawai'i to central Polynesia that are

documented in the oral histories.

By confirming the extent of ancient interisland trade within East

Polynesia they have also resolved a fundamental and long-standing

archaeological problem concerning migration and cultural exchange within

East Polynesia , the last region on Earth settled by humans during

prehistory. This uninterrupted travel between Hawai'i and the Tuamotus

represents the longest documented voyage in world prehistory.

 

 

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