Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 7 January 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5706, pp. 102 - 104
DOI: 10.1126/science.1105432
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Coral 230Th Dating of the Imposition of a Ritual Control Hierarchy in Precontact Hawaii

Patrick V. Kirch1* and Warren D. Sharp2

In proto-historic Hawaii (1500–1795 A.D.), as in many other evolving polities, temples functioned as centers for control over production and the extraction of surplus food and goods. Thorium-230 dates (uncertainty ± ~10 years) on branch coral dedicatory offerings from temples in the Kahikinui district (Maui) indicate that its temple system was constructed within 60 years, far more rapidly than indicated by radiocarbon dating. Introduction of the temple system in 1580–1640 A.D. coincided with predatory expansion and consolidation of the Maui polity to form an incipient archaic state.

1 Department of Anthropology, 232 Kroeber Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
2 Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kirch{at}sscl.berkeley.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Prehistoric agricultural depletion of soil nutrients in Hawai'i.
A. S. Hartshorn, O. A. Chadwick, P. M. Vitousek, and P. V. Kirch (2006)
PNAS 103, 11092-11097
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)