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 28 September 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5846, pp. 1907 - 1911
DOI: 10.1126/science.1147013
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Stone Adze Compositions and the Extent of Ancient Polynesian Voyaging and Trade

Kenneth D. Collerson1* and Marshall I. Weisler2

The last region on Earth settled by humans during prehistory was East Polynesia. Hawaiian oral histories mention voyaging from Hawai'i to Tahiti and back via the Tuamotus, an open ocean journey of several thousands of kilometers. The trace element and isotope chemistries of a stone adze recovered from the Tuamotu Archipelago are unlike those of sources in central Polynesia but are similar to the Kaho'olawe Island hawaiite, in the Hawaiian Islands, supporting the oral histories. Other adzes collected from the low coral islands of the northwest Tuamotus have sources in the Marquesas, Austral and Society Islands, and the Pitcairn Group, confirming that trade was widespread within East Polynesia.

1 School of Physical Sciences–Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
2 School of Social Science–Archaeology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: k.collerson{at}mailbox.uq.edu.au

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

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