BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—Marshall Weisler of the University of Queensland and colleagues analyzed the age and geological source of stone adzes discovered in the Tangatatau rock shelter on Mangaia Island. Adzes, used in Polynesian societies to clear land for farming and to build houses, canoes, and bowls, would have been necessary tools for colonizing new lands. The researchers found that the material for making the tools may have come from as far away as the Austral Islands, American Samoa, and the northern Marquesas. This trade contact, over as much as 1,500 miles, is thought to have lasted from A.D. 1300 to the 1600s. “The colonization of Oceania is the greatest maritime migration in human history and Polynesians were really at the top of the game of voyaging and return voyaging and … bringing all the necessary items to settle and found a new colony,” Weisler told ABC News Australia. He thinks perishable items and marriage partners, goods not left in the archaeological record, may have also made the journey. For more, go to “Canoe & Climate Shed Light on Polynesian Sailing Technology.”
Polynesian Stone Tools “Fingerprinted”
News July 5, 2016
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2022
The Great Maize Migration
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2022
Japan’s Genetic History
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2016
Coast over Corridor
Features November/December 2024
Let the Games Begin
How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
-
Features May/June 2016
An Overlooked Inca Wonder
Thousands of aligned holes in Peru’s Pisco Valley have attracted the attention of archaeologists
(Courtesy Charles Stanish) -
Letter from Florida May/June 2016
People of the White Earth
In Florida’s Panhandle, tribal leaders and archaeologists reach into the past to help preserve a native community’s identity
(Mike Toner) -
Artifacts May/June 2016
Medieval Spoon Finial
(© Suffolk County Council) -
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2016
Dressing for the Ages
(Courtesy Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology)