(super 230) Th dates for dedicatory corals from a remote alpine desert adze quarry on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Author:

Feng, Yue-Xing, McCoy, Patrick C., Wisler, Marshall, Zhao, Jian-xin

Title:

(super 230) Th dates for dedicatory corals from a remote alpine desert adze quarry on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Periodical:

Antiquity

Year:

2009

Volume:

83

Pages:

445-457

Subject:

Archaeological dating Mauna Kea Mauna Kea Adze Quarry

Summary:

This paper presents the first dates for the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry Complex -- a remote, inland, high elevation quarry that is the epitome of long distance transport of ritual offerings in Hawaii. Through this study, the authors show how this complex that is made up of eight excavated sites in upland Hawaii, may be dated using uranium series radiogenic measurements on coral. This branch coral is among the various kinds of offerings that have been found at approximately the 3,750 meter elevation the complex that is more than 45 kilometers from the sea. Given the common occurrence of branch coral that is found in coastal sites, it was believed that dating held the potential to revolutionise models of lowland settlement patterns and socio-political change as it was believed that this freshly broken coral was transported to these sites from the sea for ritual purposes. As a result, giving a date in the fifteenth century with an error range of only five years, the method promises to be valuable for the early history of the Pacific.

Label:

Archaeology - Mauna Kea Adze Quarry

URL:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/230th-dates-for-dedicatory-corals-from-a-remote-alpine-desert-adze-quarry-on-mauna-kea-hawaii/9FFB767E40148A3E511C5500AE70A457

Date:

June 1, 2009

Collection:

Periodicals