REU: Assessing the relationship of natural resource exploitation strategies with the rise of social complexity in the Hawaiian Islands through stone tool geochemistry

University Of Hawaii At Hilo, Hilo HI

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Steven Lundblad and Peter Mills, in collaboration with staff of the Bishop Museum, will conduct an extensive provenance study of stone from previously excavated, pre-contact habitation sites in Hawai`i. It is the first large evaluation of these materials using non-destructive Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF). This program will build upon pioneering geochemical work done over the past 20 years as well as on recent work in the UHH geoarchaeology laboratory on Hawaiian lithic (stone) artifacts. The settlers of the Hawaiian Islands appear to have rapidly developed from a small initial colonizing population to the most complex chiefdom in all of Polynesia between circa AD 800-1000 and 1778. This study will address relationships between natural resources and culture which combined to result in this rapid intensification. Due to the lack of other mineral resources on these island chains, much of the work of deciphering ancient Oceanic economic and cultural history is based on the types and abundances of durable artifacts. These are mainly stone tools and debris from tool manufacture found at domestic sites. Studying the nature of quarrying activity and the distribution of products from quarry sites provides a framework for interpreting the role of natural resources in Hawaiian economies and social evolution. Economic exchange studies based upon microscopic and geochemical analyses of lithics, however, have only just begun to address issues of geochemical variability within larger quarry sites and to identify the geochemistry of smaller source areas. This project will result in the first significant and systematic geochemical analysis of artifacts from domestic archaeological contexts spanning the Hawaiian archipelago. EDXRF provides a means for this large-scale, sustained, and non-destructive effort which will lead to more robust models of Hawaiian exchange and consequent sociopolitical development in relationship to valued natural resources across time. Specific components supported by this project, which will span a two-year period, include the following phases. Quarry site sampling in the Hawaiian Islands will allow mapping of the geochemical signatures of the stone tool sources. Comparing these to the geochemical and technological analyses of the existing, well-documented collections of finished stone tools from the Bishop Museum will show the provenance of those tools. Researchers will develop models of natural resource exploitation patterns through time, and relate them to the evolution of Hawai`i's complex chiefdoms. These three phases all include the primary goal of education of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander students. Students will participate through an integrated education program, with undergraduate research internships for anthropology and geology majors at UH-Hilo in collaboration with the Bishop Museum (Honolulu). The use of non-destructive EDXRF analyses is not new, but its use to build an expansive geochemical database on Hawaiian stone acquisition is. This novel use in a large-scale, focused effort will apply new research to existing archived archaeological collections. The non-destructive nature of the new analysis will set the new standard for culturally appropriate methodologies for understanding the Hawaiian past. The study will provide exciting opportunities for Pacific Islander students to explore how their ancestors interacted with their environment and each other. Interpretation of exchange patterns based on this information will engender further insights into culturally significant activities of the past, which is of great interest to modern Hawaiians. The study will provide the framework to develop robust socio-economic models of the underpinnings, development, and social complexity of Polynesian chiefdoms.