Spatial Similarities and Change in Hawaiian Architecture: The Expression of Ritual Offering and Kapu in Luakini Heiau, Residential Complexes, and Houses

Pre-Contact Hawaiian architecture reflected the cultural beliefs associated with ritual offering and adherence to the kapu system. Similarities in morphology and the use of space were evident in a range of architectural phenomena, from luakini heiau, to residential complexes, to houses. Interaction between Hawaiian and European cultures in the early nineteenth century began to de-emphasize the importance of spatial segregation associated with kapu. Architectural structures and the activities that took place in them began to undergo a fundamental change. These changes destroyed the structural parallels that had once occurred between religious and residential architecture. KEYWORDS: Hawaiian archaeology and ethnohistory, architecture, structural anthropology

DNA and pacific commensal models : applications, construction, limitations, and future prospects

Components of the Pacific transported landscape have been used as proxies to trace the prehistoric movement of humans across the Pacific for almost two decades. Analyses of archaeological remains and DNA sequences of plants, animals, and microorganisms moved by or with humans have contributed to understanding prehistoric migration, trade, exchange, and sometimes revealed the geographic origins of particular plants and animals. This paper presents the basic elements of a DNA-based commensal model and discusses the phylogenetic and population genetic approaches these models employ. A clear delineation of the underlying assumptions of these models and the background information required to construct them have yet to appear in the literature. This not only provides a framework with which to construct a commensal model but also highlights gaps in current knowledge. The ways in which commensal models have enriched archaeological reconstructions will be highlighted, as will their current limitations. With these limitations in mind, options will be outlined for augmenting commensal models through the application of established techniques and new technologies in order to provide the best tools for reconstructing ancient human mobility and behavior in the Pacific and beyond

Erosion, Geological History, and Indigenous Agriculture: A Tale of Two Valleys

Irrigated pondfields and rainfed field systems represented alternative pathways of agricultural intensification that were unevenly distributed across the Hawaiian Archipelago prior to European contact, with pondfields on wetter soils and older islands and rainfed systems on fertile, moderate-rainfall upland sites on younger islands. The spatial separation of these systems is thought to have contributed to the dynamics of social and political organization in pre-contact Hawai’i. However, deep stream valleys on older Hawaiian Islands often retain the remains of rainfed dryland agriculture on their lower slopes. We evaluated why rainfed agriculture developed on valley slopes on older but not younger islands by comparing soils of Pololū Valley on the young island of Hawai’i with those of Hālawa Valley on the older island of Moloka’i. Alluvial valley-bottom and colluvial slope soils of both valleys are enriched 4–5-fold in base saturation and in P that can be weathered, and greater than 10-fold in resin-extractable P and weatherable Ca, compared to soils of their surrounding uplands. However, due to an interaction of volcanically driven subsidence of the young island of Hawai’i with post-glacial sea level rise, the side walls of Pololū Valley plunge directly into a flat valley floor, whereas the alluvial floor of Hālawa Valley is surrounded by a band of fertile colluvial soils where rainfed agricultural features were concentrated. Only 5% of Pololū Valley supports colluvial soils with slopes between 5° and 12° (suitable for rainfed agriculture), whereas 16% of Hālawa Valley does so. The potential for integrated pondfield/rainfed valley systems of the older Hawaiian Islands increased their advantage in productivity and sustainability over the predominantly rainfed systems of the younger islands

A representação dos conventos de Lisboa cerca de 1567 na primeira planta da cidade

No presente trabalho estuda-se por um lado a primeira representação de cada um dos conventos de Lisboa, tal como foram registados na segunda gravura com a imagem da capital, publicada em 1598 por Georg Braun no volume V da série Civitatis orbis terrarum, e por outro mostra-se como esta imagem corresponderá à primeira planta-topográfica de Lisboa preparada talvez cerca de 1567. A referida imagem de Lisboa revela o essencial das linhas de força do urbanismo da cidade no século XVI e apresenta um primeiro e vasto panorama visual do património construído até então, de que apreciamos aqui o caso dos quinze conventos nela representados.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Fundação Millennium bc

Geochemical Sourcing of New Zealand Obsidians by Portable X-Ray Fluorescence from 2011 to 2018

This dataset includes 4,582 obsidian artefacts matched to their natural geological source from 45 archaeological sites in New Zealand (Aotearoa). It is a compilation of a number of independent projects conducted in the laboratories of the University of Auckland and University of Otago from 2011 to 2018 [1–13]. It combines previously published studies [3, 5–13], an MA thesis [1], a BA(Hons) dissertation [2], a site report [4], and other previously unpublished primary data. The dataset has high reuse potential for future non-destructive studies of artefacts and social network analyses.   Funding statement: This database began as part of a project funded by Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant (UOA1619) and the support of Te Pūnaha Matatini

Variable horticulture within a small garden on Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island)

Archaeological excavations in a small gardening complex on Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island, New Zealand) documented variable horticultural practices within a limited area. The gardening features were located on the lower slope of a ridge and extended into a present-day swamp. A series of rock-faced terraces were constructed on the steeper upper slope, with a set of stone alignments orientated parallel to the gradient on the lower slope. The excavations documented gardening behind the terraces, around and between the alignments, within a linear depression or channel, and in the swampy low lying area. A transect of test pits also documented the probable addition of sand to a small area, possibly as a means of creating a more friable horticultural soil. The presence of these horticultural features in the small garden suggest that it was more intensively used then the surrounding area, however there are much larger more intensified gardening complexes in the north of the island

THE SURFACE ROCK GARDENS OF PREHISTORIC RAPA NUl

Recent archaeological work on Rapa Nui has challenged the widely held assumption that the bulk of prehistoric subsistence was derived from coastal locations. Early coastal plain surveys (Englert 1974; McCoy 1976) had cataloged thousands of archaeological features and sites, including the structural remains of ahu (religious platforms) and moai (statues), along with elite and non-elite residences, and walled planting enclosures called manavai. The later survey of Cristino, et al. (1981) showed, however, that structures and agricultural features were by no means exclusive to the coastal regions of the island, but were in-fact also spread throughout the interior of the island. Similar features as those found around the exterior were recorded and analyzed, but unrecognized throughout the island was a type of agricultural garden based around the deliberate surface coverage of stone fragments.</p

Soil Phosphorus and Agricultural Development in the Leeward Kohala Field System, Island of Hawai‘i.

v. ill. 23 cm.QuarterlyThe leeward Kohala Field System on the island of Hawai‘i was one of the most intensive pre–European contact dryland agricultural systems. Archaeological and soil analysis has documented changes in soil nutrients over time. Soils were collected under agricultural field walls of different relative ages within the Kohala Field System. These field walls preserved soil from the time of their construction ( between ca. A.D. 1400 and 1800), so soil samples from underneath older field walls have been exposed to a shorter period of cultivation than the soils under more recent field walls. Total P and P:Nb ratios of these buried soils were greater under walls than in once-cultivated surface soils, and greater under older walls than under younger walls. These results suggest that precontact cultivation decreased soil P reserves in this intensive agricultural landscape

Prehistoric Mobility in Polynesia: MtDNA Variation in Rattus exulans from the Chatham and Kermadec Islands

Irwin (1992) has suggested that island accessibility in the Pacific, in terms of latitude and safety of return voyaging, for example, affects their degree of contact with other islands and their role in Pacific prehistory. We present results of mtDNA variation in both ancient and modern populations of the Pacific Rat (Rattus exulans), an animal that was transported by humans as they settled the Pacific islands. We argue that the varying levels of genetic diversity in R. exulans populations on Pacific islands will to some degree reflect the level of prehistoric human contact with those islands, and thus will be tied to island accessibility. A high level of mtDNA variation is reported for the Kermadec Island R. exulans populations, but there is marked lack of variation in Chatham Island rats. This is consistent with predictions based on the relative degrees of accessibility of the Kermadecs and the Chathams. High levels must be the result of either multiple introductions by humans or in situ evolution over an extended time frame; however, lack of variation could conceivably be the result of recent population crashes, and may therefore not be reflective of low levels of human mobility. Analysis of mtDNA from archaeological R. exulans samples shows a direct link between ancient and modern populations on Chatham Island. This result (1) confirms relative prehistoric isolation of Chatham Island; (2) allows for rejection of the in situ evolution explanation for New Zealand and Kermadec levels of variation; and (3) supports the use of Rattus exulans mtDNA variation as an assessment for accessibility and contact of prehistoric Pacific populations. KEYWORDS: Rattus exulans, mtDNA, ancient DNA, prehistory, Polynesia