The Polynesian settlement of the Hawaiian Archipelago: Integrating models and methods in archaeological interpretation

Abstract

Archaeological investigations of the prehistoric colonization of East Polynesia have focused on the question: when did this event occur? A relatively late date for the colonization of Hawai'i is held by some archaeologists; an alternative view suggests that there is considerably more antiquity to the settlement of Hawai'i. This paper separates the settlement process into three components: discovery, colonization and establishment. Four settlement models are developed, each of which differs in terms of the time duration separating the three components. Distinctive patterns of radiocarbon dates and environmental change are associated with the different settlement models. When analyzed in reference to the four models, radiocarbon dates from two islands in Hawai'i show evidence of a possibly early colonization phase, followed a few centuries later by the establishment of prehistoric populations in a number of locations in the islands.