Archaeology Magazine - May/June 2015 - 58

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one of our species' greatest triumphs
of exploration. Y until recently,
et,
archaeologists have been unsure how
and when this feat took place.
The ancestors of today's Polyneĥ
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including Hawaii, were part of what is
called the Lapita culture. They fanned
out from East Asia more than 3,000
years ago, but questions about their
origins and route remain. Archaeĥ
ologists have found hundreds of sites
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artifacts such as stone axes and organic
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ping seafarers traveled great distances
with goods, plants, and animals from
the large islands along the coast of
China and Southeast Asia. This collecĥ
tion of materials, dubbed the Lapita
package, made colonization possible.
"But we don't know where the package
comes together," says Alan Cooper,
an archaeologist at the University of
Adelaide in Australia.
By about 1000 B.C., these people
had moved east as far as Samoa and
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The vast distances required to reach
the islands beyond, such as the Society
,VODQGVħDQRWKHU1,500 miles across

In the deeper layers of the sinkhole,
the mud is very soft and can be dug by
Burney and his team by hand.
58

Mother-of-pearl and shell fishhooks
found inside the cave are some
of the oldest known artifacts of
ancient Hawaiian culture.

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further successful migration for nearly
2,000 more years. Then the Polyĥ
nesians were suddenly on the move
again, though it's not clear why, into
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as big as North America. They eventuĥ
ally landed on the Hawaiian islands,
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Makauwahi Cave.
The timing of these voyages has
been hotly debated, largely because
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recover under the destructive condiĥ
tions created by the warm and wet
climate that dominates the scattered
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the prevalence of acidic volcanic soils.
These two factors wreak havoc on
organic material such as the wood,
plant remains, and animal bones that
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carbon dating. "There aren't enough
bones," explains Cooper, "because the
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hard place to work." And the ancient
seafarers didn't leave behind texts or
inscriptions. But, unlike at many other
sites, the conditions inside Makauwahi
Cave have preserved a great deal of eviĥ
dence. "It's a really fantastic snapshot
of the environment just before and
after humans arrive," says Terry Hunt,
an archaeologist at the University of
Oregon. "I can't think of a single site
that has yielded as much information
about Polynesia in this period."
Some of the most prized discoverĥ
ies in the cave are found below the

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that Burney believes was
deposited in less than an hour. They are
the tiny and fragile remnants of ancient
fowl. "This is where the chicken bones
are," he says when I am halfway down
the ladder, pointing at a dark layer of
earth several feet below the tsunami
layer. "We can be pretty sure they are
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no KFC chicken in here at all."
When Polynesians set out for new
places, chickens were an essential part
of the settlement package, providing
not just meat and eggs and entertainĥ
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could be made into tattooing or sewĥ
ing needles or musical instruments.
Polynesians sometimes left dogs or
pigs behind, but they invariably carried
chickens to their new destinations.
Since domesticated chickens are not
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ence of chicken bones is a clear marker
of human activity, and following the
movement of chickens provides a
handy way to track the spread of settleĥ
ment across Polynesia. Realizing this,
Burney bagged the chicken remains he
discovered and sent them to Cooper's
lab. When compared with the DNA
from other samples around Polynesia,
researchers found that a distinct set of
genes characterized the ancient chickĥ
ens. The resulting DNA map reveals
two distinct waves of exploration, one
moving northeast toward Micronesia,
and the other moving east to Samoa
ARCHAEOLOGY * May/June 2015
Archaeology Magazine - May/June 2015

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