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230Th dates for dedicatory corals from a remote alpine desert adze quarry on Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Patrick C. McCoy ,
Marshall I. Weisler ,
Jian-xin Zhao  and
Yue-Xing Feng
Patrick C. McCoy
Affiliation:
Pacific Consulting Services, Inc., Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96817, USA (Email: [email protected])
Marshall I. Weisler*
Affiliation:
School of Social Science, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Jian-xin Zhao
Affiliation:
Radiogenic Isotopes Facilities, Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
Yue-Xing Feng
Affiliation:
Radiogenic Isotopes Facilities, Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
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Abstract

The authors show how sites in upland Hawai‘i may be dated using uranium series radiogenic measurements on coral. The sites lie in a quarry, inland and at high altitude, with little carboniferous material around, and radiocarbon dating is anyway problematic here for the first millennium. Freshly broken coral had been transported to these sites, remote from the sea – no doubt for ritual purposes. 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.

Keywords

PacificHawai‘iuraniumthorium datingcoralritual
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 320 , June 2009 , pp. 445 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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