Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T19:34:33.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chronometric Dating and Late Holocene Prehistory in the Hawaiian Islands: A Critical Review of Radiocarbon Dates from Moloka'I Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Marshall Weisler*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, DH-05, University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The importance of chronometric dating in archaeology cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, most chronologies developed throughout the world during the past three decades have depended on radiocarbon age determinations to provide a temporal framework for examining change over time in cultural sequences during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. With the advent of legislation in the mid-1960s designed to protect archaeological sites in the United States threatened by increased urban development or government sponsored projects, archaeological surveys and excavations were mandated as a means for preserving information otherwise destroyed. As a result, thousands of projects have contributed to a growing body of “gray literature,” ie, unpublished proprietary or manuscript reports with very limited circulation. Within these reports are hundreds, if not thousands, of 14C age determinations, most of which are not accessible in published form. One objective of this paper is to present all the 14C age determinations for the island of Moloka'i, Hawai'i as of December 1988, including 41 dates never before published with stratigraphic details.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Athens, J S (ms) 1983, Archaeological and historical investigations at a property near Kaunakakai wharf, island of Molokai, Hawaii: Ms on file, State Hist Preservation Office, Dept Land & Nat Resources, Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Athens, J S (ms) 1985, Prehistoric investigations at an upland site on the leeward slopes of central Molokai: Ms on file, State Hist Preservation Office, Dept Land & Nat Resources, Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Bonk, W J (ms) 1954, Archaeological investigations on west Molokai: MA thesis, Univ Hawai'i, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Browman, D L, 1981, Isotopic discrimination and correction factors in radiocarbon dating, in Schiffer, M B, ed, Advances in archaeol method and theory: New York, Academic Press, p 221295.Google Scholar
Butler, V L and Stein, J K, 1988, Comment on “Changing late Holocene flooding frequencies on the Columbia River, Washington”: Quaternary Research, v 29, no. 1, p 186187.Google Scholar
Collins, S (ms) 1983, Archaeological investigations of site 50-Mo-B6-80, Moloka'i island: Ms on file, Bishop Mus, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Crane, H R and Griffin, J B, 1959, University of Michigan radiocarbon dates IV: Am Jour Science Radiocarbon Supp, v 1, p 195.Google Scholar
Dean, J S, 1978, Independent dating in archaeological analysis, in Schiffer, M B, ed, Advances in archaeol method and theory: New York, Academic Press, p 223255.Google Scholar
Dye, T, Weisler, M and Riford, M (ms) 1985, Adz quarries of Moloka'i and Oahu, Hawaiian Islands: Ms on file, Bishop Mus, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Emory, K P, Bonk, W J and Sinoto, Y H, 1959, Hawaiian archaeology: fishhooks. Bishop Mus special pub no. 47.Google Scholar
Grayson, D K, in press, The chronology of North American Late Pleistocene extinctions: Jour Archaeol Sci. Google Scholar
Handy, E S G, 1940, The Hawaiian planter, vol 1, his plants, methods and areas of cultivation: Bishop Mus Bull 161.Google Scholar
Hendren, G H, 1975, Excavation of eight inland prehistoric habitation sites, in Kirch, P and Kelly, M eds, Prehistory and ecology of a windward Hawaiian valley: Halawa Valley, Molokai: Pacific Anthropol Rec no. 24, p 117152.Google Scholar
Hommon, R J, 1986, Social evolution in ancient Hawai'i, in Kirch, P, ed, Island societies, archaeological approaches to evolution and transformation: Cambridge, Cambridge Univ Press.Google Scholar
Kirch, P, 1975a, Report 1. Excavations at sites A1–3 and A1–4: Early settlement and ecology in Halawa Valley, in Kirch, P and Kelly, M, eds, Prehistory and ecology in a windward Hawaiian valley: Halawa Valley, Molokai: Pacific Anthropol Rec no. 24, p 1770.Google Scholar
Kirch, P, 1975b, Radiocarbon and hydration-rind dating of prehistoric sites in Halawa Valley, in Kirch, P and Kelly, M, eds, Prehistory and ecology in a windward Hawaiian valley: Halawa Valley, Molokai: Pacific Anthropol Rec no. 24, p 161166.Google Scholar
Kirch, P, 1985, Feathered gods and fishhooks, an introduction to Hawaiian archaeology and prehistory: Honolulu, Univ Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Mead, J I and Meltzer, D J, eds, 1985, Environments and extinctions: man in late glacial North America: Center for Study of Early Man, Orono, Univ Maine.Google Scholar
McCoy, P, 1977, The Mauna Kea adze quarry project: a summary of the 1975 field investigations: Jour Polynesian Soc, v 86, no. 2, p 223244.Google Scholar
Otlet, R L, 1979, An assessment of laboratory errors in liquid scintillation methods of 14C dating, in Berger, R and Suess, H E, eds, Radiocarbon dating, Internatl 14C conf, 9th, Proc: Berkeley, Univ California Press, p 256267.Google Scholar
Pearson, R, Hirata, J, Potts, L and Harby, F, 1974, Test pitting of cave 1, Kalaupapa peninsula, Molokai, Hawaii: New Zealand Archaeol Newsletter, v 1 7, no. 1, p 4449.Google Scholar
Polach, H A, 1976, Radiocarbon dating as a research tool in archaeology—hopes and limitations, in Barnard, Noel, ed, Symposium on scientific methods of research in the study of ancient Chinese Bronzes and South East Asian metal and other archaeological artifacts, Proc: Australian Natl Univ, Dept Far Eastern Hist Pub. Google Scholar
Shun, K (ms) 1982, Archaeological reconnaissance survey and test excavations of the wastewater treatment facility area, Kaunakakai, Molokai: Ms on file, Bishop Mus, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Somers, G F, 1985, Kalaupapa, more than a leprosy settlement, archaeology at Kalaupapa natural hist park: Western archaeol Conservation Center, Pubs in anthropol no. 30.Google Scholar
Stearns, H T, 1973, Geologic setting of the fossil goose bones found on Molokai island, Hawaii: Bishop Mus occasional paper v XXIV, no 10, p 155163.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, 1982, A high-precision calibration of the AD radiocarbon time scale: Radiocarbon, v 24, no. 1, p 126.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Pearson, G W and Braziunas, T, 1986, Radiocarbon age calibration of marine samples back to 9000 cal bp, in Stuiver, M and Kra, R S, eds, Internatl 14G conf 12th Proc: Radiocarbon, v 28, no. 2B, p 9801021.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M and Polach, H A, 1977, Discussion: Reporting of 14C data: Radiocarbon, v 19 no. 3, p 355363.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M and Reimer, P J, 1986, A computer program for radiocarbon age calibration in Stuiver, M and Kra, R S, eds, Internatl 14C conf, 12th, Proc: Radiocarbon, v 28 no 2B, p 10221030.Google Scholar
Taylor, R E, 1987, Radiocarbon dating, an archaeological perspective: Orlando, Florida, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Weisler, M (ms) 1983, An archaeological survey and geomorphological reconstructions of the Kakahai'a natl wildlife refuge, Kawela, Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands: Ms on file, Bishop Mus, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Weisler, M (ms) 1987, Inventory, significance, and management of the archaeological resources of northwest Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands: Ms on file, State Hist Preservation Office, Dept Land & Nat Resources, Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Weisler, M (ms) 1989, Archaeological investigations of the Kaunakakai field system, South-Central Moloka'i: Ms on file, State Hist Preservation Office, Dept Land & Nat Resources, Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Weisler, M and Collins, S (ms) 1988, A radiocarbon date for extirpated avifauna on Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands: ms in possession of authors.Google Scholar
Weisler, M and Kirch, P, 1985, The structure of settlement space in a Polynesian chiefdom: Kawela, Molokai, Hawaiian Islands: New Zealand Jour Archaeol, v 7, p 127158.Google Scholar
Yen, D E, 1974, The sweet potato and Oceania: Bishop Mus Bull 236.Google Scholar