Voyaging and Basalt Exchange in the Phoenix and Line Archipelagoes: the Viewpoint from Three Mystery Islands

15971_Oceania_Archeology 8/4/02 15:13 Page 146 (Black plate) Archaeol. Oceania 36 (2001) 146–152 Voyaging and basalt exchange in the In this paper, we report on the source of basalt arti- Phoenix and Line archipelagoes: the facts from the Phoenix and Line islands using wave- length-dispersive x-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) analy- viewpoint from three mystery islands sis. We tabulate the presently known hard evidence of inter-island interaction throughout Polynesia and inves- ANNE DI PIAZZA and ERIK PEARTHREE tigate the sailing strategies required to conduct these voyages. Abstract Previous archaeological research in the Phoenix and Line islands In this paper, we present evidence of long distance interaction through geochemical sourcing of basalt artifacts for some of the The Phoenix islands consist of 3 atolls and 5 raised reef ‘mystery islands’ in the Phoenix and Line groups. We demonstrate islands situated just south of the equator, between that they were far from isolated, but in contact with Samoa, the 2°48ЈS and 4°45ЈS and 170°45ЈW and 174°37ЈW. They Marquesas and perhaps the southern Cooks during the mid 12th to range from 9 km2 (Kanton or Canton) to 0.5 km2 the mid 14th centuries. We also investigate how sailing strategies (Phoenix) and have a total land area of 29 km2 (Garnett may have affected patterns of interaction through a review of other 1983). cases of inter-archipelago contact based on WD-XRF data. We The archaeology of the Phoenix islands is virtually conclude that the weather patterns around Tataga Matau in the unknown although marae, platforms, shelters, uprights western Pacific allow interaction from any direction at some point and a fish pond were reported by early visitors to Manra, of the year, while in the eastern Pacific access to the quarry Orona (or Hull) and Kanton (Arundel 1890 cited in sources (Eiao, Pitcairn) is more restricted due to the less pre- Bryan 1942, Ellis 1936:14, Bryan 1942, Bryan cited in dictable westerlies. MacGregor n.d.). The only systematic archaeological descriptions1 come from brief visits by Gordon MacGregor and Henry Bigelow in 1933 and 1939 There are numerous islands scattered throughout respectively. They recorded 71 features on Manra, 18 on Oceania which have archaeological remains but which Orona, and 3 on Kanton including rectangular platforms, were unoccupied at the time of European discovery. marae, paved trails, burials and one basalt adze. Undated These islands were first called the ‘mystery islands’ by surface features on MacKean are reported by Throssell Bellwood (1978). This term is still being used by and Specht (1989). archaeologists (Terrell 1986, Kirch 1988, Irwin 1992, The Line islands consist of 4 atolls and 6 raised reef Weisler 1996). The majority of the mystery islands are islands straddling the Equator2 (Garnett 1983). They atolls and the greatest concentration of them are the 18 extend from 6°30ЈN to 11°27ЈS, about 1,100 nautical islands of the Line and Phoenix archipelagoes in the miles3 (nm). They have a total land area of 436 km2 Republic of Kiribati (Fig. 1). We felt that a study on although Kiritimati with its 321 km2 accounts for most these atolls offered certain advantages. First, they lie of it. The rest of the islands vary considerably in area, outside the hurricane belt, therefore the sites should from about 40 km2 (Malden) to 0.2 km2 (Vostok). have suffered minimal storm damage. They had been The Lines have benefited from more archaeological abandoned, thus we suspected good site preservation. research than the Phoenix group. Holden and Qualtrough Finally, they are amenable to interaction studies. All (1884:21) published a plan of a marae from Caroline artifacts made out of volcanic rocks would have been island and wrote that guano diggers had found ‘50 imported. graves’ containing ‘stone axes and highly polished green The people inhabiting these mystery atolls have been stones such as are used by the Maoris of New Zealand, considered to be castaways or as Emory (1943:13) put it and spears of the same description’. Emory reports ‘wanderers from the east’ lost on their way between high marae, tombs, rectangular platforms, mounds, trails, islands (Buck 1938, Emory 1934, Sharp 1956). Yet the paved house sites and numerous artifacts on Tabuaeran, basalt exchange reported here demonstrates that Manra Kiritimati and Malden islands (Emory 1934, 1939). A. (or Sydney), Kiritimati (or Christmas) and Tabuaeran (or Sinoto excavated a marae, a tomb and habitation features Fanning) were far from isolated, but instead had some of the widest interaction spheres presently known in 1. These descriptions come from a manuscript by G. Polynesia. The Phoenix islands sphere included Tataga MacGregor with a supplementary report by H. Bigelow Matau in Samoa. The Line islands sphere is larger still housed in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum archives, with a direct link to the Marquesas and an indirect link to Honolulu. Carson (1998) gives a seriation of architectural the southern Cooks. elements based on this manuscript. 2. Eight of the islands are part of the Republic of Kiribati, while Palmyra and Jarvis are administered by the United CNRS — CREDO, Université de Provence, 3 Place Victor States. Hugo, 13331 Marseilles, France 3. One nautical mile equals 1.85 km. 146 15971_Oceania_Archeology 8/4/02 15:13 Page 147 (Black plate) Figure 1: The Central Pacific archipelagoes showing the transport of basalt to the Phoenix and Line islands. Major quarry sources are underlined. Solid arrows show basalt transport from quarry source. Dotted line indicates basalt artifacts from the same source. on Tabuaeran (Sinoto 1973). Wester et al. (1992) noted John Sinton, Department of Geology and Geophysics, stone walls on Teraina (or Washington). Basalt artifacts University of Hawai’i, using procedures discussed in have been recorded from Kiritimati, Tabuaeran, Flint and Sinton and Sinoto (1997) (Table 1). The two cores were Caroline (Emory 1934, 1939, 1975) as well as Teraina essentially identical and gave a good match with the (Finney 1958). Tataga Matau quarry on Tutuila in Samoa. Sinton noted that the best match is from a single flake from the base of Leafu waterfall (collected by E. Pearthree in 1993), Excavation of a prehistoric habitation site on Manra although they are pretty close to the Tataga Matau aver- island age. On hand inspection, all of the flakes appear to be the same material as the cores. During 1997, the authors excavated 118 basalt flakes and 2 sub-triangular basalt cores (one is a reworked adze with 3 ground surfaces) from a habitation deposit and Excavation of a village complex on Kiritimati island trash pit on Manra in the Phoenix islands. Four additional basalt flakes were surface collected at this site. A In June 1999, we rediscovered Emory’s site 3 on charcoal lens in this deposit dates to 730 ± 80 BP (radio- Kiritimati in the Line islands, consisting of several con- carbon years) (Beta 112420). The dating sample con- glomerate slab alignments, a cylindrical block of coral, sisted of one taxon, Guettarda speciosa. The calibrated etc. (Emory 1934:20–21) which we interpret to be com- result4 at 2 sigma is cal AD 1175 to 1405 (Talma and ponents of a marae. We also found additional features, Vogel 1993, Vogel et al. 1993). 100 m to the west, including a canoe house, paved plat- Both cores were sampled for WD-XRF analysis by forms, a cooking area and a lithic debitage zone. The site 147 15971_Oceania_Archeology 8/4/02 15:13 Page 148 (Black plate) coal sample and charred coconut shell respectively. The Core 1 Core 2 Tataga Tataga Matau calibrated results4 at 2 sigma are cal AD 1295 to 1405 for Matau average the first sample and cal AD 1155 to 1285 for the second (Leafu (J. Sinton, sample (Talma and Vogel 1993, Stuiver et al. 1998). flake) pers. com) Among the basalt artifacts recovered were a tanged adze, SiO2 48.88 49.04 48.64 48.52 triangular at the butt and quadrangular near the cutting TiO2 3.12 3.10 3.12 3.42 edge (Napari), a broken quadrangular adze converted into a pounder (Te Kura A), a small flake adze (Te Io), 5 Al2O3 16.44 16.53 16.27 15.51 oven stones, 3 surface collected flakes (one of which is Fe2O3 13.15 13.10 13.16 13.66 Te Kura B) and 1 excavated flake. The three adzes and MnO 0.17 0.17 0.16 0.18 one flake were submitted to WD-XRF analysis by John MgO 4.65 4.78 4.51 4.79 Sinton (Table 3). Only one match has been found so far. The small flake adze (Te Io) came from the adze quarry CaO 7.31 7.18 7.26 7.54 on Eiao in the Marquesas. The others samples are Na2O 3.85 3.79 3.98 3.76 strongly alkalic basaltic lavas and show some similarity K2O 1.71 1.68 1.77 1.55 to Samoan rocks, but the sources remain unknown at P2O5 0.85 0.85 0.81 0.78 present (Sinton, pers. com.). It appears that they repre- sent three different sources. Sum 100.11 100.21 99.68 99.71 Table 1: WD-XRF analysis (calculated without Loss of Ignition) of two basalt cores from Manra island com- Discussion pared to Tataga Matau quarry samples from the geochemical database for Polynesian adze studies at the From the Phoenix islands, Samoa (Tataga Matau) is the University of Hawai’i, by John Sinton. easiest basalt source to reach. It is the closest quarry and more importantly, it lies directly south across the trade winds favoring two-way voyaging (Irwin 1992).

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