Research supports oral histories of distant marine travel across the Pacific

Two scientists tested the elemental material of 19 wooden-tools called adzes, tracing one's material back to its origins in Hawaii, several thousand miles from where it was found.

Stories passed down for generations in the Pacific islands tell of regular maritime travel over several thousands of kilometers while most people were still traveling only in sight of land and long before Europeans began their world travels. Two Australian scientists reported this week that they found evidence to support these oral histories. The researchers, Kenneth D. Collerson and Marshall I. Weisler, determined that the material of one axe-like cutting tool found on a Polynesian island is made of material only found in Hawaii, which is thousands of kilometers north and believe that it must have been brought by

Polynesia is the name of a slew of islands spreading across 40 degrees of latitude in the Pacific Ocean with their center approximately at the Equator. Hawaii, due west of Mexico, is the northern tip; The Gambier and Austral Islands east of Australia, make up the southern boundaries.

This woodworking tool is called an adze and was used to cut trees and to create smooth pieces of wood.

The oral histories and recent travel tests and simulations show that the Polynesians were probably traveling thousands of kilometers as early as 900 CE, or 1,100 years ago.

Researchers Collerson and Weisler used sophisticated equipment to study the basic, elemental material that made up 19 adzes – woodcutting instruments that have their blades placed on the wooden shaft more like a hoe than a traditional axe – collected earlier by another scientist on coral atolls, or islands, in the southern Tuamotus Islands. None of the 19 Adzes were made of the material on the atoll, partially supporting the maritime travel story. All but one adze was found to be made of basalt, a volcanic-type of material that could be traced to one of five volcanic strings of islands called archipelagos in the general area.

One adze however, was made using a material called hawaiite from the Kaho’loawe Island in Hawaii, which is about 4,000 kilometers northwest of the atoll where it was found. Collerson and Weisler believe that this find supports the oral histories of Polynesians covering thousands of miles in boats and taking advantage of their knowledge of wind and weather to travel great distances before the great European travelers set out to see the world after about 1400.

Researchers may use this technique to teach us more about life and travels of the Polynesians.

This study appears in the 28 September issue of Science.

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