Michael W. Graves

Archaeological evidence for agricultural development in Kohala, Island of Hawai‘i

Abstract Measuring subsistence change, especially when it involves questions of resource intensification, requires special attention to issues of data quality and relevance. This is particularly so when, as in Remote Oceania, the archaeological record is of relatively short duration and the nature of subsistence change was mostly quantitative, not qualitative. Agricultural development, particularly focused on the practice of dry land fixed field cultivation, is reviewed and a method developed for chronologically ordering the development of walls and trails constructed as the main structural features in three areas of the Kohala Dry Land Field System of Hawai‘i Island. At least two different pathways to agricultural development are discernable, one of which documents intensification of effort over time and the other one shows the expansion of a relatively intensive system of dry land farming but little evidence of intensification. Differences in environment, geography, and the role of chiefs in underwriting agricultural development are likely factors that produce this pattern of dry land agriculture in Hawai‘i.

Variable Development of Dryland Agriculture in Hawaiʻi

Research in the leeward Kohala dryland agricultural field system on Hawaiʻi Island provides the opportunity to develop a fine‐grained chronology for its development—both expansion and intensification—using a combination of chronometric and relative dating. Two pathways for agricultural development are identified for this field system, the first beginning as early as the fourteenth century and the second after the mid‐seventeenth century. This chronology, combined with dating for residential features, religious sites, and territorial boundaries, makes it possible to link agricultural change with social and political dynamics in the late prehistoric period. This sequence is compared to four other relatively well‐dated dryland field systems on the islands of Maui, Molokaʻi, and Hawaiʻi. These systems can be assigned to either of the two pathways identified for Kohala, suggesting that dryland agricultural strategies can be sorted into (1) an earlier expansion and subsequent intensification in areas where conditions were better suited for such practices and (2) a later, more rapid expansion into and more limited intensification of areas associated with greater costs or risks. The second and later pathway for agricultural development is linked to earlier increases in populations living in more optimal locations, movement or expansion of these populations into marginal zones, regional population integration, and increasing surplus demands to fund chiefly ambitions involving territorial expansion.

Breaking down ceramic variation: Testing models of white mountain redware design style development

Abstract Design styles on White Mountain Redware pottery from the American Southwest are analyzed, drawing on ethnoarchaeological work conducted among the Kalinga of northern Luzon, the Philippines, to establish a strong relationship between distinct social groups and ceramic decoration. From this base, regional production zones are identified for several White Mountain Redware design styles in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. In addition, the temporal and spatial distribution of these styles is compared to expectations generated by three models of design style development, none of which is completely acceptable. An alternative explanation is proposed in which White Mountain Redware stylistic change is linked to the development of (1) symbolic association between design styles and regions or communities of production, (2) increasing exchange of pottery over longer distances and in larger numbers, and (3) part-time specialization in pottery production. These trends, in turn, are a likely consequence of population increase and aggregation into larger puebloan communities in which contradictory processes, such as economic interdependence and competitive interaction between settlements, may have emerged to disrupt the late prehistoric evolutionary tendency towards greater social complexity.

The role of agricultural innovation on Pacific Islands: a case study from Hawai'i Island

Abstract Agriculture was essential in providing for food security, population growth and surplus social production on Pacific Islands. This paper discusses innovations first seen between ad 1400 and 1650 that opened up roughly 60 per cent of the available farm land in the Hawaiian Islands. These innovations include terraced fields in narrow gulches, some using simple flooding to take irrigation water to adjacent lands, and permanent rock and earthen alignments that served as windbreaks, retained soil moisture and lessened erosion. The resulting expansion pushed agriculture into increasingly marginal areas and helped the transition to a surplus-driven agrarian economy. Elite competition for territory promoted the production of surplus and the resulting increased geographic scale of polities helped reduce the burden of supporting the non-producer class by spreading the cost over a broader area.

Anomalous Tree-Ring Dates and the Sequence of Room Construction at Canyon Creek Ruin, East Central Arizona

ABSTRACTThe tree-ring material from the Canyon Creek Ruin, east central Arizona, is reanalyzed to resolve a dating anomaly involving primary and secondary beams at the site. Most secondary beams were cut and stockpiled prior to the occupation of the locality, in contrast to primary beams which were usually cut for immediate use. By plotting the sequence of room construction between A.D. 1327 and 1360, based on the distribution of tree-ring dates and wall abutment relations, two alternative models of population growth are evaluated.

Introduction of Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis ) to the Hawaiian Islands

Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg, commonly known as breadfruit, is a tree from the Moraceae family grown on the islands of Oceania and primarily used as a food source. It was domesticated in equatorial New Guinea or Western Melanesia over 3,000 years ago and carried by Lapita peoples (Kirch 1997:38; Kirch 2000:78– 79) and their ancestors as they settled the most remote islands of the Pacific (Fig. 1) (Fosberg 1960; Jarrett 1959; Quisumbing 1940; Ragone 1987, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2006; Ragone and Paull 2008; Zerega 2003; Zerega et al. 2004). Breadfruit reaches heights of 10 to 20 m, bears fruit at seven years and continues to produce for 30 to 40 years, and grows best where annual rainfall is between 1,500 to 3,000 mm (Abbott 1992; Neal 1965:303). While yield is variety dependent, on average a tree will produce 150 to 200 fruits annually and, at 160–500 kg per year, provided an important, reliable source of carbohydrates in the era before European contact (Meilleur et al. 2004; Purseglove 1968; Ragone 2006). It was baked and mashed into a paste and on some islands was stored and fermented in underground pits to buffer against seasonal variations in food supply (Ragone 1991). In Hawai‘i it also provided wood for house construction, canoes, surf boards, and drums; its bark was made into cloth; and breadfruit latex was used for caulking canoes and to trap birds (Allen and Murakami 1999:103; Malo 1951:21; Neal 1965:303; Rock 1974:117). Historical linguistics and genetics of modern breadfruit from across the Pacific have been useful in tracing the long-term history of regional translocations (Kirch and Green 2000; Zerega et al. 2004), however similarities among Eastern Polynesian cultivars make it difficult to reconstruct the immediate origins of the single variety found in Hawai‘i. For example, Zerega et al. (2004) examined AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) data from Oceania using three primer sets yielding 149 polymorphic markers across 254 individuals and found Eastern Polynesian cultivars were the “least genetically diverse and probably originated from a much reduced gene pool” (Zerega et al. 2004:226). Indigenous terms used for the Hawaiian variety of breadfruit—mei maoi in the Marquesas, kuru maori in the Cook Islands, ‘uru maohi in Society Islands, ‘ulu e‘a in Samoa, and ‘ulu in Hawai‘i (Ragone 1991)—are also extremely similar to one another since they derive from the same ancestral terms in Proto-Polynesian (*kulu or *mei) rooted in Proto-Oceanic (*kuluR) (Kirch 2000:110; Kirch and Green 2000:123). Domesticates were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands either with initial human colonization or through secondary introduction after settlements were established. Colonial introduction of domestic plants and animals began with the arrival of the archipelago’s first people who set sail from the 1 Received 8 February 2010; accepted 6 October 2010; published online ___________.

Growth and Aggregation at Canyon Creek Ruin: Implications for Evolutionary Change in East-Central Arizona

Tree-ring data from the Canyon Creek Ruin, east-central Arizona, are analyzed to evaluate two competing interpretations of pueblo growth at this well-preserved cliff dwelling. Despite an anomalous dating pattern, a logistic model best describes pueblo growth. Room construction activity is linked to population increase, which, in turn, may be divided into two varieties: natural increase, and immigration of households into the settlement. Logistic growth also accounts for population increase within the larger area of the Grasshopper region. I review the processes promoting both local and regional population increase, as well as subsequent abandonment of the mountains of Arizona. I suggest that rapid depopulation may have occurred after A.D. 1375 because late prehistoric communities lost access to nonlocal goods that had previously allowed populations to increase beyond local resource constraints.

Temporal Variation Among White Mountain Redware Design Styles

ABSTRACTDesign styles on White Mountain Redware pottery from the American Southwest are time sensitive units whose application has been under-exploited. Six named design styles are systematically defined in order to produce comparably distinct classes, and the occurrence of these styles is employed to chronologically order 31 prehistoric sites in east central Arizona and western New Mexico. This seriation also provides the basis for assessing the extent of contemporaneity between design styles, information that can then be used to estimate the date of prehistoric occupation at settlements that contain White Mountain Redware. Temporal variation among design styles also has implications for Southwestern cultural historical interpretive frameworks, and these issues are briefly examined.

The history of method and theory in the study of prehistoric puebloan pottery style in the American Southwest

The history of Americanist archaeology can be profitably approached through an examination of ceramic design studies in the puebloan region of the American Southwest. An intellectual tradition is represented throughout these studies, grounded in the assumption that ceramic design variation can be reflected, among other things, in prehistoric social groupings. Within this tradition, a number of differences in method, theory, and application can be distinguished, including (1) the classificatory systems employed, (2) the spatial and temporal scales at which ceramic design variation was studied, and (3) the potential functional role of stylistic attributes on pottery. The debates, both intellectual and social, surrounding the development of method and theory in the New Archaeology are clarified by this historical review, as are the transitions to Culture History and from the New Archaeology in the American Southwest.

Analyzing and interpreting ceramic production and distribution in the American southwest

Judith A. Habicht‐Mauche. The Pottery from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico: Tribalization and Trade in the Northern Rio Grande. Arroyo Hondo Archaeological Series, Number 8. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press, 1993. xviii + 254 pp. including appendices, additional reports, references and index.