Intensive dryland farming on the leeward slopes of Haleakala, Maui, Hawaiian Islands: archaeological, archaeobotanical, and geochemical perspectives

Abstract

Polynesians settled and farmed the leeward, relatively arid slopes of Haleakala Volcano beginning about ad 1400. Archaeological investigations at two sites revealed dense concentrations of conical impressions in a subsurface 20cm cinder layer that was previously undisturbed, interpreted as resulting from cultivation practices involving digging sticks. Ethnographic accounts of Hawaiian sweet potato and dryland taro cultivation techniques provide details on the use of such digging sticks. By puncturing this cinder layer, farmers created a loamy mixture of ash and cinder suited to root crop development. Archaeobotanical analyses suggest an intensive, short-fallow regime: macroscopic wood charcoal was absent (therefore no fallow sufficient for secondary re-growth of dryland forest) and evidence of disturbance-tolerant, weedy species is abundant. Geochemical analyses relying on stratigraphic relationships show that cultivation depleted nutrient levels in the digging-stick impressions, through harvest and leaching losses. Our findings provide evidence for repeated and intensive use of a landscape under a system of dryland cultivation.

Keywords:

• Polynesia
• Hawai‘i
• dryland agriculture
• digging stick
• nutrients
• geoarchaeology

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NSF grant BCS-0119819, with additional support from NSF grants SBR-9600693 and SBR-9805754 to PVK. Permission to conduct archaeological research in Kahikinui was granted by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, State of Hawai‘i. For logistical support and assistance, we thank Ka ‘Ohana o Kahikinui, ‘Ulupalakua Ranch, the State of Hawai‘i Historic Preservation Division. In the field, we were helped in various ways by John Holson, Mo Moler, Donna Simpson and Leon Sterling. For laboratory assistance, we thank Nathalie Boes and Val Bullard at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Doug Turner and Sarah Robinson at Stanford University and Michael Wolf, Wendy Chew, Lisa Holm and David Wahl at the University of California at Berkeley.

Notes

Biographical Notes

Oliver A. Chadwick is Professor of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the role of soil as a filter of gases, liquids and solids at the surface of terrestrial earth.

James H. Coil is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he recently completed his doctoral degree. His research focuses on the use of archaeobotanical methods and data to address questions of archaeological and ecological importance in Polynesian prehistory.

Tony Hartshorn is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He initiated fieldwork for his dissertation on soil–vegetation relationships in Alaska in 1996, and since then has developed research projects on biogeochemical patterns across Hawai‘i and South Africa.

Marjeta Jeraj is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on archaeobotany; her recent work focuses on the use of plant microfossils to reconstruct past vegetation communities in the Hawaiian Islands.

Patrick V. Kirch is the Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include the origins of Pacific peoples, historical ecology of island ecosystems and the evolution of complex societies.

Peter Vitousek is the Clifford G. Morrison Professor of Population and Resource Studies in the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University. His research interests include the sources and fates of nutrients during long-term soil and ecosystem development, and the use of islands as model systems for understanding biogeochemical processes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

PV Kirch

Biographical Notes Oliver A. Chadwick is Professor of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the role of soil as a filter of gases, liquids and solids at the surface of terrestrial earth. James H. Coil is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he recently completed his doctoral degree. His research focuses on the use of archaeobotanical methods and data to address questions of archaeological and ecological importance in Polynesian prehistory. Tony Hartshorn is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He initiated fieldwork for his dissertation on soil–vegetation relationships in Alaska in 1996, and since then has developed research projects on biogeochemical patterns across Hawai‘i and South Africa. Marjeta Jeraj is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on archaeobotany; her recent work focuses on the use of plant microfossils to reconstruct past vegetation communities in the Hawaiian Islands. Patrick V. Kirch is the Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include the origins of Pacific peoples, historical ecology of island ecosystems and the evolution of complex societies. Peter Vitousek is the Clifford G. Morrison Professor of Population and Resource Studies in the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University. His research interests include the sources and fates of nutrients during long-term soil and ecosystem development, and the use of islands as model systems for understanding biogeochemical processes.