6.2 Archaeological Evidence for Spice Island Contact with America
107
A Chumashan borrowed form / ∗ tomolo’ o/ ‘sewn-plank canoe’ with its four points of consonantal correspondence to the Polynesian source and its historically explicable vowels, is
a stronger candidate for borrowing even than kumara ‘sweet potato’, the only other word
generally accepted to have been diffused within the Pacific Basin (though in the opposite
direction). We believe that it is beyond the realm of chance that a monomorphemic Chumash
word could have four points of exact correspondence with a Polynesian compound of related
meaning (p. 477).
Jones and Klar argue that their linguistic findings
are consistent with a material record that includes two technologies (sewn-plank boats and
a particular style of two-piece bone fishhook) that also seem to reflect direct cultural contact
between Polynesia and southern California (pp. 476–477).
Jones and Klar specifically argue for transpacific cultural contact with southern
California from Polynesia after about AD 300. They support their case for cultural contact from evidence of a timed appearance of new technologies in southern
California, offering detailed evidence for transoceanic technological, cultural, artefactual and linguistic diffusion from Polynesia. Their carefully argued case for the
appearance of sewn-plank boat technology and a Polynesian style two-piece bone
fishhook, used for pelagic fishing in southern California after AD 300, supports our
claim for a second wave of Spice Island exploration, based like the first on following the Kuro Shio Current out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to its terminus in
southern California. Our paradigm predicts the likelihood both of earlier and of later
voyages to southern California via the Kuro Shio Current and predicts that the timings for such voyages would be separated by the severe global cold period between
1000 BC and 400 BC. Such a gap is consistent with the archaeological evidence
Jones and Klar present which confirms transoceanic contact and significant cultural
diffusion for both of the predicted periods. There is clear archaeological evidence
from southern California for transoceanic contact in both periods.
The timing of the introduction by Spice Island mariners of sewn-plank technology in southern California, between AD 400 and AD 800, accords with
archaeological evidence of the spread of this technology in coastal Asia in the early
centuries AD. Pierre-Yves Manguin notes that the earliest archaeological evidence
of a sewn-plank boat in Southeast Asia was discovered by I.H.N. Evans [5] on the
bank of the Pontian River, in the State of Pahang, on the east coast of the Malay
Peninsula in 1927. Radio-carbon dating yields a date of AD 293 ± 60. This date
accords with the dating of ceramics that were found in the wreck by Evans. A second early wreck from Butuan (Mindanao, Philippines) has been dated to AD 320 ±
110 [6]. Pierre-Yves Manguin remarks that both shipwrecks “belong to a shipbuilding tradition which has now been proved to be widespread in Island Southeast Asia,
and which may still be observed in remote areas such as Lamalera” (p. 333). The
timing for the introduction of sewn-plank boats and two-piece bone fishhooks to
southern California after AD 300 also accords with evidence from tradition which,
as we have seen, records the migration to Hawaii via Micronesia of a fleet of six
canoes led by Irapanga in AD 460 by our chronology (see Chapter 19). Irapanga’s
migration establishes that the Kuro Shio Current route from the Spice Islands to
107
A Chumashan borrowed form / ∗ tomolo’ o/ ‘sewn-plank canoe’ with its four points of consonantal correspondence to the Polynesian source and its historically explicable vowels, is
a stronger candidate for borrowing even than kumara ‘sweet potato’, the only other word
generally accepted to have been diffused within the Pacific Basin (though in the opposite
direction). We believe that it is beyond the realm of chance that a monomorphemic Chumash
word could have four points of exact correspondence with a Polynesian compound of related
meaning (p. 477).
Jones and Klar argue that their linguistic findings
are consistent with a material record that includes two technologies (sewn-plank boats and
a particular style of two-piece bone fishhook) that also seem to reflect direct cultural contact
between Polynesia and southern California (pp. 476–477).
Jones and Klar specifically argue for transpacific cultural contact with southern
California from Polynesia after about AD 300. They support their case for cultural contact from evidence of a timed appearance of new technologies in southern
California, offering detailed evidence for transoceanic technological, cultural, artefactual and linguistic diffusion from Polynesia. Their carefully argued case for the
appearance of sewn-plank boat technology and a Polynesian style two-piece bone
fishhook, used for pelagic fishing in southern California after AD 300, supports our
claim for a second wave of Spice Island exploration, based like the first on following the Kuro Shio Current out of the West Pacific Warm Pool to its terminus in
southern California. Our paradigm predicts the likelihood both of earlier and of later
voyages to southern California via the Kuro Shio Current and predicts that the timings for such voyages would be separated by the severe global cold period between
1000 BC and 400 BC. Such a gap is consistent with the archaeological evidence
Jones and Klar present which confirms transoceanic contact and significant cultural
diffusion for both of the predicted periods. There is clear archaeological evidence
from southern California for transoceanic contact in both periods.
The timing of the introduction by Spice Island mariners of sewn-plank technology in southern California, between AD 400 and AD 800, accords with
archaeological evidence of the spread of this technology in coastal Asia in the early
centuries AD. Pierre-Yves Manguin notes that the earliest archaeological evidence
of a sewn-plank boat in Southeast Asia was discovered by I.H.N. Evans [5] on the
bank of the Pontian River, in the State of Pahang, on the east coast of the Malay
Peninsula in 1927. Radio-carbon dating yields a date of AD 293 ± 60. This date
accords with the dating of ceramics that were found in the wreck by Evans. A second early wreck from Butuan (Mindanao, Philippines) has been dated to AD 320 ±
110 [6]. Pierre-Yves Manguin remarks that both shipwrecks “belong to a shipbuilding tradition which has now been proved to be widespread in Island Southeast Asia,
and which may still be observed in remote areas such as Lamalera” (p. 333). The
timing for the introduction of sewn-plank boats and two-piece bone fishhooks to
southern California after AD 300 also accords with evidence from tradition which,
as we have seen, records the migration to Hawaii via Micronesia of a fleet of six
canoes led by Irapanga in AD 460 by our chronology (see Chapter 19). Irapanga’s
migration establishes that the Kuro Shio Current route from the Spice Islands to