8
1 Introduction
1.5 Some of the Implications of a Spice Island-Based
Polynesian Prehistory
Because we focus on new areas of interest, to some extent our work complements
rather than contradicts existing research. Prehistorians in the last 50 years have
focussed on the difficulties of late west–east colonization of Eastern Polynesia from
Western Polynesia against the trade winds and currents of the southern Pacific. With
a Spice Island base of expansion and an earlier time frame, we focus on completely
different exploration and migration paths. We consider the very different exploration and sailing strategies involved in following three of the major fast warm West
Pacific Warm Pool currents into colder oceans and in exploiting knowledge of the
predictable patterning of ocean currents (dictated by the Coriolis effect) that allow
the currents themselves to lead explorers to new lands and to guide them home
again. Our research, in other words, challenges the primacy of the later west–east
settlement of the Eastern Polynesia from Western Polynesia but not the history or
processes involved in that settlement.
Most prehistorians see Hawaii and New Zealand as Eastern Polynesian outliers, settled late from Eastern Polynesia. Most regard them as the last lands in
the Pacific to be colonized. Here our views diverge significantly. For we argue
that Spice Island explorers and colonizers, following major currents flowing out
of the West Pacific Warm Pool, discovered and colonized Hawaii and New Zealand
long before the settlement of Eastern Polynesia. We show that they did so using
migration paths described in oral traditions: following the East Australian Current
flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool south to New Zealand and following the Kuro Shio Current flowing through the West Pacific Warm Pool north to
Japan and then east through the northern Pacific to Hawaii. The claim that Hawaii
and New Zealand were discovered and colonized before the settlement of Eastern
Polynesia is not a claim we make lightly. We devote a 100 pages in Part II to its
substantiation.
Our claim for an early first settlement of New Zealand, of course, involves us
in controversy. It draws us into what has been described as a persisting “unresolved
polarized debate about the time of initial human colonization” for New Zealand [11].
Our study of the oceanographic background to Polynesian voyaging and the central
paradigm we define provide a new context for considering the likelihood that Spice
Island mariners followed a West Pacific Warm Pool current, the East Australian
Current, to New Zealand, as traditional sources record. (See Chapter 16.) There is
evidence that Spice Island mariners followed the Kuro Shio Current from the Spice
Islands to southern California before 1000 BC. The possibility that Spice Island
mariners also followed another West Pacific Warm Pool current over a shorter route
to reach New Zealand before 1000 BC is seriously considered. Our contribution to
this heated and unresolved debate is twofold. We provide an oceanographic context
in which the likelihood of an early first settlement of New Zealand can be considered
and we present new evidence for such a settlement from palaeodemography and
global climate history.
1 Introduction
1.5 Some of the Implications of a Spice Island-Based
Polynesian Prehistory
Because we focus on new areas of interest, to some extent our work complements
rather than contradicts existing research. Prehistorians in the last 50 years have
focussed on the difficulties of late west–east colonization of Eastern Polynesia from
Western Polynesia against the trade winds and currents of the southern Pacific. With
a Spice Island base of expansion and an earlier time frame, we focus on completely
different exploration and migration paths. We consider the very different exploration and sailing strategies involved in following three of the major fast warm West
Pacific Warm Pool currents into colder oceans and in exploiting knowledge of the
predictable patterning of ocean currents (dictated by the Coriolis effect) that allow
the currents themselves to lead explorers to new lands and to guide them home
again. Our research, in other words, challenges the primacy of the later west–east
settlement of the Eastern Polynesia from Western Polynesia but not the history or
processes involved in that settlement.
Most prehistorians see Hawaii and New Zealand as Eastern Polynesian outliers, settled late from Eastern Polynesia. Most regard them as the last lands in
the Pacific to be colonized. Here our views diverge significantly. For we argue
that Spice Island explorers and colonizers, following major currents flowing out
of the West Pacific Warm Pool, discovered and colonized Hawaii and New Zealand
long before the settlement of Eastern Polynesia. We show that they did so using
migration paths described in oral traditions: following the East Australian Current
flowing out of the West Pacific Warm Pool south to New Zealand and following the Kuro Shio Current flowing through the West Pacific Warm Pool north to
Japan and then east through the northern Pacific to Hawaii. The claim that Hawaii
and New Zealand were discovered and colonized before the settlement of Eastern
Polynesia is not a claim we make lightly. We devote a 100 pages in Part II to its
substantiation.
Our claim for an early first settlement of New Zealand, of course, involves us
in controversy. It draws us into what has been described as a persisting “unresolved
polarized debate about the time of initial human colonization” for New Zealand [11].
Our study of the oceanographic background to Polynesian voyaging and the central
paradigm we define provide a new context for considering the likelihood that Spice
Island mariners followed a West Pacific Warm Pool current, the East Australian
Current, to New Zealand, as traditional sources record. (See Chapter 16.) There is
evidence that Spice Island mariners followed the Kuro Shio Current from the Spice
Islands to southern California before 1000 BC. The possibility that Spice Island
mariners also followed another West Pacific Warm Pool current over a shorter route
to reach New Zealand before 1000 BC is seriously considered. Our contribution to
this heated and unresolved debate is twofold. We provide an oceanographic context
in which the likelihood of an early first settlement of New Zealand can be considered
and we present new evidence for such a settlement from palaeodemography and
global climate history.