20.8 The Early Prehistory of New Zealand
359
AD 1295. The Maikoua line has them arriving 98 generations after the first settlement of the Chatham Islands and yields a date of AD 1258. These dates show
reasonable agreement.
There is external evidence that enables us to offer a third estimate for this later
colonization. As we saw in Section 20.3, Shand notes, probably from Moriori traditions, that Kahukura’s nephew and niece migrated in the Rangimata and that the
niece’s husband actually built the canoe. From the Navigators’ Line we have a
date of 1230 for Kahukura, associated with a level 5 El Niño in 1230, which we
linked to the migrations he led in tropical Polynesia. If we add a generation length
from the main Rarotongan line, we get a date of about AD 1255 for the arrival of
the Rangimata in the Chatham Islands. This exhibits excellent agreement with the
Maikoua line estimate.
Tradition tells us that the voyage from Eastern Polynesia to the Chatham Islands
was slow and perilous. The migrants arrived starving, suffering from thirst, so weak
that they were unable to bring the Rangihoua safely to land, many drowning as the
canoe broke up when the migrants tried to beach it [9].
Two and a half thousand years of almost unbroken isolation preserved the two
Moriori genealogies that enable us to sketch a history for the Moriori of the Chatham
Islands and to estimate from the genealogical record of their history a date not
only for the first settlement of the Chatham Islands in about 805 BC but the first
settlement of New Zealand in about 1378 BC. The latter estimate places the first
settlement of New Zealand firmly in what is thought of as the age of Lapita colonization between 3,600 and 3,000 years ago. The Lake Huguang Maar climate proxy
data locates the event about 1358 BC. This date suggests that New Zealand was seen
as a prime colony, a first choice not an afterthought, and that it was probably settled
before Western Polynesia. The warm East Australian Current sweeping past New
Caledonia to the west coast of the South Island provided a fast ocean passage from
New Caledonia that was little longer than the length of New Zealand itself. The high
frequency of El Niño events 3,400 years ago noted by Anderson et al. could have
provided the additional sailing support of a strong El Niño northerly.
20.8 The Early Prehistory of New Zealand
The early prehistory and palaeodemography of the Lapita-age colony in New
Zealand was shaped by climate as surely as the later prehistory and palaeodemography of New Zealand during the Little Ice Age. A near-extinction event, linked to an
early major eruption of Taupo and the descent at about this time of the coldest global
period in 6,000 years, isolated New Zealand till the time of Tu-te-rangi-marama (360
BC). It did so at a time when its population was small and vulnerable to isolation.
Ceilings of sustainability were not at issue. The population was too small to starve
even if the biomass was greatly reduced by cold. It was isolation that threatened
survival. Migration normally involves genetic bottlenecks and Polynesian migrations were tribal and kin-based. Genetic bottlenecks lead to faster coalescence, a
359
AD 1295. The Maikoua line has them arriving 98 generations after the first settlement of the Chatham Islands and yields a date of AD 1258. These dates show
reasonable agreement.
There is external evidence that enables us to offer a third estimate for this later
colonization. As we saw in Section 20.3, Shand notes, probably from Moriori traditions, that Kahukura’s nephew and niece migrated in the Rangimata and that the
niece’s husband actually built the canoe. From the Navigators’ Line we have a
date of 1230 for Kahukura, associated with a level 5 El Niño in 1230, which we
linked to the migrations he led in tropical Polynesia. If we add a generation length
from the main Rarotongan line, we get a date of about AD 1255 for the arrival of
the Rangimata in the Chatham Islands. This exhibits excellent agreement with the
Maikoua line estimate.
Tradition tells us that the voyage from Eastern Polynesia to the Chatham Islands
was slow and perilous. The migrants arrived starving, suffering from thirst, so weak
that they were unable to bring the Rangihoua safely to land, many drowning as the
canoe broke up when the migrants tried to beach it [9].
Two and a half thousand years of almost unbroken isolation preserved the two
Moriori genealogies that enable us to sketch a history for the Moriori of the Chatham
Islands and to estimate from the genealogical record of their history a date not
only for the first settlement of the Chatham Islands in about 805 BC but the first
settlement of New Zealand in about 1378 BC. The latter estimate places the first
settlement of New Zealand firmly in what is thought of as the age of Lapita colonization between 3,600 and 3,000 years ago. The Lake Huguang Maar climate proxy
data locates the event about 1358 BC. This date suggests that New Zealand was seen
as a prime colony, a first choice not an afterthought, and that it was probably settled
before Western Polynesia. The warm East Australian Current sweeping past New
Caledonia to the west coast of the South Island provided a fast ocean passage from
New Caledonia that was little longer than the length of New Zealand itself. The high
frequency of El Niño events 3,400 years ago noted by Anderson et al. could have
provided the additional sailing support of a strong El Niño northerly.
20.8 The Early Prehistory of New Zealand
The early prehistory and palaeodemography of the Lapita-age colony in New
Zealand was shaped by climate as surely as the later prehistory and palaeodemography of New Zealand during the Little Ice Age. A near-extinction event, linked to an
early major eruption of Taupo and the descent at about this time of the coldest global
period in 6,000 years, isolated New Zealand till the time of Tu-te-rangi-marama (360
BC). It did so at a time when its population was small and vulnerable to isolation.
Ceilings of sustainability were not at issue. The population was too small to starve
even if the biomass was greatly reduced by cold. It was isolation that threatened
survival. Migration normally involves genetic bottlenecks and Polynesian migrations were tribal and kin-based. Genetic bottlenecks lead to faster coalescence, a