376
21 A Consilience of Evidence
of the oceanographic functions of the West Pacific Warm Pool, leads naturally to a
recognition of the maritime significance of the high SSTs within the Pool for Spice
Island traders during the Ice Age and into the Holocene and encourages recognition
of the later importance for Spice Island maritime history of the role of its major
currents in creating warm ocean highways through colder oceans. As evidence from
these scientific disciplines is collated, the fundamental importance of the oceanographic history of the West Pacific Warm Pool in shaping Spice Island maritime
history becomes clear. Studying traditional histories recording migrations to Hawaii
and New Zealand, in the light of the oceanographic history of the West Pacific Warm
Pool and of the patterned behaviour of currents due to the Coriolis effect, shows the
scientific feasibility of the migrations that traditional histories record. Instead of
being read as descriptions of mythical events, these histories can be recognized as
documenting the maritime leap from the Spice Islanders’ oceanic voyaging within
the West Pacific Warm Pool to transoceanic voyaging beyond.
Following two of the fast warm currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm
Pool gave Spice Islanders significant trading advantages. Following the Equatorial
Current through the Indian Ocean gave them fast access via east Africa to spice markets in the Middle East and Europe. Conceivably, following the Kuro Shio Current
into the northern Pacific gave them very early access to a spice market in Japan
and possibly through Japan with coastal China. Following the Kuro Shio Current
all the way to America may have made it possible for both first- and second-wave
Spice Island mariners to pursue the rare plant trade to India that Sorenson and
Johannessen’s evidence documents as spanning 2,600 years (punctuated by the 600year gap of the global cold period). The economic motivation of horticultural trading
can be seen to have driven Spice Island trading history for 40,000 years. There
is a compelling logic in a Spice Island-based history with economics, physiology,
genetics, botany, oceanography and climate history shaping that history.
Mathematics is a context largely unexploited by archaeologists and prehistorians. Part II brings a mathematical perspective to two major archaeological issues
in the prehistory of New Zealand: the date for first settlement and the discrepancies between the numbers, size and apparent population capacity of pa and the low
population estimates for Maori at European contact. Combining a reading of the
prehistory of New Zealand in the context of global climate change with modern
statistical analysis of skeletal data, of pa data from field archaeology and of power
law estimates for founder population size and for population growth rates from first
settlement to AD 1445 leads to a rewriting of New Zealand palaeodemography. The
demographic patterns obtained by these means point to a greater time depth for first
settlement than is currently envisaged. Indeed, through an analysis of two ancient
genealogies preserved in the isolated Chatham Islands in Part III, we show that the
date for first settlement stretches back, as our paradigm predicts, to Lapita times.
The prehistory of New Zealand requires an understanding of the many combining
factors that have determined its course. It requires too an awareness of the many
contexts in which evidence, explicit and implicit, can be sought and interpreted. This
approach offers protection from the simplifications that can arise from too limited
a focus. We have attempted throughout the book to demonstrate the value of oral
21 A Consilience of Evidence
of the oceanographic functions of the West Pacific Warm Pool, leads naturally to a
recognition of the maritime significance of the high SSTs within the Pool for Spice
Island traders during the Ice Age and into the Holocene and encourages recognition
of the later importance for Spice Island maritime history of the role of its major
currents in creating warm ocean highways through colder oceans. As evidence from
these scientific disciplines is collated, the fundamental importance of the oceanographic history of the West Pacific Warm Pool in shaping Spice Island maritime
history becomes clear. Studying traditional histories recording migrations to Hawaii
and New Zealand, in the light of the oceanographic history of the West Pacific Warm
Pool and of the patterned behaviour of currents due to the Coriolis effect, shows the
scientific feasibility of the migrations that traditional histories record. Instead of
being read as descriptions of mythical events, these histories can be recognized as
documenting the maritime leap from the Spice Islanders’ oceanic voyaging within
the West Pacific Warm Pool to transoceanic voyaging beyond.
Following two of the fast warm currents flowing out of the West Pacific Warm
Pool gave Spice Islanders significant trading advantages. Following the Equatorial
Current through the Indian Ocean gave them fast access via east Africa to spice markets in the Middle East and Europe. Conceivably, following the Kuro Shio Current
into the northern Pacific gave them very early access to a spice market in Japan
and possibly through Japan with coastal China. Following the Kuro Shio Current
all the way to America may have made it possible for both first- and second-wave
Spice Island mariners to pursue the rare plant trade to India that Sorenson and
Johannessen’s evidence documents as spanning 2,600 years (punctuated by the 600year gap of the global cold period). The economic motivation of horticultural trading
can be seen to have driven Spice Island trading history for 40,000 years. There
is a compelling logic in a Spice Island-based history with economics, physiology,
genetics, botany, oceanography and climate history shaping that history.
Mathematics is a context largely unexploited by archaeologists and prehistorians. Part II brings a mathematical perspective to two major archaeological issues
in the prehistory of New Zealand: the date for first settlement and the discrepancies between the numbers, size and apparent population capacity of pa and the low
population estimates for Maori at European contact. Combining a reading of the
prehistory of New Zealand in the context of global climate change with modern
statistical analysis of skeletal data, of pa data from field archaeology and of power
law estimates for founder population size and for population growth rates from first
settlement to AD 1445 leads to a rewriting of New Zealand palaeodemography. The
demographic patterns obtained by these means point to a greater time depth for first
settlement than is currently envisaged. Indeed, through an analysis of two ancient
genealogies preserved in the isolated Chatham Islands in Part III, we show that the
date for first settlement stretches back, as our paradigm predicts, to Lapita times.
The prehistory of New Zealand requires an understanding of the many combining
factors that have determined its course. It requires too an awareness of the many
contexts in which evidence, explicit and implicit, can be sought and interpreted. This
approach offers protection from the simplifications that can arise from too limited
a focus. We have attempted throughout the book to demonstrate the value of oral