Ideology, Ceremony and Calendar in Pre-Contact Hawai‘i: Astronomical Alignment of a Stone Enclosure on O‘ahu Suggests Ceremonial Use during the Makahiki Season

Authors

  • Timothy M. Gill University of California, Berkeley
  • Patrick V. Kirch University of California, Berkeley
  • Clive Ruggles University of Leicester
  • Alexander Baer Stanford University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.124.3.243-268

Keywords:

Archaeoastronomy, Hawaiian religion, monumental architecture, Hawaiian archaeology, Polynesian religion

Abstract

The Hawaiian people before Western contact gathered at special places during the Makahiki period, a time that was sacred to the god Lono, and during which sports, games and other ceremonies took place. Archaeological excavation and archaeoastronomical investigation together suggest that an approximately 40 m2 rock enclosure in the uplands of Honouliuli on the island of O‘ahu was such a special gathering place. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the enclosure was most likely constructed between the late AD 1500s and early AD 1600s, with a notable period of use during the mid-AD 1600s. The archaeoastronomical evidence supports this conclusion, in that the enclosure is precisely aligned upon the horizon rising point in AD 1600 of the Pleiades star cluster (Makali‘i in Hawaiian), whose first appearance each November marked the beginning of the four-month Makahiki “annnual harvest†period dedicated to the god Lono. That time period saw the peaking and stabilisation of population on O‘ahu, and the expansion of settlements into marginal environmental zones such as Honouliuli. A significant number of temples built around the same time on the island of Maui are oriented in a similar manner.

Author Biographies

Timothy M. Gill, University of California, Berkeley

Timothy Gill is Visiting Scholar at the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, and a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology.  His research focuses on the archaeological evidence for the origins and development of modern human cognition.

Patrick V. Kirch, University of California, Berkeley

Patrick V. Kirch is Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.  A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, he has carried out archaeological and ethnographic research throughout Polynesia for more than 40 years.  His recent book, A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai‘i, won the Society for American Archaeology 2013 book award.

Clive Ruggles, University of Leicester

Clive Ruggles is Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, U.K.  His research focuses upon people’s perceptions and uses of the sky and celestial objects in various social contexts.  He is a past President of the Prehistoric Society and is a leading figure in a joint initiative by UNESCO and the International Astronomical Union working to promote, preserve, and protect the world's most important astronomical heritage sites.  He has recently published, together with Rubellite Johnson and John Mahelona, a revised version of Nä Inoa Hökü: Hawaiian and Pacific Star Names (Ocarina Books/University of Hawai‘i Press 2015), and is Editor-in-Chief of the three-volume Springer Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, published in 2014.

Alexander Baer, Stanford University

Alexander Baer received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a lecturer at Stanford University in their Undergraduate “Thinking Matters†Program. His research explores how environmental factors influence social and political organization, with an emphasis on the emergence of archaic states in pre-contact Hawai‘i.

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Published

2015-10-09

Issue

Vol. 124 No. 3 (2015)

Section

Articles

License

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