The Pānānā or "Sighting Wall" at Hanamauloa, Kahikinui, Maui: Archaeological Investigation of a Possible Navigational Monument

Authors

  • Patrick V. Kirch University of California, Berkeley
  • Clive Ruggles University of Leicester
  • Warren D. Sharp Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.122.1.45-68

Abstract

A unique stone monument consisting of a notched, linear wall and associated features, situated at Hanamauloa in Kahikinui District, Maui Island, is interpreted as a probable pre-contact navigational structure. Ethnographic testimony refers to the structure as a pānānā or "sighting wall". Archaeological investigation revealed that the wall and associated cairn and upright are positioned so that the notch precisely frames the stars of the Southern Cross when the constellation is exactly positioned above the upright slab visible through the notch. In Hawaiian traditions, the Southern Cross is known as a guiding star to Kahiki, the ancestral homeland. Precise Uranium-series dating of branch coral associated with the cairn suggests an age of AD 1444 ± 4 for 68 construction and/or use of the site. The broader geographical context of the monument is also discussed, including a suite of place names referring to ancestral Polynesian lands. Finally, it is suggested that the pānānā may relate to an important figure in Hawaiian oral traditions, the voyaging chief La'amaikahiki.

Author Biographies

Patrick V. Kirch, University of California, Berkeley

Patrick V. Kirch is the Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology and Integrative Biology 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 latest book, A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i, won the Society for American Archaeology's 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, and his publications range from prehistoric Europe and pre-Columbian America to indigenous astronomies in Africa and elsewhere. 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.

Warren D. Sharp, Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley

Warren D. Sharp is a Geochronologist and Associate Director at the Berkeley Geochronology Center in Berkeley, California. He directs the Center's uranium-series dating laboratory, which is dedicated to providing a temporal framework for significant events and processes within the past 500,000 years in a variety of contexts including archaeology, paleo-anthropology, paleo-climatology and neotectonics. He has previously collaborated with Professor Kirch and others to refine the chronology of precontact Polynesian monumental architecture in the Hawaiian and Society Islands.

Journal of the Polynesian Society, Volume 122, Issue 1, March 2013

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Published

2013-05-28

Issue

Vol. 122 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Articles

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Dr Marcia Leenen-Young, Editor
The Polynesian Society
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