期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2014
卷号:111
期号:41
页码:14728-14733
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1408491111
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:SignificanceConservation of a large section of an early, sophisticated sailing canoe recently discovered on the New Zealand coast provides an opportunity to study maritime technology directly associated with the colonization of East Polynesia. A sea turtle carved on its hull makes symbolic connections with ancestral Polynesian culture. We describe the artifact, identify and radiocarbon date construction materials, and reconstruct a likely form of the canoe in the context of archaeological and ethnohistoric information. The canoe is contemporary with early archaeological settlements around New Zealand and on-going voyaging between Polynesian islands. The colonization of the islands of East Polynesia was a remarkable episode in the history of human migration and seafaring. We report on an ocean-sailing canoe dating from close to that time. A large section of a complex composite canoe was discovered recently at Anaweka on the New Zealand coast. The canoe dates to approximately A.D. 1400 and was contemporary with continuing interisland voyaging. It was built in New Zealand as an early adaptation to a new environment, and a sea turtle carved on its hull makes symbolic connections with wider Polynesian culture and art. We describe the find and identify and radiocarbon date the construction materials. We present a reconstruction of the whole canoe and compare it to another early canoe previously discovered in the Society Islands.