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A wiggle-match date for Polynesian settlement of New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alan G. Hogg ,
Thomas F. G. Higham ,
David J. Lowe ,
Jonathan G. Palmer ,
Paula J. Reimer  and
Rewi M. Newnham
Alan G. Hogg
Affiliation:
Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. (Alan.Hogg@waikato.ac.nz)
Thomas F. G. Higham
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England, U.K.
David J. Lowe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand
Jonathan G. Palmer
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, U.K.
Paula J. Reimer
Affiliation:
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry L–397, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550, U.S.A.
Rewi M. Newnham
Affiliation:
Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, England, U.K.
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Abstract

Dating initial colonisation and environmental impacts by Polynesians in New Zealand is controversial. A key horizon is provided by the Kaharoa Tephra, deposited from an eruption of Mt Tarawera, because just underneath this layer are the first signs of forest clearance which imply human settlement. The authors used a log of celery pine from within Kaharoa deposits to derive a new precise date for the eruption via “wiggle-matching” – matching the radiocarbon dates of a sequence of samples from the log with the Southern Hemisphere calibration curve. The date obtained was 1314 ± 12 AD (2σ error), and the first environmental impacts and human occupation are argued to have occurred in the previous 50 years, i.e. in the late 13th – early 14th centuries AD. This date is contemporary with earliest settlement dates determined from archaeological sites in the New Zealand archipelago.

Keywords

East PolynesiaNew ZealandMaoridendrochronologywiggle-matching14C datingcolonisationdeforestationtephrochronologytephraKaharoa eruption

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Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 295 , March 2003 , pp. 116 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

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