A model‐based age estimate for Polynesian colonization of Hawai'i

Abstract

ABSTRACT A model‐based Bayesian calibration using 14 C data from paleoenvironmental cores and materials introduced to the islands by Polynesian colonists estimates that the islands were likely colonized sometime late in the first millennium AD. Two calibrations, one using 14 C dates on floral materials and the other using 14 C dates on floral and faunal materials, indicate that archaeological materials yield relatively imprecise estimates of the colonization event with 95% highest posterior density regions 3–5 centuries long. Materials introduced to the islands by Polynesians date to two periods, one that coincides with the colonization event, and another some 3–6 centuries later. A disparity between colonization and the first reliably dated archaeological evidence of human activity is identified and estimated to be 1–4 centuries long.