Posted on 07/12/2010 5:50:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ancient Polynesians went from building small-scale temples to constructing monumental, pyramid-shaped temples in just 140 years, not in four or five centuries as previously calculated, according to research led by a University of California, Berkeley, anthropologist and published this week in the print edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Patrick V. Kirch, a UC Berkeley professor of anthropology and of integrative biology and a Pacific Islands expert, said his research team applied a high-precision thorium/uranium dating process to samples of decorative veneers, large blocks and religious offerings -- all of them made of coral -- that were found in 22 temple sites on the Pacific island of Mo'orea. The process, commonly used on fossils, can precisely determine the age of calcium carbonate materials such as coral... They linked a clear progression of architectural change and increasingly elaborate temples on Mo'orea from 1620 to 1760 A.D. to political competition, increasing stratification and hierarchy that accompanied the region's growing cult worship of 'Oro, a god of war and of fertility, and new sacred regalia and religious rituals that included human sacrifice.
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
This map of Mo'orea Island shows where researchers sampled coral used in architectural features of large temples at Nu'urua, Nu'upure and Umarea. The inset image shows Mo'orea's place in the Society Islands archipelago. (Courtesy of Patrick V. Kirch) This engraving of Marae Mahaiatea on Tahiti Island, published in 1799, shows the largest temple ever built in the Society Islands. It is based on a sketch by Captain W. Wilson. (Courtesy of Patrick V. Kirch)
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Union free work sites?
It still took the slowpokes 140 years to build what is basically just a stack of rocks.
Looks like they were lousy plumbers.
Hey, I thought it was Bora Bora, not Moorea Moorea. ;’)
Is it just me or has FR been very klugey lately?
Pokey maybe. Not sure about klugey. The flag graphics have been gone since the server crash three weeks ago.
Uh-oh, you know what this means...
https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/
Hey, no metal tools, no draft animals, and in a climate where wood, materials, and pretty much everything rotted faster than you could usually build.
Plus permanent structures were typically smaller in the form of rock walls, and other utilitarian - like bird hunting blinds (star mounds).
Ironically, while Polynesians were navigating thousands of miles over open ocean using the stars, Europeans still thought the world ended over the horizon.
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