Rapa Nui Journal Volume 32 Issue 1 and 2
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ItemEaster Island Foundation News( 2019)The Easter Island Foundation is pleased to have the opportunity to partner with University of Hawai‘i Press to bring you Volume 32 of the Rapa Nui Journal. We are grateful to UH Press for providing us with the opportunity to continue to publish the journal, the only publication of its kind to focus specifically on Easter Island.
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ItemThe Many Uses of Matā on Rapa Nui( 2019)Obsidian tools with a stem or tang attached to a blade and known as matā have been recovered from a broad range of archaeological contexts on Rapa Nui. Their highly variable morphology suggests that this class of artifact had multiple, but too few analyses of their use-wear have been conducted to be confident about the relationships between form and use. A sample of 22 matā from sealed archaeological deposits in a cave on the southern coast of Rapa Nui and ranging in age from ca. A.D. 1300–1800 were analyzed using high power magnification. The patterns of use-wear scarring, striations, polishes, and residues demonstrate that the tools were all hafted and were used in a broad range of activities including fish processing and the manufacture and/or decoration of wooden, bone, and shell artifacts. The results demonstrate the importance of additional comprehensive usewear and residue studies for understanding the multiple roles of matā within ancient Rapa Nui society.
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ItemRapanui in the World and the World on Rapa Nui – A Report from Two International Scientific Conferences held on Rapa Nui during November 2018( 2019)This report provides synthesis and commentary about two international scientific conferences held on Rapa Nui during November 2018. The first conference, the Early Pacific Migration Conference, brought academics in the Oceanic research community together to consider Pacific Ocean and island palaeoecology, the migration of humans, fauna, and flora, ancestral navigation, and archaeology to better understand the myriad of Oceanic island cultures, environments, and legacies. The second conference, the 1st International Symposium of Rapa Nui – Heritage,Culture, and Society from aContemporary Perspective, viewedRapaNui fromamore current standpoint tounderstandChileanstate and Rapanui local relations, history, anthropology and representation, and cultural and environmental goals. Together, the two conferences produced 60 papers, conducted multiple field visits, and provided challenging and rewarding experiences, which highlighted the past and present of Rapa Nui, to prepare it for the future.
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ItemArchitecturally Modified Caves on Rapa Nui: Post-European Contact Ritual Spaces?( 2019)Caves on Rapa Nui that possess well-constructed tunnel entrance features are currently interpreted as places of temporary refuge (ana kionga) used in the late seventeenth century during a period of internal island conflict. The analysis of the cave interior architecture and artifact assemblage from Site 6-357 suggests an alternate interpretation where the caves may have served as prepared ritual spaces where food consumption, sewing and body adornment were conducted. Radiocarbon and obsidian hydration dating indicate that the caves were most likely constructed after European contact and were not present at an earlier time.
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ItemKukuipahu: A Unique Hawaiian Monumental Structure Utilizing Cut-and-Dressed Stone Masonry( 2019)Although common in other islands of Eastern Polynesia, cut-and-dressed masonry is exceedingly rare in Hawai‘i. This article describes a significant exception, Kukuipahu Heiau, a monumental structure in the Kohala district, Hawai‘i Island, which incorporates more than one hundred cut-and-dressed basalt slabs, as well as worked red scoria blocks. There appear to have been at least two construction phases, with an earlier phase utilizing the worked stone, followed by a destructive interval, and then a later phase characterized by more typical Hawaiian stacked stone construction. A precise survey of the structure shows that it deviates only slightly from cardinality, but when the altitude of the Kohala ridgeline is taken into account, the site was oriented within 1–2° of the equinoctial rising of the sun. Hawaiian oral traditions associate the hewing of temple stones with the famed Hawai‘i Island king ‘Umi-a-Līloa; we suggest that Kukuipahu Heiau may have been built during his reign, a hypothesis that deserves further research.
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