Foraging for Food? Prehistoric Pit Features at Pohakuloa, Hawai'i Island

Abstract

When Polynesians discovered the Hawaiian Islands over 1,500 years ago they brought with them the traditions of their ancestors. These traditions included an ability to adapt to new lands. Colonizers brought with them all of their major food crops such as taro (Colocasia esculenla), sweet potato (Ipomoea balalas), breadfruit (Arlocarpus aItilis), yam (Dioscorea aIala), banana (Musa), and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum). These crops were critical in sustaining human populations on the islands.