Abstract
Two long genealogies preserved in the Chatham Islands record a 3,000-year-long history for the Moriori inhabitants. Major events in that history – one of extreme isolation – are tied to specific ancestors and so placed in a defined time line. This time line intersects the main Rarotongan line through a famous early ancestor common to both lines over 2,000 years ago. Through this connection it is possible to translate the Chatham Island time line into a western chronology and so, for example, to estimate dates both for the first settlement of the Chathams and for the first settlement of New Zealand. These estimates can be sharpened using new high-resolution climate proxy data based on the analysis of sediments from Lake Huguang Maar in China. This provides precise dating for events for which the two Moriori lines provide genealogical estimates. A strong pattern emerges from climate-based analysis in Chapters 19 and 20: the correlation in all periods for which there is genealogical data, of voyaging activity with rare extreme climate events. These events can be precisely dated using high-resolution climate proxy data.
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Pearce, C.E., Pearce, F. (2010). Dating the First Migration to New Zealand. In: Oceanic Migration. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3826-5_20
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