P V Kirch
Biographic Data
| ID | 2002 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P V Kirch |
| GIVEN NAMES | P V |
| FAMILY NAME | Kirch |
| SIGNATURE | KIRCH P V |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4264-6689 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 146 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 988 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 146 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 18 |
Development, Intensification and Sustainability of the Hālawa Valley Agroecosystem, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands, AD 1200–1850
One of four large valleys on the windward side of East Moloka'i, Hālawa was a major centre of traditional irrigated taro cultivation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Leveraging prior results of archaeological research undertaken in 1969–1970, from 2020 to 2022 we investigated the valley's irrigated and dryland agricultural features in order to better understand the longue durée of agricultural development, and to assess the long‐term sustain…
Ancient mitogenomes of Lapita pigs confirm continuity of the Pacific Clade in Remote Oceania
A Newly Identified Basalt Adze Quarry at Honoko‘i Gulch, East Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands
To date, no quarries were known on the eastern part of Moloka‘i Island, and it was assumed that the Kaluako‘i quarries on West Moloka‘i supplied the East Moloka‘i communities with adze material. Here, we report on the identification of a major quarry at Honoko‘i Gulch, near Hālawa Valley at the island's eastern tip. Fine‐grained basalt (technically hawaiite‐mugearite) exposed in a massive cliff was extracted and reduced to adze preforms at the qu…
People of the Sea, or of the Soil? How the Balance of Marine and Terrestrial Resource Availability Informs Maximum Population on Four Polynesian Islands
Most studies of the food resource potential of early Polynesian populations focus exclusively on agricultural potential, and specifically starchy staples, despite the importance of marine resources to the Polynesians. To more accurately estimate total precontact food resource availability, we characterized the terrestrial and near-shore marine environments of four Polynesian islands: Moʻorea, Maupiti, Mangareva and Taravai. We estimate the agricu…
A network of designs
The application of Social Network Analysis to the study of archaeological networks has become increasingly common around the world, with a proven track record of processing large, complex, spatial and temporal archaeological datasets. This study builds upon previous network‐based analyses of interaction between communities of the Lapita Cultural Complex, with a specific focus on the Early Period (c.3300/3200–3100 calBP) in the Bismarck Archipelag…
The pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands
Building upon a pioneering 1909 survey of Moloka‘i Island heiau (temples) by archaeologist John F. G. Stokes, the pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley is described and analysed. Ten heiau were relocated and mapped, with seven sites test excavated and radiocarbon dated. The majority of sites are terraces or terraced platforms in architectural form, ranging in size from 72 to 1300 square meters in basal area. Functionally, the temples include…
Remembering Douglas Ernest Yen (20 March 1924-7 July 2023)
Remembering Douglas Ernest Yen (20 March 1924–7 July 2023) Patrick V. Kirch Douglas E. Yen passed away peacefully at the age of 99, in Clovis, California. He was one of the most influential ethnobotanists and archaeobotanists of the Pacific and Asia region, even though his becoming an ethnobotanist was not planned but rather "accidental" in nature. I offer this reflection on Doug's life from the perspective of one who was mentored by him at an ea…
In Memoriam
Asian Perspectives, Vol. 63, No. 1 © 2024 by the University of Hawai‘i Press. IN MEMORIAM REMEMBERING DOUGLAS ERNEST YEN (20 MARCH 1924 – 7 JULY 2023) Early online release of obituary in press. Douglas E. Yen passed away peacefully at the age of 99, in Clovis, California. He was one of the most influential ethnobotanists and archaeobotanists of the Pacific and Asia region, even though his becoming an ethnobotanist was not planned but rather ‘acci…
The Hālawa dune site, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands
The Hālawa dune site on Moloka'i Island has played a key role in understanding early Hawaiian history. Initially excavated in 1969–1970 and regarded then as dating to the early phase of Hawaiian settlement, the site yielded a diverse artifact assemblage and the first evidence for round-ended house foundations in Hawai'i. Prior attempts to refine the site's chronology yielded inconsistent results. Renewed excavations and re-analysis of previously …
Why are sustainable practices often elusive? The role of information flow in the management of networked human-environment interactions
Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well u…
Provenance, production, and distribution of basalt and volcanic glass artifacts in Leeward Kohala, Hawaiʻi Island
We examined 2947 basalt and volcanic glass artifacts from 38 sites in leeward Kohala. Nondestructive energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence provided initial geochemical characterizations. Wavelength‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (WDXRF) and thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) analyses were completed on samples from ambiguously sourced groups. No more than 13.9% of the probable and definite adze‐related debitage originated in leeward Kohala.…
Soils, agriculture, and land use in island socio‐ecosystems
The availability of nutrient‐rich soils capable of supporting intensive cultivation was a key factor in the relative vulnerability and resilience of traditional Polynesian societies, whose economies were based on agricultural production. We tested the hypothesis that geological age was a key controlling factor in determining the nutrient status of island soils, extensively sampling soils on two islands and a small archipelago in southeastern Poly…
Irrigation, fortification, and the proto‐historic settlement landscape of the Ndughore Valley, Kolombangara, Western Solomon Islands
Archaeological sites in the Ndughore Valley of Kolombangara Island in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands were investigated in 1971. The sites include formerly‐irrigated pondfield terrace complexes in the valley bottom, ridgetop residential hamlets and specialised ritual sites. The presence of European material culture such as trade beads, clay pipes, glass, a musket barrel and iron axe head all indicate that these sites were occ…
Coordinated 14C and 230Th dating of Kitchen Cave rockshelter, Gambier (Mangareva) Islands, French Polynesia
The premise and potential of model-based approaches to island archaeology
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology , John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodynamics (see Cherry and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli and Leppard 2018; DiNapoli et al. 2018; Fitzpatrick and Erlandson 2018; Kirch 2007; McLaughlin, Stoddart, and Malone 2018; Pilaar Birch 2018). He argues that a review of insular model systems in the study of…
Robert Carl Suggs and the transformation of Pacific archaeology
The 1950s were a pivotal era in Polynesian archaeology, with the beginnings of stratigraphic excavations and application of radiocarbon dating. Robert Carl Suggs played a key role with his seminal work on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. Suggs’s use of artefact seriation, and his focus on architecture along with portable artefacts, were key methodological contributions. Unlike other contemporaries, Suggs brought a holistic anthropological pers…
Obsidian and volcanic glass artifact evidence for long-distance voyaging to the Polynesian Outlier island of Tikopia
Reconstructing routes of ancient long-distance voyaging, long a topic of speculation, has become possible thanks to advances in the geochemical sourcing of archaeological artifacts. Of particular interest are islands classified as Polynesian Outliers, where people speak Polynesian languages and have distinctly Polynesian cultural traits, but are located within the Melanesian or Micronesian cultural areas. While the classification of these groups …
W ade G raham . Braided Waters
Molokai—fifth largest of the Hawaiian Islands—occupies paradoxically both center and periphery. Geographically, its middle position puts Molokai at the center of the archipelago, yet for centuries the thirty-eight-mile long island has been culturally and economically peripheral. In Braided Waters: Environment and Society in Molokai, Hawaiʻi, Wade Graham addresses this paradox and attempts to understand how and why Molokai has persisted in this ma…
Qualities and Contributions of Agroforestry Practices and Novel Forests in Pre-European Polynesia and the Polynesian Outliers
Late Pre-Contact Construction and Use of an ‘Archaic’ Shrine at the Pālehua Complex (Honouliuli District, O‘ahu Island, Hawai‘i)
The Pālehua enclosure in upland Honouliuli (O‘ahu Island, Hawai‘i) is a celestially-significant ritual structure believed to be associated with the annual Makahiki harvest period. Near the enclosure is an alignment of six basalt uprights typical of simple Central East Polynesian marae (temples), and early ‘shrine’ sites found in other geographically isolated regions of the Hawaiian archipelago. Here, we report on the first excavation of this shri…
Who We Are and How We Got Here
Th dating of coral abraders from stratified deposits at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands
In Memoriam
In MemoriamYosihiko H. Sinoto (3 September 1924 – 4 October 2017) Patrick V. Kirch Click for larger view View full resolution Kenneth P. Emory (left) and Yosihiko H. Sinoto (right) at the Pu‘u Ali‘i sand dune site, South Point, Hawai‘i Island, in 1954, examining a remaining block of the thick midden layer that Emory had been excavating in arbitrary 6-inch levels. (Photograph courtesy of Y. H. Sinoto) yosihiko h. sinoto (1924–2017) and his contrib…
Unearthing the Polynesian Past
On the Road of the Winds
Archaeology and Global Change
Although human-induced changes to the global environment and natural biotic resources, collectively labeled "global change" and the "biodiversity crisis," have accelerated with industrialization over the past 300 years, such changes have a much longer history. Particularly since the rise of agriculturally based societies and associated population expansion during the early Holocene, humans have had cumulative and often irreversible impacts on nat…
Microcosmic Histories
The Pacific Islands, particularly the Polynesian islands, provide excellent model systems for understanding the human dimensions of global change. This is due to their uniquely microcosmic aspect. Little worlds unto themselves, islands are natural history's best shot at something approaching the controlled experiment. The human choices that have led to particular outcomes on these islands teach us that nothing is inevitable or predetermined. The …
Hawaii as a Model System for Human Ecodynamics
The human ecodynamics approach in archaeology privileges landscape as a core concept, asserting that there can be no environment or ecosystem detached from humans and their behavior. Drawing on recent research of a multidisciplinary biocomplexity project, I explore in this article the Hawaiian archipelago as a model system for studying human ecodynamics. Natural patterns of biogeochemical and climate gradients constrained the development of inten…
New archaeological insights into food and status
Social differentiation and hierarchy were more highly developed in protohistoric Hawaii than in any other Polynesian culture. In this paper we draw upon both ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence in order to examine the correlations between social status and consumption of 'luxury' foods. We examine the concept of 'luxury food' from an indigenous, emic perspective, finding that in protohistoric Hawaii the concept most closely correlates to fa…
Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact
How Chiefs Became Kings
In How Chiefs Became Kings , Patrick Vinton Kirch addresses a central problem in anthropological archaeology: the emergence of "archaic states" whose distinctive feature was divine kingship. Kirch takes as his focus the Hawaiian archipelago, commonly regarded as the archetype of a complex chiefdom. Integrating anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, traditional history, and theory, and drawing on significant contributions from his own four decade…
Archeology, deep history, and the human transformation of island ecosystems
Prehistoric Exchange in Western Melanesia
Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are trafficked. In this article I trace the range of anthropological ...Read More
The evolution of sociopolitical complexity in prehistoric Hawaii
Second millenniumB.C. arboriculture in Melanesia
Long‐distance exchange and Island colonization
The Lapita cultural complex (3600–2500 BP), spanning the area from the Bismarck Archipelago to Samoa, is now widely regarded as representing the initial dispersal of Austronesian language speakers in the Pacific. Substantial archaeological evidence indicates that Lapita communities were linked in a complex network of long‐distance exchange. In addition to obsidian, chert, metavolcanic adzes, ceramics and other exotic artefacts, it is argued here …
The To'aga Site
Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands
Not every first footstep on a virgin shore leaves enduring trace, nor every first human settlement an enduring deposit that chances to survive, and then chances to be observed archaeologically. Good environmental evidence from Mangaia Island, central East Polynesia, gives - it is contended - a fairer picture of the human invasion of remote Oceania than the short and sceptical chronology recently published in ANTIQUITY
Archaeology of the Lapita Cultural Complex
Lapita sites of the Bismarck Archipelago
The Lapita questionThe prehistory of the western Pacific has, for the last 30 years, been dominated by the problem of the origins of the present Polynesian and Melanesian cultures (Terrell 1988). In 1961 Golson drew attention to the distribution of highly decorated Lapita pottery, now known to date from between 3500 BP and 2000 BP, which crossed the present-day division between Melanesia and Polynesia. Furthermore, sites with Lapita pottery repre…
Agricultural potential and actualized development in Hawai’i
Intensive dryland farming on the leeward slopes of Haleakala, Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Polynesians settled and farmed the leeward, relatively arid slopes of Haleakala Volcano beginning about ad 1400. Archaeological investigations at two sites revealed dense concentrations of conical impressions in a subsurface 20cm cinder layer that was previously undisturbed, interpreted as resulting from cultivation practices involving digging sticks. Ethnographic accounts of Hawaiian sweet potato and dryland taro cultivation techniques provide d…
Geospatial modeling of pre-contact Hawaiian production systems on Molokaʻi Island, Hawaiian Islands
Human ecodynamics in theMangarevaIslands
TheGambierIslands (FrenchPolynesia) are noted for their extreme deforestation and low biodiversity in the post‐European contact period. We report on the archaeological and palaeoecological investigation of a stratified rock shelter (siteAGA‐3) onAgakauitaiIsland, revealing a sequence of environmental transformation followingPolynesian colonisation of the archipelago. Radiocarbon dates indicate use of the rock shelter from the 13th to the mid‐17th…
Predicting Similarity in Material Culture among New Guinea Villages from Propinquity and Language
Lapita and Oceanic Cultural Origins
The Lapita Cultural Complex, ranging 5,000 km from the Bismarck Archipelago to Western Polynesia and spanning the period 3600 to 2500 B.P., represents the initial colonization of the SW Pacific by Austronesian peoples. Recent work in the Bismarck Archipelago, the putative Lapita "homeland," has yielded new data on the initial phases of the Complex. This report summarizes excavations at three Lapita sites in the Mussau Islands. In addition to clas…
Is there an early Far Western Lapita province? Sample size effects and new evidence from Eloaua Island
Mid- to late Holocene landscape change and anthropogenic transformations on Mo‘orea, Society Islands
Archaeology’s ability to generate long-term datasets of natural and human landscape change positions the discipline as an inter-disciplinary bridge between the social and natural sciences. Using a multi-proxy approach combining archaeological data with palaeoenvironmental indicators embedded in coastal sediments, we outline millennial timescales of lowland landscape evolution in the Society Islands. Geomorphic and cultural histories for four coas…
Temple Sites in Kahikinui, Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian temple sites of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries have diverse orientations previously thought to be random. Using precise measurements and nineteenth-century native Hawaiian sources, the author shows that the temples cluster into groups whose orientation was deliberate and likely to relate to a particular god
Human skeletal and dental remains from Lapita sites (1600–500 B.C. ) in the Mussau Islands, Melanesia
The Lapita Cultural Complex, radiometrically dated to between 3,600 and 2,500 B.P. , is regarded on archaeological evidence as ancestral to modern Austronesian‐speaking cultures of eastern Melanesia and Polynesia. To date, there has been a lack of human skeletal and dental material from Lapita sites; thus, the present sample from Mussau Island, although small, offers an opportunity to present some preliminary observations of their importance to O…
Rapport préliminaire sur les recherches archéologiques effectuées aux îles Wallis et Futuna (Polynésie occidentale)
Kirch Patrick Vinton. Rapport préliminaire sur les recherches archéologiques effectuées aux îles Wallis et Futuna (Polynésie occidentale). In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, n°53, tome 32, 1976. pp. 307-310
Archaeology
The Lapitoid Period in West Polynesia
The Lapitoid period in Western Polynesia represents initial human colonization of this region by Austronesian-speaking peoples during the 1st millenium B.C. As such, an understanding of cultural adaptation by the Lapitoid peoples to their insular environments is crucial to our knowledge of Polynesian cultural development. Recent excavations on Niuatoputapu Island, in the modern Kingdom of Tonga, have provided significant new data on the Lapitoid …
Indigenous agriculture on Uvea (Western Polynesia)
Lapitoid settlements of Futuna and Alofi, Western Polynesia
Ecology and the Adaptation of Polynesian Agricultural Systems
The ecology of marine exploitation in prehistoric Hawaii
Mangaasi-Style ceramics from Tikopia and Vanikoro and their implications for East Melanesian prehistory
Man's Role in Modifying Tropical and Subtropical Polynesian Ecosystems
The Hawaiian case
Ross H. Cordy. A Study of Prehistoric Social Change: The Development of Complex Societies in the Hawaiian Islands. New York: Academic Press, 1981. xii + 274 pp. $29.00
The polynesian outliers
(1984). The polynesian outliers: Continuity, change, and replacement. The Journal of Pacific History: Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 224-238
Archeology
Structural Patterns of Sibling Classification in Island Oceania
The underlying structure of discriminations in the classification of siblings has received considerable attention. Prior research has demonstrated the tendency of patterns of sibling classification to persist, often for thousands of years, in groups of societies that speak related languages. In this paper it is shown that a sample of 223 societies from Island Oceania exhibits 11 structural types of sibling classification linked in a developmental…
Tikopia
The Evolution of Polynesian Chiefdoms
On the genetic and cultural relationships of certain polynesian outlier populations
The results of a population genetic study of several Polynesian Outlier and Melanesian populations are compared with recent findings from archaeology. Certain remarkable correspondences offer independent confirmation of particular inter‐island contacts and prehistoric population movements
Archeology
History, Phylogeny, and Evolution in Polynesia [and Comments and Reply]
Impact of tourism on archaeological resources in Hawaii
Lapita and Oceanic Cultural Origins
The Lapita Cultural Complex, ranging 5,000 km from the Bismarck Archipelago to Western Polynesia and spanning the period 3600 to 2500 B.P., represents the initial colonization of the SW Pacific by Austronesian peoples. Recent work in the Bismarck Archipelago, the putative Lapita "homeland," has yielded new data on the initial phases of the Complex. This report summarizes excavations at three Lapita sites in the Mussau Islands. In addition to clas…
Radiocarbon Dates from two Coastal Sites in the Manu'a Group, American Samoa
Samples of inshore marine shell species (various taxa, see description below) were collected from controlled excavation of ceramic-bearing strata of two archaeologic sites in the Manu'a Island group, American Samoa. Located on the closely adjacent islands of Ta'u and Ofu (14° 14’ 30” S, 169° 30’ 40” E and 14° 10’ 55” S, 169° 39’ 0” E, respectively), these sites represent human occupation along shorelines undergoing a parallel depositional sequenc…
Reply to Ross
Is there an early Far Western Lapita province? Sample size effects and new evidence from Eloaua Island
Peasants, Subsistence Ecology, and Development in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
Lawrence S. Grossman explores the far-reaching implications of the conflicts between subsistence and commodity production in developing countries. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting…
Archeology
Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. Peter Bellwood.Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory. V. N. Misra and Peter Bellwood, eds
Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (128 works) · Archaeology (110 works) · Geography (99 works) · History (83 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (58 works) · Sociology (44 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (42 works) · Biology (39 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (36 works) · Prehistory (35 works)