M D Mccoy
Biographic Data
| ID | 31577 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M D Mccoy |
| GIVEN NAMES | M D |
| FAMILY NAME | Mccoy |
| SIGNATURE | MCCOY M D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1929-1579 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 344 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The Importance of Fit-for-Purpose Evaluation for Computer Vision in Archaeology
Hand-drawn field maps are an irreplaceable archive of archaeological sites, yet converting scanned images of analog field maps into geospatial data remains a significant bottleneck. Currently, prompt-driven large language models (LLMs) cannot reproduce human heads-up digitizing consistently or affordably at scale. LLMs do, however, allow users to quickly produce custom computer vision (CV) workflows. We describe an example of one such custom Pyth…
Visible Wealth in Past Societies
Domestic architecture is increasingly revisited as a source of data about wealth inequality in the distant past via the Gini coefficient, a statistical tool often used in economics to compare income inequality. Many areas—including South America, Africa, South Asia and Oceania—remain under-sampled, making it difficult to develop a more complete picture of ancient political economies. In this paper we present a first look at this measure in the Ha…
The Global Dynamics of Inequality (Gini) project
The GINI project investigates the dynamics of inequality among populations over the long term by synthesising global archaeological housing data. This project brings archaeologists together from around the world to assess hypotheses concerning the causes and consequences of inequality that are of relevance to contemporary societies globally
The patterning of volcanic glass transfer across eastern Oʻahu Island, Hawaiʻi
Temporal patterns in the economization of obsidian use in Aotearoa New Zealand
Māori discovered and used a range of obsidian sources throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Temporal patterns in the economic use of obsidian are investigated with geochemical data, a technological analysis, and use-wear analysis of obsidian artifacts. We examined 11 metrics related to geologic source, flake size, fragmentation ratio, and use-wear on assemblages of artifacts over 20 mm in size from seven North Island assemblages dating to the Early/Mi…
Mapping Ancient Architecture via Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle-acquired LiDAR
At present there is no systematic record of the size, form or density of architecture at Hawaiian royal centres. We report on the results of a UAV LiDAR survey of one of the best-preserved examples of a royal centre in the archipelago: Hōlualoa Royal Centre, Kona District, Hawai'i Island. The resolution of our data (0.3-0.1 m) is far superior to previous airborne LiDAR surveys (1.0 m); however, several factors, including thick understory vegetati…
Garden Offerings in the Kona Field System, Hawai'i Island
Identifying and explaining the end of long-lived practices is a major challenge for anthropological archaeology. We present a high-precision uranium series dating (230Th/U) chronology of an undocumented aspect of Hawaiian religion: the use of corals as offerings in gardens. Our results from the upland gardens of Kealakekua (Kona District, Hawai'i Island) document the onset of religious offerings at the same time as farming in the area at around A…
Exploring archaeological landscapes using drone-acquired lidar
Defining the geospatial revolution in archaeology
Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle Acquired Lidar for Mapping Monumental Architecture
As lidar becomes a regular part of surveying, ground-based platforms (handheld, mobile, and terrestrial lidar) and airborne platforms (piloted aircraft) are being joined by unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV)–acquired lidar. We present a method for leveraging UAV-acquired lidar data with data collected using different lidar platforms (terrestrial and piloted aircraft), at a range of resolutions (1 to +1,000 points per m 2 ) and geographic scales. We u…
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 …
Collective action and political agency in the leeward Kohala hinterlands, Hawai‘i Island
The kuaʻ‘āina, or backcountry, in the Hawaiian Islands was the setting for a dynamic back-and-forth between the collective action of commoner class farmers and political elites. We examine how the long-term history of that dynamic left behind spatial patterns in the form and distribution of domestic, agricultural, and ritual architecture across the Leeward Kohala Field System. We find a contrast between places that were the best and most reliable…
The Site Problem
While the site concept continues to be fundamental to archaeology there are a number of known practical and theoretical problems with sites as units of observation. In the digital age, geospatial technologies give us the capacity to detect, record, index, and analyze sites at scales impossible in the analog age when the notion of a site entered our lexicon. Using examples from recent research, I present a critical review of how geospatial technol…
Don't Panic. It's Just Theory
Geochemical Sourcing of New Zealand Obsidians by Portable X-Ray Fluorescence from 2011 to 2018
This dataset includes 4,582 obsidian artefacts matched to their natural geological source from 45 archaeological sites in New Zealand (Aotearoa). It is a compilation of a number of independent projects conducted in the laboratories of the University of Auckland and University of Otago from 2011 to 2018 [1–13]. It combines previously published studies [3, 5–13], an MA thesis [1], a BA(Hons) dissertation [2], a site report [4], and other previously…
Preparing for the Future Impacts of Megastorms on Archaeological Sites
Powerful hurricanes in 2017-Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria-were stark examples of how these previously rare catastrophes are becoming increasingly normal due to climate change, with dire consequences for cultural resources. These storms, sometimes called megastorms or superstorms, were the first in which high-resolution satellite imagery was available in the immediate aftermath, providing a new tool for rapidly evaluating damage to archaeolog…
In Pursuit of Māori Warfare
The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania - Cochrane & Hunt
Celebration as a source of power in archaic states
Large celebrations in ancient societies, when viewed through the lens of political economy theory, were opportunities for economic redistribution, elite rivalry and social integration. Metrics to evaluate celebratory behaviour – such as festive gatherings, offerings at temples and shrines, games and memorials – remain underdeveloped. Here the author examines the archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Isla…
Visualising Hawaiian Sacred Sites
In the early 1900s, Australian-born archaeologist John F.G. Stokes was the first to extensively use modern surveying techniques and photography to document Hawaiian archaeological sites. Stokes carried out fieldwork for a Bishop Museum-based research program driven by interests in Polynesian origins and Hawaiian religious change, focusing specifically on the monumental temple sites called heiau in Hawaiian. Using a sample of the visual record of …
The Difficult Place of Deserted Coasts in Archaeology
Sites which have been occupied semi-continuously in the past present some inherent difficulties for archaeology. Here we present new research from a coastal site on the North Island of New Zealand at Cooks Beach where anthropogenic vegetation changes are seen using microfossil analysis of obsidian tools, sediments and pit fill. The results indicate the initial presence of people in AD 1300–1400 followed by subsequent periods of disuse or abandonm…
Geospatial Big Data and archaeology
Evaluating agricultural bet‐hedging strategies in the Kona Field System
The Kona Field System, located on the leeward side of Hawai‘i Island, is comprised of a network of stone field walls, terraces, mounds and other agricultural, residential and religious features stretched over an estimated 163 km2. Previous research indicates a construction history of the fields that could have begun as early as the Foundation Period (AD 1000–1200), followed by a shift in agricultural strategies from those that reduce variance in …
Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230 Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural …
Archaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High-quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of …
Defining the Pacific
New Developments in the Use of Spatial Technology in Archaeology
Airborne lidar survey of irrigated agricultural landscapes
Geospatial Big Data and archaeology
Archaeological evidence for agricultural development in Kohala, Island of Hawai‘i
A cost surface model of volcanic glass quarrying and exchange in Hawai‘i
Agricultural potential and actualized development in Hawai’i
The role of agricultural innovation on Pacific Islands
Agriculture was essential in providing for food security, population growth and surplus social production on Pacific Islands. This paper discusses innovations first seen between ad 1400 and 1650 that opened up roughly 60 per cent of the available farm land in the Hawaiian Islands. These innovations include terraced fields in narrow gulches, some using simple flooding to take irrigation water to adjacent lands, and permanent rock and earthen align…
Strategies for constructing religious authority in ancient Hawai'i
Through intensive archaeological investigation of temples in Hawai'i, the authors reveal a sequence of religious strategies for creating and maintaining authority that has application to prehistoric sequences everywhere. Expressed in the orientation and layout of the temples and their place in the landscape, these strategies develop in four stages over the course of a few hundred years, from the fifteenth to nineteenth century AD, from local shri…
Introduction of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) to the Hawaiian Islands
Evaluating agricultural bet‐hedging strategies in the Kona Field System
The Kona Field System, located on the leeward side of Hawai‘i Island, is comprised of a network of stone field walls, terraces, mounds and other agricultural, residential and religious features stretched over an estimated 163 km2. Previous research indicates a construction history of the fields that could have begun as early as the Foundation Period (AD 1000–1200), followed by a shift in agricultural strategies from those that reduce variance in …
Geochemical sourcing of obsidians from thePūrākaunuisite,SouthIsland,NewZealand
We report the first well‐documented case of aSouthIsland site whereMayorIsland obsidian is not the dominant source represented. At thePūrākaunui site (I44/21), located in coastalOtago, we find that most obsidians come from theTaupoVolcanicZone, including sources nearLakeTaupo (52%) andRotorua (27.7 %). A small proportion of the collection comes fromMayorIsland (10.8%) and theCoromandelPeninsula (9.5%) obsidian. The results point to early effects …
Reconstructing Lithic Supply Zones and Procurement Areas
While our ability to match lithic artefacts to geological source continues to improve, few explicit techniques exist for the spatial analysis and interpretation of sourced assemblages on the regional level. Obsidian from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand is used here to describe a method of spatial analysis focused on defining intra-regional procurement areas where people accessed a common set of sources. The results suggest future analyses of Nort…
Celebration as a source of power in archaic states
Large celebrations in ancient societies, when viewed through the lens of political economy theory, were opportunities for economic redistribution, elite rivalry and social integration. Metrics to evaluate celebratory behaviour – such as festive gatherings, offerings at temples and shrines, games and memorials – remain underdeveloped. Here the author examines the archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Isla…
A Revised Late Holocene Culture History for Moloka'i Island, Hawai'i
Building directly upon a previous summary of 45 dates (Weisler 1989), this paper presents radiocarbon age determinations for 175 samples from archaeological and natural contexts and a revised culture history of Moloka'i Island, Hawai'i (cal AD 800 and 1795). Significant culture historical trends include an early settlement pattern apparently generalized with respect to ecozone; a remarkably long initial period of marine and endemic bird exploitat…
Does Carneiro's circumscription theory help us understand Maori history? An analysis of the obsidian assemblage from Pouerua Pa, New Zealand (Aotearoa)
Wind erosion and intensive prehistoric agriculture
Wind erosion is a major problem for modern farmers, a key variable affecting nutrient levels in ecosystems, and a potentially major force impacting archaeological site formation; however, it has received scant consideration in geoarchaeological studies of agricultural development compared with more easily quantifiable environmental costs, such as vegetation change or fluvial erosion. In this study, soil nutrient analysis is used in the Kalaupapa …
The influence of religious authority in everyday life
Public architecture has proven its utility as a metric for the materialization of religious authority; however, archaeologists have been less successful at identifying how ideology is materialized outside formal ritual settings. Here we address the question of how religious laws that dictated separation of people and activities – known as the kapu system – influenced the way homes were built in pre-European contact era Hawai‘i. On the landscape s…
The Geographic Range of Interaction Spheres During the Colonization of New Zealand (Aotearoa)
During the colonization of remote Pacific Islands, founding communities forged novel interaction spheres within newly settled archipelagos. We report on new research on the geographic range of interaction spheres in the first centuries of occupation of New Zealand based on geochemical source identifications from obsidian assemblages found along the coast of the Otago region in the southern South Island. Results suggest that while there is evidenc…
Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle Acquired Lidar for Mapping Monumental Architecture
As lidar becomes a regular part of surveying, ground-based platforms (handheld, mobile, and terrestrial lidar) and airborne platforms (piloted aircraft) are being joined by unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV)–acquired lidar. We present a method for leveraging UAV-acquired lidar data with data collected using different lidar platforms (terrestrial and piloted aircraft), at a range of resolutions (1 to +1,000 points per m 2 ) and geographic scales. We u…
Preparing for the Future Impacts of Megastorms on Archaeological Sites
Powerful hurricanes in 2017-Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria-were stark examples of how these previously rare catastrophes are becoming increasingly normal due to climate change, with dire consequences for cultural resources. These storms, sometimes called megastorms or superstorms, were the first in which high-resolution satellite imagery was available in the immediate aftermath, providing a new tool for rapidly evaluating damage to archaeolog…
In Pursuit of Māori Warfare
Defining the geospatial revolution in archaeology
The Difficult Place of Deserted Coasts in Archaeology
Sites which have been occupied semi-continuously in the past present some inherent difficulties for archaeology. Here we present new research from a coastal site on the North Island of New Zealand at Cooks Beach where anthropogenic vegetation changes are seen using microfossil analysis of obsidian tools, sediments and pit fill. The results indicate the initial presence of people in AD 1300–1400 followed by subsequent periods of disuse or abandonm…
Temporal patterns in the economization of obsidian use in Aotearoa New Zealand
Māori discovered and used a range of obsidian sources throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Temporal patterns in the economic use of obsidian are investigated with geochemical data, a technological analysis, and use-wear analysis of obsidian artifacts. We examined 11 metrics related to geologic source, flake size, fragmentation ratio, and use-wear on assemblages of artifacts over 20 mm in size from seven North Island assemblages dating to the Early/Mi…
Irrigated taro (Colocasia esculenta) farming in North Kohala, Hawai‘i
Archaeological evidence for agricultural development in Kohala, Island of Hawai‘i
Wind erosion and intensive prehistoric agriculture
Wind erosion is a major problem for modern farmers, a key variable affecting nutrient levels in ecosystems, and a potentially major force impacting archaeological site formation; however, it has received scant consideration in geoarchaeological studies of agricultural development compared with more easily quantifiable environmental costs, such as vegetation change or fluvial erosion. In this study, soil nutrient analysis is used in the Kalaupapa …
A Revised Late Holocene Culture History for Moloka'i Island, Hawai'i
Building directly upon a previous summary of 45 dates (Weisler 1989), this paper presents radiocarbon age determinations for 175 samples from archaeological and natural contexts and a revised culture history of Moloka'i Island, Hawai'i (cal AD 800 and 1795). Significant culture historical trends include an early settlement pattern apparently generalized with respect to ecozone; a remarkably long initial period of marine and endemic bird exploitat…
New Developments in the Use of Spatial Technology in Archaeology
Dwelling Among the Gods
We report on the excavation of an upland habitation site in Kahikinui, Maui, interpreted as the residence of a priest (kahuna) in the traditional Hawaiian religious system. The site, consisting of a large stone terrace and walled house foundation, lies within a ceremonial precinct incorporating several temple (heiau) structures. Six radiocarbon dates bracket the period of occupation between AD 1650 and 1820, although the duration of use was proba…
Reconstructing Lithic Supply Zones and Procurement Areas
While our ability to match lithic artefacts to geological source continues to improve, few explicit techniques exist for the spatial analysis and interpretation of sourced assemblages on the regional level. Obsidian from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand is used here to describe a method of spatial analysis focused on defining intra-regional procurement areas where people accessed a common set of sources. The results suggest future analyses of Nort…
Introduction of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) to the Hawaiian Islands
The role of agricultural innovation on Pacific Islands
Agriculture was essential in providing for food security, population growth and surplus social production on Pacific Islands. This paper discusses innovations first seen between ad 1400 and 1650 that opened up roughly 60 per cent of the available farm land in the Hawaiian Islands. These innovations include terraced fields in narrow gulches, some using simple flooding to take irrigation water to adjacent lands, and permanent rock and earthen align…
Sourcing the Megalithic Stones of Nan Madol
Nan Madol is a massive 81 hectare prehistoric administrative and ceremonial complex made up of 93 constructed islets on the high volcanic island of Pohnpei. Built between A.D. 900 and 1650 over earlier settlement remains along the southern coast of Temwen Island within the fringing reef, the site is noted for its distinctive use of columnar basalt and large boulders. XRF analysis presented here suggests the site’s builders favoured columnar basal…
A cost surface model of volcanic glass quarrying and exchange in Hawai‘i
Airborne lidar survey of irrigated agricultural landscapes
Agricultural potential and actualized development in Hawai’i
Strategies for constructing religious authority in ancient Hawai'i
Through intensive archaeological investigation of temples in Hawai'i, the authors reveal a sequence of religious strategies for creating and maintaining authority that has application to prehistoric sequences everywhere. Expressed in the orientation and layout of the temples and their place in the landscape, these strategies develop in four stages over the course of a few hundred years, from the fifteenth to nineteenth century AD, from local shri…
Irrigated taro (Colocasia esculenta) farming in North Kohala, Hawai‘i
The value of an "eclectic and pragmatic" approach to chronology building
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Does Carneiro's circumscription theory help us understand Maori history? An analysis of the obsidian assemblage from Pouerua Pa, New Zealand (Aotearoa)
Understanding the Hawaiian Past
The Significance of Religious Ritual in Ancient Hawai‘i
A volume in honour of Patrick Kirch’s intellectual contribution to the archaeology of Hawai‘i would be incomplete without a discussion of his wide-ranging scholarship on the topic of traditional Hawaiian religion. In this paper, I focus on themes that we can see throughout his career. The first is the incorporation of the study of heiau (temples), shrines, and other sacred sites described in ethnohistory within the historical context of the devel…
Geochemical sourcing of obsidians from thePūrākaunuisite,SouthIsland,NewZealand
We report the first well‐documented case of aSouthIsland site whereMayorIsland obsidian is not the dominant source represented. At thePūrākaunui site (I44/21), located in coastalOtago, we find that most obsidians come from theTaupoVolcanicZone, including sources nearLakeTaupo (52%) andRotorua (27.7 %). A small proportion of the collection comes fromMayorIsland (10.8%) and theCoromandelPeninsula (9.5%) obsidian. The results point to early effects …
The Geographic Range of Interaction Spheres During the Colonization of New Zealand (Aotearoa)
During the colonization of remote Pacific Islands, founding communities forged novel interaction spheres within newly settled archipelagos. We report on new research on the geographic range of interaction spheres in the first centuries of occupation of New Zealand based on geochemical source identifications from obsidian assemblages found along the coast of the Otago region in the southern South Island. Results suggest that while there is evidenc…
Earliest direct evidence of monument building at the archaeological site of Nan Madol (Pohnpei, Micronesia) identified using 230 Th/U coral dating and geochemical sourcing of megalithic architectural …
Archaeologists commonly use the onset of the construction of large burial monuments as a material indicator of a fundamental shift in authority in prehistoric human societies during the Holocene. High-quality direct evidence of this transition is rare. We report new interdisciplinary research at the archaeological site of Nan Madol that allows us to specify where and when people began to construct monumental architecture in the remote islands of …
Integrating Research and Collections Management
The Ho‘omaka Hou Research Initiative is a collaborative research endeavor that is primarily focused on the analysis of the Bishop Museum’s Archaeology Collections. The goal of Ho‘omaka Hou (which literally means “to begin again”) is to encourage continued work with these invaluable museum collections, and to bring together researchers and students with various research interests in order to learn more about the past. In addition to conducting res…
The influence of religious authority in everyday life
Public architecture has proven its utility as a metric for the materialization of religious authority; however, archaeologists have been less successful at identifying how ideology is materialized outside formal ritual settings. Here we address the question of how religious laws that dictated separation of people and activities – known as the kapu system – influenced the way homes were built in pre-European contact era Hawai‘i. On the landscape s…
After the missionaries
Archaeology of traditional religious sites in Polynesia tends to focus on the “pre-contact†era, before religions were transformed by European influence. An historical archaeology of traditional religious sites is essential, however, for understanding the relationship between 21st-century traditional or indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and the transformations wrought during the colonial era. Traditional religion certainly did not disapp…
Visualising Hawaiian Sacred Sites
In the early 1900s, Australian-born archaeologist John F.G. Stokes was the first to extensively use modern surveying techniques and photography to document Hawaiian archaeological sites. Stokes carried out fieldwork for a Bishop Museum-based research program driven by interests in Polynesian origins and Hawaiian religious change, focusing specifically on the monumental temple sites called heiau in Hawaiian. Using a sample of the visual record of …
Archaeology (42 works) · Geography (37 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (34 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (30 works) · History (23 works) · Archaeological Research and Protection (12 works) · Geology (12 works) · Agriculture (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (11 works)