Geoffrey Irwin
Biographic Data
| ID | 246542 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Geoffrey Irwin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Geoffrey |
| FAMILY NAME | Irwin |
| SIGNATURE | IRWIN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0009-0009-2421-551X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Three Late 18th Century CE East Polynesian Sails in the British Museum Collected from New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii (or the Marquesas) Reveal Regional Adaptations in Sailing Technology
Three unique sails in the British Museum provide valuable information about sailing technology and practice in the late 18th century, CE, and insights into early East Polynesian migration. The sails were collected from New Zealand, Tahiti, and the third most probably from Hawaii or the Marquesas. Tacking double canoes were used in the settlement of East Polynesia, in combination with the Oceanic spritsail, and the sails reveal different adaptatio…
The sailing performance of ancient Polynesian canoes and the early settlement of East Polynesia
Scholarly estimates and opinions of the sailing performance of ancient Pacific canoes vary widely. This paper measures performance by testing real sails in a wind tunnel and hulls in a towing tank. The sails were three East Polynesian Oceanic spritsails of late eighteenth century type, held by the British Museum, collected from New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii/Marquesas, which conform to the first historical records. Also tested was a hypothetical …
Experimental Voyages by Two Traditional Canoes of the Kula Area, Papua New Guinea, One Real and One Virtual, Provide Insights into the Study of Ancient Sailing Technology of the Pacific Ocean
We compare identical voyages by two traditional Kula sailing canoes in the Massim, Papua New Guinea. One voyage was made by a real canoe in 2002 and the other voyage by a virtual canoe, retrospectively in 2020. Both voyages were made in the same recorded weather. The sailing capability of the two canoes was closely matched. The simulated voyage establishes that theoretical modelling of canoe sailing performance can be realistic and applied to the…
The archaeology of Māori settlement and pā on Pōnui Island, Inner Hauraki Gulf, AD 1400-1800
This paper describes previously unreported archaeological work on Pōnui Island, New Zealand. Coastal sites date from the end of the fourteenth century AD, and one, S11/20, has evidence for surface structures, cooking, and tool manufacture and use. The harvesting of marine resources and horticulture were involved from the beginning. Earthwork defenses were built at 23 sites between AD 1500 and 1800. At least six of these fortified sites (pā) were …
Observations on the Northern Moluccan excavated animal bone and shell collections
This study deals with all the animal bones from seven sites: Tanjung Pinang with Daeo Caves 1 and 2 (Morotai Island), Uattamdi (Kayoa Island), Um Kapat Papo and Golo (Gebe Island), and Siti Nafisah (Halmahera Island
The origins of the Kula Ring: Archaeological and maritime perspectives from the southern Massim and Mailu areas of Papua New Guinea
This paper is focused on the archaeology of Massim exchange and the development of the Kula Ring. It establishes an ethnographic baseline for the European contact period, and summarises fieldwork in the southern Massim. It provides a first description of the prehistoric pottery sequence and draws together previous information from the northern Massim and the Mailu area into a study of the archaeological origins of the Kula Ring. In the last centu…
A Review of Archaeological Māori Canoes (Waka) Reveals Changes in Sailing Technology and Maritime Communications in Aotearoa/New Zealand, AD 1300–1800
We compare ethnological views of Māori canoes (waka) of the first colonisation period with those of the European contact period, and then describe diverse archaeological waka from the interim period. The aim is to reconstruct basic design elements of whole canoes and to suggest their relative ages. Variations in form relate to differences in sailing ability and we refer to scientific performance testing of a range of model canoe hulls and sails. …
Understanding Aotearoa’s past through the recovery and conservation of a 15th-century canoe and its fibrework from Papanui Inlet, Otago Peninsula
When Tasman and Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1642 and 1769 respectively they both sighted double-hulled canoes (waka) on New Zealand’s coast. However, over the next 100 or so years these canoes disappeared. Fortuitously the recent rescue and conservation of a waterlogged waka and fibrework assemblage on the shores of Papanui Inlet has allowed rare insight into the lives of its inhabitants nearly 550 years ago, when New Zealand’s seminal migrant…
Pacific colonisation and canoe performance: Experiments in the science of sailing
We report on a collaboration between archaeology and the Yacht Research Unit at the University of Auckland to investigate the sailing characteristics of Pacific canoes, both ancient and modern. Archaeology provides a chronology for the colonisation of Pacific Islands, but one mystery that remains is how well the canoes could sail. We describe the first phase of testing reconstructed model hulls and sails. By combining aerodynamic and hydrodynamic…
Driving Factors in the Colonization of Oceania: Developing Island-Level Statistical Models to Test Competing Hypotheses
Migration is a key driver of human cultural and genetic evolution, with recent theoretical advances calling for work to accurately identify factors behind early colonization patterns. However, inferring prehistoric migration strategies is a controversial field of inquiry that largely relies on interpreting settlement chronologies and constructing plausible narratives around environmental factors. Model selection approaches, along with new statist…
Wetland archaeology and the study of late Māori settlement patterns and social organisation in Northern New Zealand
This paper is concerned with prehistoric changes in the scale of settlement, social organisation and chieftainship in northern New Zealand. It suggests an excavation strategy for pā, describes examples of sites at a communal level and carries insights from wetland archaeology into the study of wider social landscapes. Increasing stress within landscapes is implicit in episodes of pā building, which occurred at different times in different places.…
Further Investigations at the Naigani Lapita site (VL 21/5), Fiji: Excavation, Radiocarbon Dating and Palaeofaunal Extinction
This paper brings up-to-date a report by S. Best of initial excavations at Naigani in 1981 (Best 1981). The results of subsequent fieldwork in 2000 include the excavation and dating of Lapita-age ovens associated with early settlement and extinct palaeofauna. These include the giant megapode (Megavitiornis altirostris), a species of Ducula pigeon, the giant iguana (Lapitiguana impensa), and probably the endemic crocodile (Volia athollandersoni). …
The Emergence of a Central Place in Coastal Papuan Prehistory: A Theoretical Approach
The Development of Mailu as a Specialized Trading and Manufacturing Centre in Papuan Prehistory: The Causes and the Implications
The dry and the wet: The variable effect of taphonomy on the dog remains from the Kohika Lake Village, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Pacific Seascapes, Canoe Performance, and a Review of Lapita Voyaging with Regard to Theories of Migration
The first part of this paper establishes in a general kind of way that the domain or seascape that Lapita sailors operated in was more demanding than that of Wallacea and Near Oceania, but markedly less so than that negotiated later by East Polynesians. The second part takes a look at the form and performance of canoes, the possible nature of Lapita craft, and suggests ways to improve modern estimates of prehistoric performance by mechanical and …
Kohika, a Late Maori Lake Village in Northern New Zealand
Kohika was a Maori lake village connected by rivers to both coastal and inland regions. Excellent access by canoe to food resources and trade routes brought high rewards, but exposure to floods and earthquakes carried high risks. This article describes the geomorphology, vegetation history, excavations and site structure, the wooden and fibre artefacts, the faunal and coprolite evidence, and issues of site function and location. Kohika was a subs…
Pollen, Phytoliths and Diatoms in Prehistoric Coprolites from Kohika, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
Recensione di un importante testo di antropologia. Gli esploratori preistorici del Pacifico percorrevano fino a centocinquanta miglia marine in ventiquattrore. Ma il criterio nautico cruciale era quello dell’intervisibilità tra le nuove isole raggiunte e le isole ancora da raggiungere, per creare una sorta di corridoio dello sguardo, di fondamentale importanza sia per la localizzazione delle successive mète di popolamento, sia per garantire la so…
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
Archaeological research in the northern Moluccas; interim results, 1991 field season
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The exploration and colonisation of the Pacific is a remarkable episode of human prehistory. Early sea-going explorers had no prior knowledge of Pacific geography, no documents to record their route, no metal, no instruments for measuring time and none for exploration. Forty years of modern archaeology, experimental voyages in rafts, and computer simulations of voyages have produced an enormous range of literature on this controversial and myster…
Voyaging by canoe and computer: Experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean
There is no expansion of human settlement to match the colonization of the Pacific islands, from Island Southeast Asia right across to Hawaii, Easter Island and down to New Zealand. The expansion is given an extra interest by the new finding that it began as early as the Pleistocene. The settlement of the remote Pacific began after 3500 BP and computer modelling and analysis of inter-island transits explains not just how settlement was possible-b…
Human Colonisation and Change in the Remote Pacific
Pots and entrepôts: A study of settlement, trade and the development of economic specialization in Papuan prehistory
Significant changes occurred within a regional settlement system in the Mailu area of south‐east Papua. Some 2,000 years ago it was settled by people who practised an agricultural and fishing economy and lived in coastal villages which were functionally unspecialized. In successive periods sites formed coherent and structured spatial distributions; settlement density increased and there was an associated shift in village location. Through time on…
The origins of the Kula Ring: Archaeological and maritime perspectives from the southern Massim and Mailu areas of Papua New Guinea
This paper is focused on the archaeology of Massim exchange and the development of the Kula Ring. It establishes an ethnographic baseline for the European contact period, and summarises fieldwork in the southern Massim. It provides a first description of the prehistoric pottery sequence and draws together previous information from the northern Massim and the Mailu area into a study of the archaeological origins of the Kula Ring. In the last centu…
Human Colonisation and Change in the Remote Pacific
Pollen, Phytoliths and Diatoms in Prehistoric Coprolites from Kohika, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
Voyaging by canoe and computer: Experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean
There is no expansion of human settlement to match the colonization of the Pacific islands, from Island Southeast Asia right across to Hawaii, Easter Island and down to New Zealand. The expansion is given an extra interest by the new finding that it began as early as the Pleistocene. The settlement of the remote Pacific began after 3500 BP and computer modelling and analysis of inter-island transits explains not just how settlement was possible-b…
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The Emergence of a Central Place in Coastal Papuan Prehistory: A Theoretical Approach
Wetland archaeology and the study of late Māori settlement patterns and social organisation in Northern New Zealand
This paper is concerned with prehistoric changes in the scale of settlement, social organisation and chieftainship in northern New Zealand. It suggests an excavation strategy for pā, describes examples of sites at a communal level and carries insights from wetland archaeology into the study of wider social landscapes. Increasing stress within landscapes is implicit in episodes of pā building, which occurred at different times in different places.…
The Development of Mailu as a Specialized Trading and Manufacturing Centre in Papuan Prehistory: The Causes and the Implications
Pacific colonisation and canoe performance: Experiments in the science of sailing
We report on a collaboration between archaeology and the Yacht Research Unit at the University of Auckland to investigate the sailing characteristics of Pacific canoes, both ancient and modern. Archaeology provides a chronology for the colonisation of Pacific Islands, but one mystery that remains is how well the canoes could sail. We describe the first phase of testing reconstructed model hulls and sails. By combining aerodynamic and hydrodynamic…
Driving Factors in the Colonization of Oceania: Developing Island-Level Statistical Models to Test Competing Hypotheses
Migration is a key driver of human cultural and genetic evolution, with recent theoretical advances calling for work to accurately identify factors behind early colonization patterns. However, inferring prehistoric migration strategies is a controversial field of inquiry that largely relies on interpreting settlement chronologies and constructing plausible narratives around environmental factors. Model selection approaches, along with new statist…
The archaeology of Māori settlement and pā on Pōnui Island, Inner Hauraki Gulf, AD 1400-1800
This paper describes previously unreported archaeological work on Pōnui Island, New Zealand. Coastal sites date from the end of the fourteenth century AD, and one, S11/20, has evidence for surface structures, cooking, and tool manufacture and use. The harvesting of marine resources and horticulture were involved from the beginning. Earthwork defenses were built at 23 sites between AD 1500 and 1800. At least six of these fortified sites (pā) were …
Archaeological research in the northern Moluccas; interim results, 1991 field season
Understanding Aotearoa’s past through the recovery and conservation of a 15th-century canoe and its fibrework from Papanui Inlet, Otago Peninsula
When Tasman and Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1642 and 1769 respectively they both sighted double-hulled canoes (waka) on New Zealand’s coast. However, over the next 100 or so years these canoes disappeared. Fortuitously the recent rescue and conservation of a waterlogged waka and fibrework assemblage on the shores of Papanui Inlet has allowed rare insight into the lives of its inhabitants nearly 550 years ago, when New Zealand’s seminal migrant…
Pots and entrepôts: A study of settlement, trade and the development of economic specialization in Papuan prehistory
Significant changes occurred within a regional settlement system in the Mailu area of south‐east Papua. Some 2,000 years ago it was settled by people who practised an agricultural and fishing economy and lived in coastal villages which were functionally unspecialized. In successive periods sites formed coherent and structured spatial distributions; settlement density increased and there was an associated shift in village location. Through time on…
On efficiency, gifts and exchange theory: A reply
Voyaging by canoe and computer: Experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean
There is no expansion of human settlement to match the colonization of the Pacific islands, from Island Southeast Asia right across to Hawaii, Easter Island and down to New Zealand. The expansion is given an extra interest by the new finding that it began as early as the Pleistocene. The settlement of the remote Pacific began after 3500 BP and computer modelling and analysis of inter-island transits explains not just how settlement was possible-b…
Human Colonisation and Change in the Remote Pacific
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The exploration and colonisation of the Pacific is a remarkable episode of human prehistory. Early sea-going explorers had no prior knowledge of Pacific geography, no documents to record their route, no metal, no instruments for measuring time and none for exploration. Forty years of modern archaeology, experimental voyages in rafts, and computer simulations of voyages have produced an enormous range of literature on this controversial and myster…
Archaeological research in the northern Moluccas; interim results, 1991 field season
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific
Recensione di un importante testo di antropologia. Gli esploratori preistorici del Pacifico percorrevano fino a centocinquanta miglia marine in ventiquattrore. Ma il criterio nautico cruciale era quello dell’intervisibilità tra le nuove isole raggiunte e le isole ancora da raggiungere, per creare una sorta di corridoio dello sguardo, di fondamentale importanza sia per la localizzazione delle successive mète di popolamento, sia per garantire la so…
Pollen, Phytoliths and Diatoms in Prehistoric Coprolites from Kohika, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Kohika, a Late Maori Lake Village in Northern New Zealand
Kohika was a Maori lake village connected by rivers to both coastal and inland regions. Excellent access by canoe to food resources and trade routes brought high rewards, but exposure to floods and earthquakes carried high risks. This article describes the geomorphology, vegetation history, excavations and site structure, the wooden and fibre artefacts, the faunal and coprolite evidence, and issues of site function and location. Kohika was a subs…
The dry and the wet: The variable effect of taphonomy on the dog remains from the Kohika Lake Village, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Pacific Seascapes, Canoe Performance, and a Review of Lapita Voyaging with Regard to Theories of Migration
The first part of this paper establishes in a general kind of way that the domain or seascape that Lapita sailors operated in was more demanding than that of Wallacea and Near Oceania, but markedly less so than that negotiated later by East Polynesians. The second part takes a look at the form and performance of canoes, the possible nature of Lapita craft, and suggests ways to improve modern estimates of prehistoric performance by mechanical and …
The Emergence of a Central Place in Coastal Papuan Prehistory: A Theoretical Approach
The Development of Mailu as a Specialized Trading and Manufacturing Centre in Papuan Prehistory: The Causes and the Implications
Further Investigations at the Naigani Lapita site (VL 21/5), Fiji: Excavation, Radiocarbon Dating and Palaeofaunal Extinction
This paper brings up-to-date a report by S. Best of initial excavations at Naigani in 1981 (Best 1981). The results of subsequent fieldwork in 2000 include the excavation and dating of Lapita-age ovens associated with early settlement and extinct palaeofauna. These include the giant megapode (Megavitiornis altirostris), a species of Ducula pigeon, the giant iguana (Lapitiguana impensa), and probably the endemic crocodile (Volia athollandersoni). …
Wetland archaeology and the study of late Māori settlement patterns and social organisation in Northern New Zealand
This paper is concerned with prehistoric changes in the scale of settlement, social organisation and chieftainship in northern New Zealand. It suggests an excavation strategy for pā, describes examples of sites at a communal level and carries insights from wetland archaeology into the study of wider social landscapes. Increasing stress within landscapes is implicit in episodes of pā building, which occurred at different times in different places.…
Pacific colonisation and canoe performance: Experiments in the science of sailing
We report on a collaboration between archaeology and the Yacht Research Unit at the University of Auckland to investigate the sailing characteristics of Pacific canoes, both ancient and modern. Archaeology provides a chronology for the colonisation of Pacific Islands, but one mystery that remains is how well the canoes could sail. We describe the first phase of testing reconstructed model hulls and sails. By combining aerodynamic and hydrodynamic…
Driving Factors in the Colonization of Oceania: Developing Island-Level Statistical Models to Test Competing Hypotheses
Migration is a key driver of human cultural and genetic evolution, with recent theoretical advances calling for work to accurately identify factors behind early colonization patterns. However, inferring prehistoric migration strategies is a controversial field of inquiry that largely relies on interpreting settlement chronologies and constructing plausible narratives around environmental factors. Model selection approaches, along with new statist…
A Review of Archaeological Māori Canoes (Waka) Reveals Changes in Sailing Technology and Maritime Communications in Aotearoa/New Zealand, AD 1300–1800
We compare ethnological views of Māori canoes (waka) of the first colonisation period with those of the European contact period, and then describe diverse archaeological waka from the interim period. The aim is to reconstruct basic design elements of whole canoes and to suggest their relative ages. Variations in form relate to differences in sailing ability and we refer to scientific performance testing of a range of model canoe hulls and sails. …
Understanding Aotearoa’s past through the recovery and conservation of a 15th-century canoe and its fibrework from Papanui Inlet, Otago Peninsula
When Tasman and Cook arrived in New Zealand in 1642 and 1769 respectively they both sighted double-hulled canoes (waka) on New Zealand’s coast. However, over the next 100 or so years these canoes disappeared. Fortuitously the recent rescue and conservation of a waterlogged waka and fibrework assemblage on the shores of Papanui Inlet has allowed rare insight into the lives of its inhabitants nearly 550 years ago, when New Zealand’s seminal migrant…
Observations on the Northern Moluccan excavated animal bone and shell collections
This study deals with all the animal bones from seven sites: Tanjung Pinang with Daeo Caves 1 and 2 (Morotai Island), Uattamdi (Kayoa Island), Um Kapat Papo and Golo (Gebe Island), and Siti Nafisah (Halmahera Island
The origins of the Kula Ring: Archaeological and maritime perspectives from the southern Massim and Mailu areas of Papua New Guinea
This paper is focused on the archaeology of Massim exchange and the development of the Kula Ring. It establishes an ethnographic baseline for the European contact period, and summarises fieldwork in the southern Massim. It provides a first description of the prehistoric pottery sequence and draws together previous information from the northern Massim and the Mailu area into a study of the archaeological origins of the Kula Ring. In the last centu…
The archaeology of Māori settlement and pā on Pōnui Island, Inner Hauraki Gulf, AD 1400-1800
This paper describes previously unreported archaeological work on Pōnui Island, New Zealand. Coastal sites date from the end of the fourteenth century AD, and one, S11/20, has evidence for surface structures, cooking, and tool manufacture and use. The harvesting of marine resources and horticulture were involved from the beginning. Earthwork defenses were built at 23 sites between AD 1500 and 1800. At least six of these fortified sites (pā) were …
Experimental Voyages by Two Traditional Canoes of the Kula Area, Papua New Guinea, One Real and One Virtual, Provide Insights into the Study of Ancient Sailing Technology of the Pacific Ocean
We compare identical voyages by two traditional Kula sailing canoes in the Massim, Papua New Guinea. One voyage was made by a real canoe in 2002 and the other voyage by a virtual canoe, retrospectively in 2020. Both voyages were made in the same recorded weather. The sailing capability of the two canoes was closely matched. The simulated voyage establishes that theoretical modelling of canoe sailing performance can be realistic and applied to the…
Archaeology (26 works) · Geography (24 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (24 works) · History (16 works) · Geology (13 works) · Prehistory (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology (7 works) · Colonization (6 works)