Mara A Mulrooney
Biographic Data
| ID | 295844 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mara A Mulrooney |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mara A |
| FAMILY NAME | Mulrooney |
| SIGNATURE | MULROONEY M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bernice P. Bishop Museum |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8020-696X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Plant microfossils reveal human activity in and around Hawaiian Island fishponds, including introduced Polynesian and European multi-cropping
Archaeological research of Hawaiian Island pre-contact fishponds is hindered by loss of many because of erosion, land reclamation, and urban development. Understanding early Hawaiian resource activity is hindered because, to date, plant macroremains are rarely reported. We use plant microfossil analysis in three fishponds, on Maui, Oʻahu, and Molokaʻi, to explore these archaeological features and build on previous studies. The results differentia…
The Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database
This paper describes the Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database (PARD), which includes radiocarbon data from archaeological sites excavated in an area commonly described as Near and Remote Oceania. The collated 14C database is available using ArcGIS Online, an online geospatial system with searchable fields and locational navigation. The online PARD currently has over 17,000 radiocarbon measurements from archaeological sites from over 300 islan…
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…
Refining the Chronology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Settlement
P. C. McCoy and colleagues carried out a comprehensive survey and test excavations at selected sites in the southwestern portion of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1968. This included the excavation of a rectangular house (hare; 1-187) and a nearby stone-lined earth oven (umu pa‘e; 1-186) on the eastern rim of Rano Kau. A single radiocarbon date of AD 770 ± 230 from 1-187 was subsequently accepted by some researchers as support for the theory of earl…
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 …
Refocusing Ethnographic Museums Through Oceanic Lenses
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 …
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 …
The demise of a monopoly
Geochemical analysis using portable X‐ray fluorescence (pXRF) shows that a large stemmed tool in the Bishop Museum, thought at one time to be a mata‘a from Rapa Nui, is composed of obsidian from the Mopir outcrops on New Britain, Papua New Guinea. As the first large, ceremonial stemmed tool from this quarry, it challenges the hypothesis that production was limited to one region, therefore suggesting that a more complex set of social networks oper…
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…
Sourcing Rapa Nui mata'a from the collections of Bishop Museum using non-destructive pXRF
An island-wide assessment of the chronology of settlement and land use on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) based on radiocarbon data
Soil nutrient analysis of Rapa Nui gardening
Prehistoric Rapa Nui farmers used a variety of rock veneer and mulch gardens to increase crop productivity. These cultural features ranged from small ca. 10 × 10 m gardens, to much larger expanses of continuous rock concentrations covering many hectares. The rock gardens probably served several purposes, including protecting crops and soils from high winds, promoting water penetration, maintaining ground moisture, and reducing temperature fluctua…
An island-wide assessment of the chronology of settlement and land use on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) based on radiocarbon data
Soil nutrient analysis of Rapa Nui gardening
Prehistoric Rapa Nui farmers used a variety of rock veneer and mulch gardens to increase crop productivity. These cultural features ranged from small ca. 10 × 10 m gardens, to much larger expanses of continuous rock concentrations covering many hectares. The rock gardens probably served several purposes, including protecting crops and soils from high winds, promoting water penetration, maintaining ground moisture, and reducing temperature fluctua…
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 …
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…
Sourcing Rapa Nui mata'a from the collections of Bishop Museum using non-destructive pXRF
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…
Soil nutrient analysis of Rapa Nui gardening
Prehistoric Rapa Nui farmers used a variety of rock veneer and mulch gardens to increase crop productivity. These cultural features ranged from small ca. 10 × 10 m gardens, to much larger expanses of continuous rock concentrations covering many hectares. The rock gardens probably served several purposes, including protecting crops and soils from high winds, promoting water penetration, maintaining ground moisture, and reducing temperature fluctua…
An island-wide assessment of the chronology of settlement and land use on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) based on radiocarbon data
Sourcing Rapa Nui mata'a from the collections of Bishop Museum using non-destructive pXRF
The demise of a monopoly
Geochemical analysis using portable X‐ray fluorescence (pXRF) shows that a large stemmed tool in the Bishop Museum, thought at one time to be a mata‘a from Rapa Nui, is composed of obsidian from the Mopir outcrops on New Britain, Papua New Guinea. As the first large, ceremonial stemmed tool from this quarry, it challenges the hypothesis that production was limited to one region, therefore suggesting that a more complex set of social networks oper…
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…
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 …
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 …
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 …
Refocusing Ethnographic Museums Through Oceanic Lenses
Refining the Chronology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Settlement
P. C. McCoy and colleagues carried out a comprehensive survey and test excavations at selected sites in the southwestern portion of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1968. This included the excavation of a rectangular house (hare; 1-187) and a nearby stone-lined earth oven (umu pa‘e; 1-186) on the eastern rim of Rano Kau. A single radiocarbon date of AD 770 ± 230 from 1-187 was subsequently accepted by some researchers as support for the theory of earl…
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…
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…
Plant microfossils reveal human activity in and around Hawaiian Island fishponds, including introduced Polynesian and European multi-cropping
Archaeological research of Hawaiian Island pre-contact fishponds is hindered by loss of many because of erosion, land reclamation, and urban development. Understanding early Hawaiian resource activity is hindered because, to date, plant macroremains are rarely reported. We use plant microfossil analysis in three fishponds, on Maui, Oʻahu, and Molokaʻi, to explore these archaeological features and build on previous studies. The results differentia…
The Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database
This paper describes the Pacific Archaeology Radiocarbon Database (PARD), which includes radiocarbon data from archaeological sites excavated in an area commonly described as Near and Remote Oceania. The collated 14C database is available using ArcGIS Online, an online geospatial system with searchable fields and locational navigation. The online PARD currently has over 17,000 radiocarbon measurements from archaeological sites from over 300 islan…
Archaeology (12 works) · Geography (12 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (10 works) · History (8 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (6 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (6 works) · Biology (4 works) · Geology (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Chronology (3 works)