Re: ocean sailing rafts (Re: Lapita??

From: Qiwi (marym_at_pl.net)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: 23 Sep 2004 18:04:13 -0700

benlizross <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message news:<414FF750.4AAE@ihug.co.nz>...
> Qiwi wrote:
> >

> > Possibly the most illuminating example of this was the faulty claim
> > that the original settlers of Hawaii and Aotearoa came from Tahiti,
> > i.e. 'Kahiki' in the Hawaiian record and 'Tawhiti' in Aotearoa....
> > Of course recent research showing that the Society Islands were not
> > settled until some time after 800 ad shows that his was an
> > impossibility...
>
> When we're being properly scientific, of course, Qiwi, we just say that
> so far there are no dates earlier than that. By the way, here's a quote
> from Kirch 2000 I know you'll enjoy: "For the Society Islands, the
> oldest known habitation sites (Vaito'otia-Fa'ahia on Huahine, and
> Maupiti) date to around A.D. 800-1200, but the coastal terraces of the
> Societies have undergone much subsidence and alluviation, making the
> discovery of early sites problematic. In the 'Opunohu Valley on Mo'orea,
> Lepofsky et al (1992) discovered a domesticated variety of coconuts
> dating to A.D.600 buried under later alluvium, and paleoenvironmental
> evidence from 'Opunohu indicates that human-induced landscape changes
> were already underway by that time (Lepofsky et al. 1996)."
> Gotta love those archaeologists, eh Q-boy? Just won't face facts!
>
> Ross Clark

Yes R-boy, it is amazing alright!!
A coconut dated to 600 a.d found under "later alluvium"....!!!!!
Hang on a minute there R-boy... this is a coconut we are talking about
and not a Kumara, correct?
....and taking into account the fact that coconuts can float over
considerable distances and still germinate on making land-fall...how
does that piece of evidence in any way prove human settlement prior to
800 a.d.??
As for the "paleoenvironmental evidence".... LOL
The trouble here is, how do you have "human induced landscape changes"
without the presence of humans??