Sources and sourcing of volcanic glass in Hawai'i: implications for exchange studies

Abstract

Abstract The role of exchange in Hawaiian prehistory has received only minimal attention despite Hawai'i being one of the most highly stratified societies in Oceania. This paper demonstrates the utility of provenance studies of volcanic glass as a means of providing an empirical grounding to addressing exchange and interaction in Hawaiian prehistory. Volcanic glass studies in Hawaiian archaeology are reviewed, geologic sources of the material described. and a geologically‐based model formulated to guide the discovery of volcanic glass sources on West Moloka'i, Hawaiian Islands. The results of a 19.000 hectare survey are reported and the first two sources of volcanic glass on Moloka'i are described. Using an electron microprobe, the geochemical similarity of source material and volcanic glass artifacts from distant habitation sites is demonstrated. It is concluded that sources of volcanic glass can be discovered in a systematic way; microprobe analysis is a good technique for geochemical characterization; and, with additional work, hypotheses of exchange and interaction in Hawaiian prehistory can be tested with a systematically collected, empirical data base.

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