'Ata 'a Tonga mo 'ata 'o Tonga : early and later prehistory of the Tongan Islands

Abstract

This thesis addresses the question of the transformation of the Lapita Culture established on Tongatapu over the period 1000 BC to AD 500 into the highly stratified society described by European observers of the late 18th century and reflected in a rich body of oral traditions and a conspicuous grouping of beachrock slab-faced monuments at a capital centre on the lagoon at Mu’a. It does so in the light of discussions of the nature and origins of chiefdoms in Polynesia, particularly the proposition that they arose in the context of increases in populations in circumscribed environments subject to fluctuations in horticultural production, where horticultural surplus could be appropriated, accumulated, stored and judiciously redistributed. The evidence, old and new, for Lapita society is assessed to identify more precisely the nature of the developments to be examined. Three research objectives are defined to which field research by survey and excavation was directed. These are the course and chronology of the settlement of the inland areas and the concomitant growth of an essentially horticulturally-based economy; the nature of the settlement and habitation pattern represented by earthen house- and burial mounds of post-Lapita, aceramic times; and the origins and development of slab-built structures as a mark of high status. The settlement of the inland was accomplished in Late Lapita times, by the 5th century AD, already in a non-nucleated pattern reminiscent of that described by the early Europeans, and the economy was horticulturally based. Mound-building, at least for habitation, proved to be equally old, while comparisons of mound numbers (based on sample surveys) against population estimates (using a variety of sources) suggest that not everyone could be accommodated on them, implying some level of social differentiation in their use. Excavations at house mounds adjacent to one of the quarries where the slabs for high-status structures were obtained indicate that this activity also goes back to the 5th century AD. The further development of these early signs of social differentiation cannot be traced, until the sudden and spectacular appearance of the monument group at Heketa, an early traditional political centre. This is interpreted as representing the establishment of a supreme chieftainship (symbolised in the Tongan term Tu' z) out of a number of earlier competing chieftainships. Analysis of various parameters of slab-faced monuments gives insight into the nature and development of the ruling dynasty and associated lineages. There is the appearance of a significant overseas involvement (the so-called Tongan Maritime Empire), symbolised by the shift of capital centre to Mu'a on the lagoon and its equipping with harbour and wharf facilities. There is also evidence of internal tension between the leading lineages, archaeologically best reflected in the large isolated slab-faced monument at Kanokupolu in the far west of Tongatapu, which by the time of European arrival had become a political centre apart from and competitive with Mu'a. The results of the research point to the possibility of bridging the gap between the first indications of social differentiation in the 5th century AD on the archaeological evidence and the appearance of supreme chieftainship at Heketa in the 12th century by genealogical reckoning through investigations in the Toloa area of southeastern Tongatapu, where the traditions locate the first, shadowy political centre.