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Article Excerpt
Abstract
This paper examines Micronesian examples of megalithic transport, focusing particularly on the ocean transport of the famous stone money disks quarried in Palau by Yapese Islanders and moved back to Yap prior to European contact. Using a combination of climatic, oceanographic, ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and archaeological data, we examine the maritime technologies that the Yapese could have used to transport stone money across several hundred kilometres of open-ocean and offer hypotheses to show how this might have been accomplished using bamboo rafts, canoes and rafts towed by fishing canoes.
Keywords: megaliths, transport, stone money, Yap, Palau, Micronesia
Introduction
Large stones or 'megaliths' many weighing in excess of 1000kg, were some of the most socially important and archaeologically visible resources used in the Pacific Islands. The largest and most famous examples of megaliths in Oceania are the moai statues of Rapa Nui (Bahn and Flenley, 1992; Burley, 1993; Mulloy, 1970; Rainbird, 2002; Van Tilburg, 1995). Other well-known examples in the region are beachrock or limestone slabs used for chiefly backrests, fortifications, and tomb enclosures in Tonga (Burley, 1993; Burley, 1998; Kirch, 2000; McKern, 1929), the stone faces of Palau (Osborne 1979:161; 174-176), latte stones in the Marianas (Russell 1998), basalt columns and boulders in both Pohnpei (Ayres and Scheller 2001) and Kosrae (Athens, 1990; Athens, 1995; Rainbird, 1995), and the stone money disks of Yap (Fitzpatrick, 2002, 2003a; Fitzpatrick and Diveley, 2004).
Ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological research demonstrates the importance that megaliths had to societies in the Pacific and the roles they played in spiritual and economic development and the rise of sociopolitical complexity. Despite megaliths having been found throughout the Pacific, however, the methods used for quarrying and transporting them are processes still not fully understood. Archaeological investigations (Ayres and Scheller 2001; Fitzpatrick and Diveley 2004), and aerial photography (Lipo and Hunt 2005) have shown that megaliths were moved from their quarries to other locations. Modern experiments dedicated to investigating the process of moving stones in Indonesia (Heizer 1966), Rapa Nui (Mulloy 1970; Van Tilburg 1995), and Pohnpei (Ayres and Scheller 2001), illustrate some of the difficulties in moving megaliths over land, and in the latter case, across shallow lagoons. Little research has been conducted, however, on how megaliths in Oceania could be transported over open water and the technologies possibly used to accomplish this task.
That megaliths were transported between islands testifies to the willingness of native Pacific Islanders to exploit distant resources and in the process, risk their lives to acquire socially and economically important stone, similar to other parts of the world. Micronesia, a region that comprises the northwestern part of the Pacific, is especially well suited for analysing megalithic production and transport because numerous examples exist whereby indigenous groups exploited and shaped stone and then transported them to different locations.
In an effort to better understand the engineering and labour requirements needed to transport megaliths of varying size, we examine the overseas transport of some of the most well known megaliths in Micronesia--Yapese stone money disks. These disks were quarried from limestone in Palau by Yapese Islanders and moved over 400 km back to Yap prior to and after European contact.
We recognize that not all disks were created equal. These megaliths come in varying shapes and sizes that changed through time in concert with available (and continually improved) technologies. The size of stones moved in prehistoric times probably did not exceed 2 m in diameter 'as the largest canoes were unable to carry more than one piece of this dimension' (de Beauclair, 1963). A disk of 2.0 m in diameter and about 30 cm thick would weigh around 2.76 tonnes. Although the weight of an individual disk would certainly vary due to the size of the perforation and edge thickness, we conservatively adopt 2000 kg as a benchmark weight in our analysis of watercraft buoyancy for overseas transport.
We begin by describing what is currently known archaeologically and historically about stone money to illustrate the importance these objects had to Yapese society. We then review the predominant annual winds and currents present in western Micronesia to provide a framework for analysing seafaring. Finally, we discuss the handling characteristics of specific watercraft types known to be in use historically in Micronesia that would or could have been used to transport stone money. For our research we use various watercraft configurations including bamboo rafts, single outrigger canoes, and a towed raft combination as suggested by Yapese oral traditions (de Beauclair, 1963; Muller, 1917). By combining the anemological (wind), oceanographic (currents), and ethnohistorical data with what we know about seafaring technologies, we can then develop hypotheses on the most viable and reliable configurations potentially used for transporting stone money and the time it took for the trip from Palau back to Yap.
Prehistoric megaliths in Micronesia: the case of stone money
In western Micronesia, Yap islanders carved disks in Palau of limestone (more specifically calcite; Fitzpatrick 2003c) known as rai, also commonly referred to as 'stone money' in Palau (Figure 1).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The quarrying and transport process, with 'several tens of men', could take years and when brought back to Yap, disks became important symbols of wealth, status, and power. Stone money disks are prominent features of Yapese culture and can be found today along village pathways, in front of private residences, and symbolized on government issued license plates.
Rai were used in a variety of social transactions such as gifts for marriage or payment of debts (Berg, 1992; de Beauclair, 1963; Fitzpatrick, 2003a). Their value was dependent on the size, shape, quality, and history of each disk. Yap has no indigenous limestone (Gifford, 1959) and so the Yapese negotiated with Palauan clans or villages to gain access to this exotic resource. The disks found at quarry sites are typically circular to ovoid in shape and range in size from 30 cm up to 330 cm in diameter. Completed disks have a central hole that was apparently made with a reef stone 'used as a fire drill' (de Beauclair, 1963).
According to Yapese oral traditions, those stones made and transported using traditional tools, as opposed to those manufactured historically with the help of European technologies, were the most highly valued. Only a few are thought to exist today (de Beauclair, 1963). Disks in the upper size range found in Yap, and representing the largest rai known, weigh in excess of nine tonnes and were quarried during historic times using metal tools and transported on European ships. Most rai are known to have come from the Rock Islands of Palau, although some were also apparently quarried in Guam (Berg 1992).
Archaeological and ethnohistorical research suggests that quarrying stone money may have begun as early as 600 years ago (Fitzpatrick, 2003a), although most evidence indicates that intensive rai production took place during the 18th and 19th centuries when Europeans arrived and became involved in this indigenous exchange system. In the process, traditional methods for carving and transporting stone money were transformed with the introduction of iron tools and the use of larger ships to transport disks back to Yap (Fitzpatrick 2003a, 2004; Fitzpatrick et al. in press). The most notable participant in this trade was Captain David Dean O'Keefe, an Irish-American who arrived in Yap after becoming shipwrecked in the late 19th century. Captain O'Keefe negotiated with the Yapese to bring labourers to Palau and rai back to Yap in exchange for copra (dried coconut meat). In 1872, the Yapese began travelling to Palau on O'Keefe's ship and the arrangement became a thriving business. He would sell copra and other goods in Asian markets, return to Palau to load the stone money cargo, and bring the disks back to Yap. Historical records indicate that he brought thousands of stone money pieces from Palau (Fitzpatrick 2003a) and by the late 1800s, Yag was inundated with stone money. O' Keefe was later forced off of Yap by German administrators and a ban was placed on inter-island voyaging near the turn of the 20th century. This effectively collapsed the lucrative transport of stone money between Palau and Yap.
In the 1930s, over 13 000 stone money disks were recorded by the Japanese (de Beauclair, 1963; Fitzpatrick, 2003a), although it is unclear how many of these were carved prior to European contact using traditional methods. Nonetheless, the sheer number of rai suggests that there was a considerable human investment in the quarrying and transport of these disks from Palau back to Yap over a period of several hundred years.
In their desire to obtain stone money, the Yapese faced many obstacles in their desire to obtain stone money, only a few of which can be seen archaeologically. The known archaeological record reveals little about the negotiating process with Palauans for limestone access or the transporting of workers to Palau and back, locating and carving the often brittle limestone and moving rai over the jagged karst terrain of the Rock Islands (Fitzpatrick 2003c; Fitzpatrick and Diveley 2004). It is clear, however, that the loads would need to be manoeuvred through the complex coral reef systems to an adequately wide and deep channel. Only after these difficult social and physical engagements would the Yapese have begun their long journal back home across open ocean.
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