Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 3, 1 March 2007 — Pacific ROOT S [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pacific ROOT S

By Derek Ferrar Public lnformation Specialist P decades, scholarly debate II J has swirled around the f " * origins of the great seafaring peoples who crossed vast stretches of the world's largest oeean to settle Polynesia and the other isolated islands of the Pacific. In recent years, however, a mounting body of archaeologieal, linguistic and now DNA evidence has increasingly narrowed in on several previously "lost" seagoing cultures of ancient China as the most likely original source of Pacific migration. Now Bishop Museum has brought these ancient societies to light in a major exhibition featuring extraordinary artifacts never before seen outside China, some of them dating as far back as 7,000 years. The "Lost Maritime Cultures: China and

the Pacific" exhibit traces four millennia of cultural development along China's southeast coast and the birth of what scientists refer to as the "Austronesian" peoples, whose related languages, implements and genetic heritage ean be found throughout the Pacific, from Taiwan to Rapa Nui. "The reason these cultures are eonsidered Tost' is because they were never recorded in any text, and were eompletely forgotten until about fifty years ago," says Bishop Museum Anthropology Chairman Dr. Tianlong liao, who has conducted extensive research on south China's maritime cultures and spearheaded the exhibit. liao, who was a research fellow in China and then did his doctoral studies at Harvard before joining the museum in 2003, says that the existence of the seafaring cultures eame to light by ehanee when villagers

in Zhejiang Province unearthed pottery shards and stone tools while building a dam to alleviate frequent flooding in their rice paddies. "Thanks to them, we ean now tell the story of these cultures," liao says. The "Lost Maritime Cultures" exhibit in the museum's Castle Building is divided into three sections tracing major periods of development in the region. The first section, "Encountering the Pacific," focuses on the roots of the maritime tradition some 7,000 years ago in the Hemudu culture, whieh thrived along an oeean inlet south of present-day Shanghai. Because the region was covered in oeean sediments after sea levels rose and then receded, the artifacts unearthed at several sites in the area have been amazingly well preserved, including such wooden items as the oldest dugout eanoe ever found and a 7,000-year-old eanoe paddle

that is among the items on display in the exhibit. Other artifacts on display from this period include ivory and bone implements, painted pottery and stone adzes. But while some of the items might bring to mind objects commonly found in Pacific Island culture, liao cautions visitors not to try to draw too close a comparison. "The connections are not straightforward; they are very remote over 4,000 years of migration and many layers of cultural history," he says. "You could say they have grown dusty with time." The second section of the exhibit, "Voyaging on the Pacific Coast," eenters on the seafaring societies further south along the coast of the Taiwan Strait between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago. Among artifacts from this period is beautifully painted pottery that liao says represents "some of the most sophisti-

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cated artwork in all of China at that time, and in fact in all of the world." While researching these sites several years ago, liao and his colleagues discovered that the basalt from whieh the inhabitants made their stone adzes was not loeal, but eame from islands more than a hundred miles out to sea across often stormy waters - an indication of these peoples' nautical prowess. liao says the prevalent oceangoing vessel at that time was the probably the bamboo sailing raft, whieh was used by fishermen in the region right up until the 1950s. "We know they had canoes," he says, "but we don't know if they had the outriggers required to navigate in the open oeean." Included in the exhibit is a striking model of bamboo sailing a raft built under the direction of several elderly fisherman from the area.

During this period, scientists believe, the maritime people of the Chinese coast made their way to Taiwan, from where their descendants later embarked upon their long migration route through the Philippines and into the Pacific Islands, transforming culturally over the millennia as they merged with other cultures along the way. The final portion of the exhibit, titled "Lost Civilizations on the Coast," explores the complex societies present along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago. Although these societies clearly have roots in the earlier seafaring cultures, they were also precursors of the highly developed classical Chinese dynasties. Among the most striking artifacts in the exhibit are the intricately carved jade pieces from this period, including ornaments, bracelets and ceremonial cyl-

inders carved with ritualized faces and animal figures that are considered the signature feature of the Liangzhu culture, often called the "civilization of jade." Because such detailed jade work is difficult to create - especially using only stone tools - liao says such items were likely the possessions of elite members of society, whieh in turn suggests a highly stratified culture. "Some people feel that they have may have had an early form of poliīieal state," liao says, "or at least a very high level of chiefdom." Along with the remarkable artifacts on display, the "Lost Maritime Cultures" exhibit includes a video theater, interactive computer displays and interpretive murals, along with an educational area where school groups ean explore handson activities on the basics of archaeologieal research. All in all, liao says, he and the exhi-

bition's other organizers have strived to present a journey of learning worthy of the epie cultural tale it relates. "When I first eame to Hawai'i, it was very surprising to me that few people here know about this story," he says. "So with this exhibition we hope to show them in the best way possible." S

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