Chronometric Dating and Late Holocene Prehistory in the Hawaiian Islands: A Critical Review of Radiocarbon Dates from Moloka'I Island

Abstract

The importance of chronometric dating in archaeology cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, most chronologies developed throughout the world during the past three decades have depended on radiocarbon age determinations to provide a temporal framework for examining change over time in cultural sequences during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. With the advent of legislation in the mid-1960s designed to protect archaeological sites in the United States threatened by increased urban development or government sponsored projects, archaeological surveys and excavations were mandated as a means for preserving information otherwise destroyed. As a result, thousands of projects have contributed to a growing body of “gray literature,” ie, unpublished proprietary or manuscript reports with very limited circulation. Within these reports are hundreds, if not thousands, of 14C age determinations, most of which are not accessible in published form. One objective of this paper is to present all the 14C age determinations for the island of Moloka'i, Hawai'i as of December 1988, including 41 dates never before published with stratigraphic details.