A Model-based Age Estimate for Polynesian Colonization of Hawai`i
A model-based Bayesian calibration using ¹⁴C data from paleoenvironmental cores and materials introduced to the islands by Polynesian colonists estimates that the islands were likely colonized sometime late in the first millennium AD. Two calibrations, one using ^14,C dates on floral materials and the other using ¹⁴C dates on floral and faunal materials, indicate that archaeological materials yield relatively imprecise estimates of the colonization event with 95% highest posterior density regions 3-5 centuries long. Materials introduced to the islands by Polynesians date to two periods, one that coincides with the colonization event, and another some 3-6 centuries later. A possible disparity between colonization and the first reliably dated archaeological evidence of human activity is identified and estimated to be 1-4 centuries long.

Social Transformation in Old Hawai`i: A Bottom-up Approach
An argument for augmenting the usual top-down approach to traditional Hawaiian history with a bottom-up approach published in American Antiquity recently. Hypothesizes that changes in social organization are responsible for the import of poor-quality oven stones on the Waimanalo plain and for a decline in the proportion of tree wood charcoal in firepits over time. The paper relies heavily on the work of Mike Desilets and Gail Murakami.

A Manual for the Identification of Fish Remains
Alan Ziegler's fish bone reference collection and Bishop Museum's collection of fish otoliths are the basis for this manual authored by Tom Dye and Ken Longenecker and published by the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology. This is the full manual, not the truncated version available on the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology web site.

Land Snail Extinctions at Kalaeloa, O`ahu
This paper was written with Dave Tuggle after he came to the conclusion that Polynesians hadn't driven land snails to extinction at Kalaeloa. The paper was originally published in Pacific Science, then was reworked for the journal Internet Archaeology. The Internet Archaeology version includes interactive data analyses and graphics; the reader can download the data on which the paper is based, recreate the graphs published in the paper, and carry out alternative analyses. This requires that Lisp-Stat, a freely available software package that runs on most operating systems, be installed on the reader's computer. Unfortunately, the Lisp-Stat user base, which probably never numbered among its faithful more than a handful of archaeologists (probably fewer), is now declining. Even more unfortunately, Internet Archaeology, which used to be freely accessible, now requires a subscription. Thus, the Internet Archaeology paper, and its attempt to provide convenient and unfettered access to the primary data of archaeology, is becoming obsolete and difficult to find.

Effects of ¹⁴C Sample Selection in Archaeology: An Example From Hawai`i
This is a preprint of an article published in Radiocarbon. It illustrates the effect of careless archaeology on the dating record of old Hawaii. Dating samples that haven't been selected for short-lived species can add up to 1,000 years to the age of the sample. Inattention to sample provenience, i.e. dating materials that can't be confidently associated with human activity, can add several hundred years to the age of a sample. These sources of error are huge compared to the short span of prehistoric time in Hawai`i. Failure to control for them, still a common practice in Hawai`i, makes it virtually impossible to distinguish between interesting hypotheses about what happened in the past.

How to Fix the Inventory Survey Rule
These brief comments argue that it is in the public interest for the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology to debate changes in the Hawai`i State Historic Preservation Division inventory survey rule. Two fundamental changes to the rule are proposed. First, strip the rule of its preoccupation with site function so that a greater proportion of archaeological energy and funds can be spent on data recovery investigations. Second, rewrite the rule so that it does not prescribe archaeological practice per se; this is necessary if Hawaiian archaeology is going to track progress in the discipline as a whole. These changes will simplify the inventory survey rule and strengthen the role of research in archaeological work.

The Age of the O18 Site
A paper co-authored with Jeffrey Pantaleo and published in Archaeology in Oceania. On current evidence, the O18 site was established more than 200 years after O`ahu Island was first settled by Polynesians.

Tyranny of the Traditional Hawaiian Built Environment
Slides for a seminar at the University of Arizona, November 12, 2004 (pdf file, 8.3 MB).

Bayesian Statistics for Archaeologists
Slides for a lecture prepared for the IGERT Program, University of Arizona, November 15-16, 2004 (pdf file, 3.6 MB).

A Short Bibliography of Bayesian Radiocarbon Calibration
Handout for a lecture prepared for the IGERT Program, University of Arizona, November 15-16, 2004 (pdf file, 23 KB).

Social and Cultural Change in the Prehistory of the Ancestral Polynesian Homeland
My dissertation written at Yale University for Frank Hole, Irving Rouse, and Roger Green (pdf file, 8.05 MB).