Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 2. Human Activities
Draft 1 March 2007
2. HUMAN ACTIVITIES
CHAPTER III.
BACKGROUND
A. ARCHAELOGICAL ASPECTS
Te Rangi Hiroa (1938) noted that early Society Islands habitation was by the manahune who
may be related to the menehune of Hawaii. They could pass from the Gilberts through the
Phoenix to the Society Islands. The coral limestone temples in the Phoenix Islands were the
sole witness of previous occupation.
The entire Phoenix group, especially Manra (Sydney) and Orona (Hull) had ruins that
suggested that they had been visited from both the east and west (Bryan 1941). Clune (1951)
noted that migratory Polynesians had resided in the Phoenix Islands during their sea
explorations. Hilder (1959) noted that ruins on the Phoenix Islands show that groups of
Polynesians and Micronesians had lived there during pre-historic times.
Sharp(1964) noted that west to east settlements were infrequent partially due to the west
setting equatorial currents and the predominant westerly winds. Sharp (1964) reported that
these would have made the west to east Micronesian voyages to Tahiti through the Phoenix
Islands improbable.
Anderson (2002) noted that no pre-historic faunal extinctions have been recorded yet for the
Phoenix Islands. The Line and Phoenix Islands were in an area of low rainfall and were
settled and abandoned prehistorically (see Figure III-2.1 below).
Figure III-2.1. The Distribution of Islands with Anomalous settlement histories
(+ = population declines, ● = settled and abandoned prehistorically),
In relation to annual rain fall (source: Anderson 2002).
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