Early History of French Polynesia: First People, Archaeology and Other Islands | Sea Life, Islands and Oceania

FIRST PEOPLE IN FRENCH POLYNESIA

French Polynesia consists of five archipelagos: the Austral Islands, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago. Tahiti and Bora Bora are in the Society Islands.

People have lived on the islands in what is now French Polynesia for around 2,000 years. The Marquesas were first settled around 200 B.C. and the Society Islands around A.D. 300. The earliest settlers are thought to have arrived from Samoa and were originally came from Southeast Asia and hopped from one island to the next for reasons we can only guess at.

It is believed that migrants originally from Southeast Asia arrived in the Samoan islands and from there settled the rest of Polynesia further to the east. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia: These future Polynesians “may have arrived in the islands as early as 1000 B.C.. From Samoa they swept out across the Pacific, carrying Polynesian civilization to innumerable other islands. [Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press]

William R. Curtsinger wrote in National Geographic: Samoans spearheaded one of the great maritime ventures of all time — the exploration and settlement of Polynesia. In wooden canoes stitched with coconut-fiber rope and rigged with sails of woven leaves, these mariners who knew no instruments navigated 2,100 miles and made their landfall at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, around the time of Christ. Within a few centuries their descendants — homing in on undiscovered islands revealed by such slight cues as the flight path of a bird-had found every habitable speck of land in an area of the Pacific bigger than North America and Europe combined.[Source: William R. Curtsinger, National Geographic, December 1974]

Early Polynesians

Hane is the largest settlement on the island of Ua Huka, in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia and the home of a notable archaeological sites of Tehavea and Meiaute, which have revealed more than 12,000 bird bones, of which nearly 10,000 reportedly belonged to about seven species of shearwaters and petrels. Excavations in Hane found sherds below a rock surface and were initially dated to A.D. 300-600 but radiocarbon dating indicated an occupation period of between A.D. 900 and 1200. [Source: Wikipedia]

Artifacts from ancient sites in what is now French Polynesia have included mother-of-pearl fishhooks of various shapes and sizes, stone flake tools, triangular coral files, sea urchin spines used to shape and polish hooks and tools; stone adzes of various types and sizes; and coral rubbing stones for wood finishing. Carbon testing test revealed dates of 2,225 to 1,850 years ago at some sites.

Among the ancient weapons that have unearthed have been wooden clubs and spears, fixed with sharp edges of bone, shell, coral or stone. A harpoons made from a human leg bone has been excavated. In dry guano caves, mats, nets, fishing lines, loincloths made of vegetable fiber, wood tools and drinking gourds have been found. Early Polynesians had dogs, pigs and chickens and transported root and tree crops such as breadfruit and yams.

Taputapuatea Marae

Marae Taputapuatea is a large marae (communal sacred complex) at Opoa in Taputapuatea, on the south eastern coast of Raiatea in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The site features a number of marae and other stone structures and was once considered the central temple and religious center of Eastern Polynesia. In 2017, the Taputapuatea area and the marae complex were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. [Source: Wikipedia]

According to UNESCO: Taputapuātea is a cultural landscape and seascape on Raiatea Island. Raiatea is at the centre of the “Polynesian Triangle,” a vast section of the Pacific Ocean dotted with islands, the last part of the globe to be settled by humans. At the heart of the property is the Taputapuātea marae complex, a political, ceremonial, funerary and religious centre. The complex is positioned between the land and sea on the end of a peninsula that juts into the lagoon surrounding the island. Marae are sacred ceremonial and social spaces that are found throughout Polynesia. In the Society Islands, marae have developed into quadrilateral paved courtyards with a rectangular platform at one end, called an ahu. They have many simultaneous functions.

At the centre of the Taputapuātea marae complex is marae Taputapuātea itself, dedicated to the god ‘Oro and the place where the world of the living (Te Ao) intersects the world of the ancestors and gods (Te Po). It also expresses political power and relationships. The rise in the importance of Taputapuatea among the marae on Raiatea and in the wider region is linked to the line of Tamatoa ari’i (chiefs) and the expansion of their power. Taputapuatea was the centre of a political alliance that brought together two widespread regions encompassing most of Polynesia. The alliance was maintained by regular gatherings of chiefs, warriors and priests who came from the other islands to meet at Taputapuatea. The building of outrigger canoes and ocean navigation were key skills in maintaining this network.

A traditional landscape surrounds both sides of the Taputapuātea marae complex. The marae complex looks out to Te Ava Mo'a, a sacred pass in the reef that bounds the lagoon. Atāra motu is an islet in the reef and a habitat for seabirds. Ocean-going arrivals waited here before being led through the sacred pass and formally welcomed at Taputapuātea. On the landward side, ’Ōpo’a and Hotopu’u are forested valleys ringed by ridges and the sacred mountain of Tea’etapu. The upland portions of the valleys feature older marae, such as marae Vaeāra’i and marae Taumariari, agricultural terraces, archaeological traces of habitations and named features related to traditions of gods and ancestors. Vegetation in the valleys is a mix of species, some endemic to Raiatea, some common to other Polynesian islands and some imported food species brought by ancient Polynesians for cultivation. Together, the attributes of the property form an outstanding relict and associative cultural landscape and seascape.

Polynesian Navigators

Raiatea in the Society Islands was a center for religion and culture in ancient and medieval times. Exploration of the other islands in much of the Pacific Ocean emanated from Raiatea and by 1000, there were small permanent settlements in all the island groups. According to legend, seven canoes set out from Raiatea to colonize an area known as the Polynesia triangle, defined by Hawaii to the north, Easter Island to the east and New Zealand to the south.

Polynesians settled in Hawaii and Easter island around the year A.D. 1000. They cleared the forests with fier exterminating native plants and animals. Methods of open ocean navigation in ancient times included suing the stars, currents, birds, clouds and floating debri. All the methods employed by ancient Polynesian navigators are still not completely understood. Thor Hyerdahl set off from the coast of Peru in a balsa wood rafts called Kon Tiki in 1947 in efforts to show that people from ancient South America could have reached Polynesia.

Imagining how early Polynesian navigators used the stars to plat a course, William R. Curtsinger, wrote in National Geographic: Calm and courageous in the midst of a storm, the navigator Ru, arm outstretched, asks the sea-god Tangaroa to clear away the clouds so he can see his guiding star and set a course toward a new island. Descendant of seafarers, Ru was chief navigator of Raiatea at one of the times when population had outstripped food resources. "The valleys are thick with people," he told his family. "I have selected a star, and beneath that star there is a land that will provide us with a new home." Ru's brothers and wives protested that they feared the perils of the sea. "That is woman's talk," he responded. [Source: William R. Curtsinger, National Geographic, December 1974]

"I, Ru, know the ways of the sea. The winds and the currents are open and known to me. Fear not and I will take you to a larger and better land than this." Legend does not record how Ru knew that he would find land, but his confidence calmed his family's fears. The clan departed in a newly built canoe called Te Pua-ariki- "The Chiefly Flower." With Ru and his relatives went twenty maidens chosen for virtue, strength, and beauty. At sea they encountered a storm that raged for three days and nights. With his crew near panic, Ru finally invoked the aid of Tangaroa to return his guiding star to view. The clouds parted and three days later, so the story goes, Ru and his company landed at Aitutaki (an island in the Cook Island) , whose inhabitants still celebrate the achievement of the island's legendary discoverer in song and dance.

There has been a resurgence of Polynesian culture since the 1976 voyage of “Hokule'a,” a 62-foot double-hulled Hawaiian canoe sued to prove the accuracy of Pacific navigation methods (National Geographic, October 1976).

In the spring of 1995, Polynesians from all over the Pacific sailed ocean-going trimaran reed canoes to the Tahitian island of Raiatea. Setting out from Easter Island, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Cook Islands, the vessels rendezvoused at a stone temple where important pan-Pacific religious festivals were held until 1350, when a chief was killed by a rival ruler and a taboo was imposed that banned such meetings. The taboo ended in 1995.

First People of New Zealand from Tahiti?

The first human inhabitants of New Zealand are believed to have been Polynesians who arrived from either Tahiti or the Cook Islands sometime between A.D. 800 and 1000. New Zealand was pretty much last place inhabited by people today to be inhabited. According to Archaeology magazine: People have been in New Zealand for less time than they have any other large landmass on the globe except for Antarctica, making the islands' history the briefest of stints in the long human record.

The early inhabitants of New Zealand are believed to have migrated from Polynesian islands in three separate waves between ad 950 and 1350. Archaeological evidence indicates that New Zealand was initially populated by fishing and hunting people of East Polynesian ancestry. Known to some scholars as the Moa-hunters, they may have merged with later waves of Polynesians who, according to Maori tradition, arrived between 952 and 1150.

Janet M. Wilmshurst Atholl J. Anderson, Thomas F. G. Higham, and Trevor H. Worthy wrote in PNAS: The last major prehistoric human migration into a previously unoccupied region of the world was from the western archipelagos of Remote Oceania (Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa region) into the islands of East Polynesia. However, the chronological sequence of the prehistoric colonization of East Polynesia remains controversial, with one model suggesting dispersal from West Polynesia as early as 200 B.C. after a pause of ≈500–1,000 years and another suggesting it began ≈ A.D. 800 after a delay of several thousand years. These divergent chronologies and their related models of ecological and anthropological change result directly from various interpretations of conflicting radiocarbon dates on the earliest-dated archaeological sites, deforestation, Pacific rat introduction, and faunal extinctions from East Polynesia and have created many hotly debated “long” and “short” settlement chronologies.[Source: Janet M. Wilmshurst Atholl J. Anderson, Thomas F. G. Higham, and Trevor H. Worthy, PNAS, June 3, 2008]

First People of Hawaii from the Marquesas Islands

Polynesians from what is now the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia were the first humans to visit and settle the Hawaiian Islands. Coming from a tradition of voyaging expertise and canoe, they reached the island between 1000- 1200 AD. Keen observers of natural phenomenon such as the stars, migratory birds, ocean currents, rainbows, and whales, Polynesians crossed over 2,000 miles of ocean in double-hulled canoes called “Waʻa.” [Source: U.S. National Park Service]

These voyagers brought along many animals and plants to help sustain them at their new homes: puaʻa (pigs), ʻilio (dogs), and moa (chickens); the roots of kalo (taro) and ʻuala (sweet potato); the seeds and saplings of niu (coconut), maiʻa (banana), ko (sugar cane), and other edible and medicinal plants. Petroglyphs in Hawaii show boats with sails like those by ancient voyagers of Polynesia.

After a time of traveling between the Hawaiian Islands and other islands in the Polynesian Triangle, contact with other islands ended. During the following nearly 500 years, a unique Hawaiian culture was developed. During this time, the social heirarchy was delineated into a strict caste system. At the top of this social pyramid were rulers known as Aliʻ i (chiefs.)

Similarities between ancient Marquesan fishhooks and Hawaiian counterparts confirm a link between the two island groups, scholars believe. Some have suggested drought and famine may have driven the Marquesan Islanders to new islands. Imagining what might have taken place, William R. Curtsinger wrote in National Geographic: They stocked double-hulled canoes with fruits, dried fish, breadfruit paste wrapped in pandanus leaves, and water in gourds. Domestic pigs, fowls, and barkless vegetarian dogs accompany them. Harsh necessity may have forced such departures. When drought struck and clans fought over food, the defeated often sailed in quest of new lands. Thus Polynesians of Marquesan culture found Easter Island, Hawaii, and-via Tahiti-New Zealand. [Source: William R. Curtsinger, National Geographic, December 1974]

Fiji and Tongan Influence on Polynesia

Pottery found in what is now French Polynesia from 1,300 to 1,000 years ago contains traces of minerals that originated on Fiji, 4,500 kilometers to the west. By 1200, Tonga had expanded its influence throughout Polynesia and into Melanesia and Micronesia. Tongans were fierce warriors and skilled navigators. For centuries they exercised political and cultural influence over several neighboring islands. The Tongan realm reached its zenith in the 13th century, when its control extended over part of the Lau group in Fiji, Rotuma, Futuna, 'Uvea, Tokelau, Samoa, and Niue.

Evidence indicates that, in traditional times, Tongans had large double-hulled canoes called kalia that could carry provisions for up to 200 people, and in them Tongans made extensive trading voyages between Fiji and Samoa. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2023]

According to a PNAS study: Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga’s maritime polity, stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly lithic artifacts associated with stone-faced chiefly tombs, were geochemically analyzed. The lithic networks of the Tongan state focused on Samoa and Fiji, with one adze sourced to the Society Islands 2,500 kilometers from Tongatapu.[Source: Geoffrey R. Clark, Christian Reepmeyer, Nivaleti Melekiola, and Helene Martinsson-Wallin, PNAS, July 7, 2014]

Battles Between Polynesians and Samoans

Around 700 years, according to legend, the Tahitian chief Tutapu stormed ashore at Rarotonga to seek revenged by doing battle with his half brother Tangiia and the Samoan Karika. Tahiti Basalt adzes, unearthed at the Rarotongan village of Avarua, include a Samoan type (upper). It perhaps dates from the 13th century, about the time of the alliance between Tangiia and the Samoan Karika.

William R. Curtsinger wrote in National Geographic: The dispute began, says the legend, when the brothers quarreled over hereditary rights. After a series of battles, during which Tangiia's two sons were killed, his men stole one of Tutapu's gods. Tangiia then fled Tahiti, followed by his vengeful brother. [Source: William R. Curtsinger, National Geographic, December 1974]

Grieving for his homeland and his fallen sons, Tangiia roamed the seas for years. After a skirmish, he and Karika became friends and settled together on Rarotonga. There Tutapu, whose unremitting chase earned him the title of the "Relentless Pursuer," finally tracked his brother down, but was slain in the fight that followed. Tangiia and Karika remained to rule Rarotonga.

King Pomare I united Tahiti and surrounding islands into the Kingdom of Tahiti in 1788.

Image Sources:

Text Sources: CIA World Factbook, 2023; “Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 2: Oceania,” edited by Terence E. Hays, 1991, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia.com, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated September 2023