PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Pacific Eye Magazine, August 2007) – Archaeology instructor Dr. David Addison of the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) has coauthored a paper that appeared this week in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The paper, titled "Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile," and written in collaboration with scientists in New Zealand, Chile, Australia, Hawai’i, and Canada, has caused enough of a stir within the academic community that it made national news headlines earlier this week.

For decades, scientists have only speculated that ancient Polynesian voyagers may have reached the shores of South America, but this paper provides the first hard evidence proving that Polynesians did in fact sail all the way to the west coast of the continent at least a century before the arrival of Columbus. Amazingly, the researchers found the key to this breakthrough in an entity most of us would probably consider rather un-scientific, namely chicken bones.

Recently, archaeologists in Chile found chicken bones which they subsequently radiocarbon dated as approximately 600 years old. Using DNA testing, Alice Storey of the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution at the University of Auckland discovered that the bones from Chile carried a rare mutation otherwise only found in chickens from Mele Havea, Tonga, and Fatu-ma-Futi, American Samoa. Previously, scientists commonly believed that the chicken, not indigenous to either North or South America, arrived on the continent along with Spanish explorers in the 15th century. However, if Chileans in fact possessed chickens at least 100 years before Columbus reached America, and these fowl carried DNA identical to chickens found in Tonga and Tutuila, this evidence clearly indicates a pattern of interaction between Polynesians, long recognized as some of the world’s finest sailors and navigators in times preceding Western contact, and South Americans. To put it simply, Polynesians not only made it to America before Columbus, but they apparently introduced the chicken to the continent, as well.

Dr. Addison, who holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Hawai’i, spent seven years in the Territory working for ASPA before joining the ASCC faculty last year. Describing the chain of events that led to the recent scientific breakthrough, he recalls, "I have a longstanding relationship with the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution at the University of Auckland. The center’s founder and director, Dr. Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, an old friend of mine, visited ASCC in October, and attended the Archeology of the Polynesian Homeland conference here in December of last year.

"Alice Storey, a PhD candidate whom I’ve also known for years, studies at the University of Auckland under Dr. Matisoo-Smith, and specializes in chicken DNA. She uses it to understand the movement of Polynesians into the Pacific, and their subsequent contacts and interaction between islands. Because Polynesians carried the first chickens to every island, the DNA provides a ‘family tree’ of those chickens, which we can use to trace which ones are related. When we found chicken bones while digging at the Fatu-ma-Futi site as part of the ASPA sewer project, I immediately contacted Ms. Storey and Dr. Matisoo-Smith about the possibility of doing ancient DNA analyses on the bones. Ms. Storey then tested them and compared them with samples from Tonga and South America."

Dr. Addison went on to explain that the site digging at Fatu-ma-Futi was done in compliance with Section 106 Federal regulations about archaeology, which all local agencies using Federal funding are required to follow. "This is an example of why those laws benefit American Samoa, and are essential to helping us understand our past," he said. "If it wasn't for the Section 106 law, American Samoa would never have provided a key component in this discovery, and the world wouldn't know about the important role Tutuila and Manu'a played in the history of the whole Pacific."

Prior to joining the ASCC faculty, Dr. Addison spent seven years doing field research in Tutuila and Manu’a. His work has also taken him to many locations in the Pacific, including Hawaii, the Marquesas Islands, and Palau. "So much of what really happened in the past remains a mystery," he reflected. "Archaeology lets us discover something new by studying something old, and I enjoy familiarizing the young men and women of American Samoa with the knowledge, techniques and philosophies associated with this field."

Pacific Eye Magazine
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