These relics included an enclosure of coral blocks marking the outlines of a rectangular building which, Emory and Finney considered, showed similarities to some Tongan structures, and basalt adzes which must have come from a high volcanic island, since basalt does not occur naturally on low atolls. small planing adze, burnishing stone, scoria abrader, wood-handled carving tool with a. Perhaps the best view of all, however, is that after the early settlers of Eastern Polynesia were released from the conservative influence of Western Polynesian technology, they tanged some of their adzes and made other innovations in their artifacts. From left: grooved splitting adze of graywacke, grooved mauls of.

Obviously, therefore, there must have been some explanation for the absence of tanged adzes from Western Polynesia other than that random voyages did not occur.Īpparently handfuls of migrants from Eastern Polynesia failed to establish the tanging of adzes among the conservative Western Polynesians.Ī number of archaeologists have concluded that the tanging of adzes was brought to Polynesia by migrants from the west, although tanging is not typical of Western Polynesian, Melanesian or Micronesian adzes. This human cargo represents a weight of about twenty tons, which is equivalent to that of thirty persons, two boars, three sows, twelve piglets, thirty fowls, ten dogs, twenty rats, a hundred balled or potted breadfruit and banana plants, and twelve tons of watergourds, seeds, yams, tubers, coconuts, adzes and weapons.Ĭooks, New Zealand, and Hawaii all possessed adzes and other cultural features of Eastern Polynesian type.ĭuff, a New Zealand anthropologist who has made a special study of adze distributions, claiming that no adzes with butts tanged as an aid in lashing the handles have been established for Western Polynesia, whereas tanged adzes have been found throughout Eastern Polynesia, has argued that this is not in accord with what one would expect from random voyaging. He strokes the soft curling hair once more before lifting the adz, then grins as he realizes his fingers have left a faint black shadow on the kid. When he has a reasonable heap of broken charcoal, he sets aside the adz and shovels the charcoal into the wheelbarrow.ĭorrin drives the adz into the largest chunk of charcoal, ignoring the light footsteps on the porch behind him.Īfter two more swings with the adz, he sets it aside and lifts the shovel, scooping up perhaps a third of what he has broken and dropping the shovelful into the wheelbarrow. He lifts the adz again, wondering why Tullar delivers charcoal in such large chunks, and why the smithy bums so much-but he knows the second reason. WIPES HIS forehead, then lifts the adz, driving it down into the charcoal.

Wood shaping tool adze