RE-DATING OF THE KULI'OU'OU ROCKSHELTER, O'AHU, HAWAI'I: LOCATION OF THE FIRST RADIOCARBON DATE FROM THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Kuli'ou'ou Rocksheiter (Site O1) in the Hawaiian Islands has a certain status as the first archaeological site in the Pacific Islands to be directly dated via the then newly introduced radiocarbon method. The original date of 946 ± 180 before 1950, from the base of the rockshelter's cultural deposit, greatly influenced archaeologists' views of regional cultural sequences in East Polynesia. We present the results of six new AMS ¹⁴C dates run on Kuli'ou'ou Rockshelter wood charcoal which has been identified to short-lived and medium-lived species. We use these data, along with a re-evaluation of the two dates obtained by the original excavators, Kenneth Emory and Yosi Sinoto, to present a revised chronology for the rockshelter. In addition, we discuss new wood charcoal identifications from the two lower layers at Site O1 for illuminating general vegetation patterns in the Expansion to Proto-Historic periods. Finally, the broader implications of our revised chronology are considered for the prehistoric sequence of O'ahu Island and in the larger context of the settlement sequence for the Hawaiian archipelago.