Abstract
This study illustrates how the theory of directed graphs can be used to investigate the structure and growth of the leeward Kohala field system, a traditional Hawaiian archaeological site that presents an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative chronology. The relative chronological relationships of agricultural walls and trails in two detailed study areas are represented as directed graphs and then investigated using graph theoretic concepts including cycle, level, and connectedness. The structural properties of the directed graphs reveal structure in the field system at several spatial scales. A process of deduction yields a history of construction in each detailed study area that is different than the history produced by an earlier investigation. These results indicate that it is now possible to study the structure and growth of the entire field system remnant using computer software implementations of graph theoretic concepts applied to observations of agricultural wall and trail intersections made on aerial imagery and/or during fieldwork. A relative chronology of field system development with a resolution of one generation is a possible result.
Highlights
The leeward Kohala field system, a traditional Hawaiian rainfed agricultural complex that covered 60 km2 on the leeward slopes of the Kohala Mountain on Hawai’i Island [1], offers the archaeologist an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative chronology (Fig. 1)
This section describes how directed graphs are used to model the relative chronological relationships recorded by the intersections of agricultural walls and trails in the leeward Kohala field system, an effort that is conceptually similar to the extension of the Harris Matrix [32] to the recording of standing structures [33], and one that yields a total site matrix [34] that potentially captures all available relative chronological information
The fabric-like structure of the leeward Kohala field system, which covers an area of 60 km2 and exposes approximately 100,000 stratigraphic relationships to investigation with aerial imagery and surface survey, presents an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative site chronology
Summary
The leeward Kohala field system, a traditional Hawaiian rainfed agricultural complex that covered 60 km on the leeward slopes of the Kohala Mountain on Hawai’i Island [1], offers the archaeologist an unparalleled opportunity to investigate relative chronology (Fig. 1). This paper proposes to use the theory of directed graphs [4] to investigate all of the relative chronological relationships recorded by the intersections of agricultural walls and trails in the leeward Kohala field system. It demonstrates that the growth and structure of two detailed study areas, one in the land of Lapakahi [5,6] and the other in Kahua 1 and Pahinahina [1,7], can be investigated by modeling the chronological relationships of the agricultural walls and trails as directed graphs. The chronological results of both investigations differ from earlier proposals [1,7,8,9], and the structural reasons for the differences are identified and described
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