Pioneers of the Pacific Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

Current Issue December 2008
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Beyond the Blue Horizon

How ancient voyagers settled the far-flung Islands of the Pacific.

/2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-01.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-01.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Hokule'a, a modern Hawaiian voyaging canoe built on ancient designs, glides into port after a 3,800-mile voyage.]]> http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131240 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-02.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-02.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez On Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui, mysterious statues stand sentinel as the Milky Way spins cold and bright above. The giant moai ]]> may represent ancestors who ruled here after Polynesians discovered the island some thousand years ago during a wave of exploration that has been compared in its boldness to modern space voyages. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131242 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-03.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-03.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez The ocean boils as lava oozes into the waves at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Scanning the horizon, Lapita and later Polynesian explorers may have used billowing columns of steam and ash from volcanic eruptions as navigation aids, steering for the promise of new land. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131239 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-04.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-04.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Hokule'a as it crosses from Honolulu to the island of Hawaii. Crews aboard the double-hulled canoe have tested their ancestors' methods, sailing vast distances without modern navigational instruments, relying instead on traditional knowledge of winds, waves, currents, clouds, birds, and stars.]]> http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131251 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-05.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-05.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez On a trip to the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, photographer Stephen Alvarez made this shot as a squall passed. Though the island was near, the weather concealed it, creating the kind of blank horizon Polynesian sailors undoubtedly sometimes faced. Scanning for clues, ancient sailors likely would have noticed the bird in the upper left—another hint that land might not be far off. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131249 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-06.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-06.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Carvings believed to depict canoe sails scar volcanic stone at the Kona Village Resort on Hawaii, which may once have been the site of a navigators' school. Researchers have studied these and other carvings for clues about ancient Polynesian technology. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131238 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-07.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-07.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Before 2004 few Lapita burial sites had been found. Then a backhoe operator on �fat� island in Vanuatu accidentally discovered a cemetery containing at least 62 individuals. No skulls were found with skeletons, some of which were also missing arm and rib bones. Evidence suggests the bones were removed after the bodies had decomposed. "The living knew who was buried there, and they were revisiting them," says Bedford. "It shows a very different attitude toward death." http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131235 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-08.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-08.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez The 3,000-year-old site on �fat� island in Vanuatu is yielding details about these early explorers' distinctive ceramics, which bear stamped patterns. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131234 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-09.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-09.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Detail image of stamped pattern on ceramic pot found on �fat� island. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131247 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-10.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-10.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez A tropical gem in green and gold, Faaroa Bay gleams in late-day sun on the island of Raiatea in French Polynesia. Many Pacific islands were once very different, their mountainsides thick with native plants, their forests echoing the calls of animals now extinct. The coming of humans to these isolated ecosystems often initiated rapid and sometimes disastrous change. Explorers introduced foreign plants and animals, farmers burned and cleared land, and hunters killed off native animals. On many islands humans thrived despite shifting environments. Yet on some it appears that human overconsumption sparked war between competing tribal groups, or even hastened the collapse of entire societies. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131248 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-11.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-11.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Point of departure, the island of Raiatea in French Polynesia was a staging area for ancient voyagers who discovered Hawaii and New Zealand. After provisioning their canoes, sailors embarked from the temple of Taputaputea, the spiritual center of their world. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131236 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-12.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-12.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez moai of Easter Island, Pacific islanders developed a range of architectural and artistic styles. One of the most mysterious and massive examples is Nan Madol, seat of an ancient dynasty on the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia. Beginning about A.D. 500 and continuing for perhaps a thousand years, Pohnpeians built nearly a hundred artificial islets atop a flat expanse of reef. On these foundations they erected houses, ceremonial buildings, and robust tombs from thick columns of basalt. With its islets interspersed by canals, Nan Madol has been called the Venice of the Pacific.]]> /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-13.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-13.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez A.D. 1350. Workers did not carve the stone but chose natural basalt columns—some weighing more than ten tons—and fit them expertly together.]]> http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131237 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-14.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-14.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez A late stop in the Polynesians' epic journey across Earth's greatest ocean, Easter Island wasn't necessarily their final destination. Evidence suggests that later explorers reached South America a few centuries before the arrival of another set of immigrants: Europeans. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131241 /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-15.jpg /2008/03/people-pacific/img/pacific-60-15.jpg Photograph by Stephen Alvarez Once carpeted with tall palms and populated by dozens of bird species, Easter Island quickly became a barren, deforested expanse, probably due to human exploitation. By the time Europeans arrived off its rough volcanic cliffs in 1722, Polynesians had lived here for centuries, at first thriving, then collapsing into fighting factions. Europeans introduced new diseases and made slaves of many islanders, striking terrible blows to island culture. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/natgeo?photo_name=1131250