MUSEUM OF NATURE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33887, 5 July 1975, Page 11

MUSEUM OF NATURE

Mysterious hollows on Niue

(Contributed bn the Cunterburu Mutewn)

Erich von Daniken would love Niue Island' The man who makes mysteries out of molehills would really have a field day there. In about a dozen places on this South Pacific island are peculiar earth-

walled hollows ranging in size from five to sixty metres long. One explanation that has been offered for their purpose is that these are flying saucer landing pads I had heard about the hollows 'before I went to Niue to make a survey of archaeological sites for the Government. No one seemed to know anything much about them except

facing due north and thev tan in a north-south line And it was most improbable I was told, that they could habe been made by Polynesians — visitors from outer space were much more likeh to have been responsible During the two-month survey of archaeological sites I recorded a number

of these hollows; some were circular in shape, some were rectangular, but most were oval or lensoid. Shalow hollow This shape had led to them being called “boats” by some of the Niueans. In general they comprised a shallow hollow surrounded by a metre-high earth wall, steep on the inside and gently sloping to a width of three to five metres on the outside. In some places it could be seen that the inside surface of the will had originally been almost vertical and was constructed of pieces of the limestone rock which abounds on Niue Many of the rocks have now slipped out of position and most have been covered by soil piled against them by wind and rain. This suggests that some centuries have passed since the walls were built. One old man I talked to on Niue had a different theory on their origin. He didn’t believe in flying saucers. His opinion was that they represented a fleet of Maori canoes from New Zealand that got lost while returning to their Hawaiki homeland and, in the mysterious ways of the dim and distant past, had become Converted to these earthern shapes. Fruit bats Although time did not allow a full archaeological investigation to be made, there can be no doubt that the “boats” were in fact built by early Niueans. The builaers left behind them artefacts and food remains in no way different from those that can be found on other early sites and many are actually part of prehistoric village complexes of mounds, platforms, middens and burials. Samples of shells and bones (mo>Hy bind and human, but also some of the large Niue fruit bats) were obtained from a small excavation made in one of the walls, and some of these will be used to obtain radiocarbon dates later this year. The results could show that they are up to 1000 years old but will most likely be about 400 years. The structures are not aligned exactly to the north; most of them have their long axis at between 11 deg and 13 deg east of north. Many of the stone house platforms and ceremonial mounds on Niue, particularly those less than 30 metres long, had the same alignment. Why this should be is a bit of a mystery and one for which we may never know the answer. Alignment But how they aligned them is even more puzzling. It almost suggests that the builders had some way of measuring angles or perhaps time — they could point to the sun at a certain time of day. for instance. The purpose of these structures appears to have been to provide living or sleeping quarters. They would doubtless have been fitted with flat or inverted V-shaped roofs, probably supported by central poles. Two possible exceptions that are 50 and 60 metres long seems a little on the large side for native houses. However, I have not the slightest doubt that their purpose will be determined without difficulty when an archaeological investigation is made of them.—M.M.T.