Abstract

Sea urchins (echinoids) were integrated into many aspects of prehistoric Oceanic society as they provided food, raw material for abrading tools and rare ornaments, and were used as offerings on shrines (ko‘a) in the Hawaiian Islands. We privilege seven habitation and shrine assemblages (mostly dating to late prehistory; i.e., post AD 1500s) situated along a ∼12-km length of the rocky windward coast of Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands, where some of the densest concentrations of urchins have been recorded from Oceania. We examined >185,000 urchin fragments weighing nearly 11.7 kg which, we believe, is the largest analyzed sample to date. Focusing primarily on the helmet urchin (Colobocentrotus atratus), found throughout the Indo-Pacific, we used a protocol for accurately calculating the minimum numbers of individuals using unique test (endoskeleton) plates and internal mouthparts, demonstrated the dietary importance of urchins for marine subsistence, constructed an allometric formula for calculating individual urchin size, and discussed the relevance of urchins for monitoring long-term human impacts to this important coastal resource. While the study sites contained overwhelmingly limpets (Cellana spp.), urchins supplied >80% fat and nearly 40% protein of some of the invertebrate assemblages. It was documented that slightly larger urchins were placed as offerings on a shrine in contrast to smaller individuals associated with habitation structures.

摘要

海胆（类固醇）被整合到史前的海洋社会的许多方面，因为它们提供食物，研磨工具的原料和稀有的装饰品，并被用作夏威夷群岛的神'（ko'a）祭品。我们对位于夏威夷群岛莫洛卡伊多岩石的迎风海岸约12公里长的七个栖息地和神社组合（主要追溯到史前晚期；即，公元1500年后）给予特权，其中一些最密集的海胆聚集在这里记录自大洋洲。我们检查了重近11.7千克的185,000多只海胆碎片，我们相信这是迄今为止分析的最大样本。主要关注头盔顽童（Colobocentrotus atratus），在整个印度洋太平洋地区都可以找到，我们使用了一种协议，可以使用独特的测试板（内骨骼）和内部口器准确地计算出最小数量的个体，证明了海胆在饮食中对海洋生存的重要性，构建了用于计算个体海胆的全称法公式的规模，并讨论了海胆对于监测人类对这一重要沿海资源的长期影响的相关性。尽管研究地点含有绝大多数的帽贝（Cellana spp。），但在一些无脊椎动物组合中，顽童提供的脂肪大于80％，蛋白质几乎占40％。据记录，与栖息地结构相关的较小个体相比，稍大的海胆作为祭品放置在神a上。