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At what time the first settlers arrived on Pohnpei is unknown. Eventually stone platforms, house foundations, walls, pavings and tombs, earth terraces and mounds, and other architectural features began to appear at various locations along the coasts, in valley, and on hillside sites of the island's interior. during the first or second century A.D., people apparently were inhabiting the coastal area that became the site of Nan Madol. Here Stephen Athens (1983:53) has recorded radiocarbon dates of this time range from archaeological deposits found below the artificial fill and low-tide level of Dapahu Islet (93). Geologic subsidence coupled with sea level rise on Pohnpei accounts for the present-day inundation of early coastal habitation areas.
William Ayres and Alan Haun (1978) of the University of Oreon have documented several stages of construction for the Usendau (104) and Pahnkadira (33) islet bases, the former going back to the eighth or ninth century A.D. About 1000 or 1100, pottery ceased to be used at Nan Madol. the early use of pottery followed by its discontinuance is a common pattern in Oceania.
Apparently not until sometime around 1200 to 1300 did elaborate megalithic architecture begin at Nan Madol. By this time Pohnpei is believed to have been conquered and unified by a paramount chief called the saudeleur, meaning lord of Deleur, a small political unit that evidently encompassed Temwen Island and neighbouring areas. Eventually, the hegemony of the saudeleur seems to have extended throughout the entire island of Pohnpei.
Under the reign of the sandeleur, Nan Madol flourished and expanded to its present size. This was the time of greatest architectural achievement, when walls of stacked prismatic basalt 18 to 23 feet high were constructed around Nandauwas (113) and the number of artificial islets increased substantially. Some had coral fill u to 7 feet above sea level at high tide, while one of Pahnwi's platforms was some 20 feet high. Several of the islets measure well more than 100 yards on a side and contain areas roughly equivalent to three football fields. Immense seawalls and breakwaters were erected to protect the chiefly center from the relentless pounding of ocean waves in the exposed coastal site.
The downfall of the saudeleur is estimated to have occurred during the early 1600s. Pohnpeian oral traditions link the paramount's demise to the Thunder God, whose temple is located on a large, three-tiered platform on Pahnkadira Islet (33), where the saudeleur lived. The Thunder god's son, the legendary Isokelekel, is said to have established a new political order presided over by a high chief called the nahnmwarki. Perhaps as a safeguard against the re-emergence of a paramount on Pohnpei, Isokelekel divided the island into three autonomous chiefdoms.
Isokelekeo himself became the first nahnmwarki of Madolenihmw, the chiefdom that included Nan Madol, here the next six nahnmwarki resided. It is estimated that during the early 1700s the nahnmwarki removed his residence from Nan Madol, but people seemed to have continued living there a little while longer. by the 1820s, when intensive Western contact began with Pohnpei, people had ceased to live at Nan Madol though it continued to be used through the mid 1800s for periodic religious observances.
Originally posted by srsen
It is positioned roughly half way between Hawaii and the Philipines, at the location where severe storms and typhoons are generated when cold air is brought into contact with the warm waters of the Caroline Islands - many severe storms originate from Nan Madol's location.
Nan Madol and Kosrae (a similar structure to Nan Madol also located in the Federated States of Micronesia) create a 300-mile-long zone in which typhoons are born and the first stages of their power and severity are developed.
from Essan's quote
At what time the first settlers arrived on Pohnpei is unknown. Eventually stone platforms, house foundations, walls, pavings and tombs, earth terraces and mounds, and other architectural features began to appear at various locations along the coasts, in valley, and on hillside sites of the island's interior.
from Essan's quote
During the first or second century A.D., people apparently were inhabiting the coastal area that became the site of Nan Madol. Here Stephen Athens (1983:53) has recorded radiocarbon dates of this time range from archaeological deposits found below the artificial fill and low-tide level of Dapahu Islet (93).
from Essan's quote
William Ayres and Alan Haun (1978) of the University of Oreon have documented several stages of construction for the Usendau (104) and Pahnkadira (33) islet bases, the former going back to the eighth or ninth century A.D.
from Essan's quote About 1000 or 1100, pottery ceased to be used at Nan Madol. the early use of pottery followed by its discontinuance is a common pattern in Oceania.
from Essan's quote Apparently not until sometime around 1200 to 1300 did elaborate megalithic architecture begin at Nan Madol.
from Essan's quote At best I think it could be argued that Nan Modal sits at a longitude around which tropical storms often develop into full blown cyclones - ie they usually start further east but it's around the longitude of Nan Madol where they most often become actual typhoons.
Coincidence or design?
"Seeing that almost every culture in the Asia-Pacific region can trace it roots to a motherland or race of forefathers who's home sunk beneath the ocean millennia ago, i would be interested to hear the orthodox angle on these origins.
I would also like to know how these books explain the many anomalies i have listed in regards to Nan Madol. Just curious on the 'non-fringe' ideas...
Conventional/mainstream scholars have failed to determine how it was made, who built it, when it was built, for what purpose it was built and where the building materials came from.
The expansion of the people whom the western world labeled "Polynesians" begins about 40,000 years ago, with a major move forward into and onto the smaller island snear New Guinea around 3500-4000 BP. Modern historical linguistic studies confirm that the 36 documented Polynesian languages form a single branch of the great Austronesian language family. They can all be traced back to a Proto Polynesian language, for which more than 4,000 words have now been reconstructed.
How was it made, by taking stone from quarries and floating it across to the site, a trail of lost/sunken stones can be seen underwater. The stones are naturally that shape. A number of quarry sites for the naturally occuring stone basalt prisms have been found but no direct link has been agreed upon.
No pottery? Food and especially water were brought into the site. Not sure where the no pottery idea comes from. Lapita pottery has been found there.
Quote from Tomcat ha
I actually saw a documentairy on tv about this island. They even showed how the created it. They basically took basalt from a extinct volcano and heated it up and cooled it down again causing it to split.
Lemuria was very possibly developing either at the same time as these “Polynesians” or already established while these movements were going on.
We also have to consider that, for whatever reason, Lemuria has been covered up, denied.
Of course a standard history book won’t contain information on the movements and history of the Lemurian people, but it will certainly tell us all bout everything else.
“It is believed by mainstream researchers that the ancient Andeans introduced civilisation to Easter Island, however what they have all conveniently forgotten is that the Andeans did not possess a written language”
Additionally, the Cyclopean walls at Easter Island are older than their Cuzco (Andean) counterparts.
The Pre-Inca Uru of Lake Titicaca, the ancestral Polynesian Uru-keu and Easter Island’s Uru do not prove one people’s influence over another, but rather that they were all influenced by an external power, referred to by some Polynesians as Uru – another name for the Pacific Motherland, or Lemuria.
…
Wait a second – some of the magnetised basalt blocks were upwards of 25 tonnes each
“Island natives could not perform the task”.