The Chatham Islands |
 History: The history of the Chatham Islands is at least as fascinating as the geology of the islands. Polynesian voyagers first arrived on the islands in the early 15th century. They named the island that’s now known as Chatham Island, Rekohu; and called what we now know as Pitt Island, Rangihaute. The oldest carbon-dated archaeological sites have been calculated to stem from about AD1450. The earliest settlers from Polynesia were supplemented by two (and possibly more) ocean-going canoes of Maori from Aotearoa (which was initially settled about a hundred or so years before Rekohu and Rangihaute). As a result, in the words of Hamish Campbell, “Moriori are considered a blend of at least three distinct arrivals”. |