Kohala dryland field system (sweet potato)
Sistema de campos de secano de Kohala (batata)
- Date
- c. 1400-1500 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kohala, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Pre-contact Hawaiian farmers
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A network of some 60 km² of sweet potato (ʻuala) and other dryland crops, laid out with rows of stones and walls dividing plots, on the leeward slope of the Kohala volcano. It supported a large population on land without rivers.
Archaeological studies (Ladefoged and colleagues) indicate an origin around 1400-1500, with later intensification until European contact in 1778.
What it led to
- Hawaiian agricultural intensification in arid zones, alongside irrigated taro fields
- growth of political chiefdoms, such as the one that unified Hawaiʻi
- farm management using large rain-fed fields