This is one of a number of stone ki'i, or images, that were found on Necker Island.  They are remarkable in that they look more like the artwork found in central Polynesia, like the Marquesas Islands, than the art of Hawai'i.

Click for larger image

The architecture found on Necker is also similar to that of central Polynesia.  Structures on Necker (above) that are thought to be religious look more like the marae of the Marquesas Islands than the heiau of the Hawaiian Islands.  The drawing above comes from one of the many publications of the second Tanager Expedition.

Some anthropologists have speculated that the Necker Island images are examples of an earlier Hawaiian culture that was displaced in the 12 or 13th centuries by newcomers from Tahiti.

Hawaii and Polynesia Links
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• Polynesian Voyaging Society Page examining similarities between Hawaiian and Marquesan cultures
  
  

• Polynesian Voyaging Society Page on the history and importance of marae in voyaging traditions
  
  

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Photo by Bishop Museum

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Updated 09-29-2000  be