Abstract:
The initial standard narrative of how New Zealand was thought to be settled by a relatively small number of Polynesian people over centuries of gradual adaption grew from the estimates of genealogical reckoning or whakapapa and formative radiocarbon dating chronology. A new strategic migration model validates a rapid mass translocation from Hawaiiki in the late thirteenth century. The incentive for the migration was likely motivated by charismatic authoritarian “mana” individuals or an unknown “starburst” event. Research retrieved on past cosmogenic structures in southern Africa together with known medieval comparative indigenous knowledge data, reveals evidence that the Great Enclosure structure at Great Zimbabwe was possibly a cosmic reference to a unique astronomical incident with unverifiable sources and mainly non-literate oral narratives that offer inadequate validation. An uncatalogued supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622 / G 266.2-1.2 in Vela has now been verified by a Japanese eyewitness account as visible in 1271 and is most likely Mahutonga – the star that disappeared in the oral tradition. This extraordinary star may have been the primary instigator for extensive translocation south-westwards to New Zealand from Hawaiiki, similar to the formation of Great Zimbabwe that likewise “followed a star” relating to the nearest, brightest and most recent supernova that disappeared.
