Temples of Boom: Ancient Hawaiians took fast road to statehood
By Bruce Bower
Around 400 years ago, the residents of two Hawaiian islands built stone temples at a dizzying pace over the course of a generation or two, a new study finds. A construction boom of that kind and magnitude reflected the surprisingly rapid formation of a fledgling political state out of formerly independent populations, investigators say.
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Until now, many researchers assumed that chiefs of various communities on the islands of Maui and Molokai had directed construction of temples over a span of approximately 250 years.