Haʻamonga ʻa Maui: the megalithic gate built by the Gods
In the Pacific Ocean, covering an area of approximately 748 km², there are the 150 islands that form the Kingdom of Tonga, a constitutional monarchy of Oceania, with its capital in Nuku'alofa. On one of its islands stands one of the most enigmatic megalithic monuments in the Pacific, a trilithon called Ha'amonga 'a Maui.
The Kingdom of Tonga is a sovereign island state in Oceania, whose territory is composed of an archipelago of 150 islands and islets, 40 of which are inhabited, located in the South Pacific Ocean, approximately one third of the distance between New Zealand and Hawaii. It is located south of Samoa and east of Fiji.
Nearly 2/3 of the inhabitants live on the kingdom's largest island, Tongatapu. Although many Tongans have moved to the archipelago's urban center, Nuku'alofa (where the local lifestyle mixes with the European one), village life and family ties remain very important in Tongan culture.
The state of Tonga is also called the "Friends Islands", due to the friendly nature of the inhabitants when the first explorers arrived.
The date of the first occupation of the islands is a subject of discussion, as is the dating of most of the archaeological sites present on its territory. However, the traditional opinion is that the archipelago was inhabited since the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC by tribes from Samoa, identifying the island of Tongatapu as the oldest occupied site, where the enigmatic monument called Haʻamonga ʻa Maui stands.
The first population to settle on the island is believed to be that of the Lapita, an original civilization, especially for the terracotta decorations, associated with the Austronesian populations who had colonized "distant Oceania" starting from the so-called "nearby Oceania". Carbon-14 dating reveals that the oldest Lapita sites date back approximately 3,500 years.
Lapita settlers made terracotta engraved with red inclusions, using obsidian tools from Melanesian volcanoes. The decorations of Lapita ceramics are extremely rich and varied.
Recent research on the decorations shows that they probably represented the universe seen through their eyes: the world "from above", that of the gods or deified ancestors; in the center the world of the living and finally the "world of below", that of the dead. The stars (sun, moon...) seem to have a particular importance in the beliefs of these navigators.
The ancient capital of Tonga was the city of Mu'a, whose name, according to some researchers, recalls that of the lost continent of Mu (identified with Atlantis), considered by conventional archeology to be a mythological place.
About 30 km from Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tongatapu, lies the enigmatic Ha'amonga 'a Maui, a megalithic trilith consisting of three coral limestone blocks, 5.2 m high and 5.8 m wide. The weight of the two standing stones is approximately 30-40 tons each, with the upper side characterized by two recesses adapted to accommodate the architrave.
The similarity of Ha'amonga 'a Maui to the Stonehenge site has very often been highlighted. However, the UK megalithic site has many more structures and the lintels rest on the standing stones, while those of the Tongatapu trilithon have slots for seating.
According to conventional archaeology, Ha'amonga 'a Maui was built in the early 13th AD under the rule of King Tui Tonga Tuitātui, probably as a gateway to his royal complex at Heketā.
The most recent oral chronicles of Tonga interpret the trilithon as a monument to symbolize the brotherhood of the sons of Tuitātui-Lafa (eastern stone) and Talaihaapepe (western stone).
In the most ancient popular myths, however, the construction of Ha'amonga 'a Maui is traced back to the demigod Maui, since the stones were really too heavy for the strength of humans. Maui would have taken the stones from a quarry on Wallis Island, transporting them to Tongatapu in his giant canoe.
Maui was part of a legendary group of demigods, present in most Pacific Island myths. There were four brothers, all named Maui and with extraordinary supernatural powers. The four brothers are considered the initiators of the peoples who colonized the Tonga islands, Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand. Prompted by the hypothesis that Stonehenge could have been an astronomical observatory, in 1967, the king of Tonga Tāufaāhau Tupou IV also applied this theory to the trilithon of Ha'amonga 'a Maui, explaining that the monument served to mark the position of the sun in the solstices and equinoxes, but there is no evidence to support the sovereign's assertion.
Whether it was built by demigods, or more simply by a mortal king of Tonga, Ha'amonga 'a Maui is still the subject of numerous unresolved questions, among which the most important is certainly the reason for its construction.
The presence of trilithons all over the world, including the very famous Stonehenge, forces us once again to ask ourselves why our ancestors, all over the globe, held this type of construction in such high regard.
