Stone axe head from the pre-European settlement of Pitcairn Island

When the BOUNTY mutineers arrived on Pitcairn Island, it was uninhabited. However, they found the remains of an earlier Polynesian culture. There were roughly hewn stone gods still guarding scared sites; carved in the cliff faces were representations of animals and men; burial sites yielding human skeletons; and there were earth ovens, stone adzes, and other artefacts of Polynesian workmanship.

Archaeologists believe that Polynesians lived on the island from the 11th to the 15th century. These first Pitcairners seems to have operated a trading relationship with the more populous island of Mangareva, 250 miles to the west, in which food was exchanged for the high-quality rock and volcanic glass available in Pitcairn. It is not certain why this society disappeared, but is probably related to the deforestation of Mangareva and the subsequent decline of its culture.

The axe head was given by Pitcairner David Young to Kenneth M. Dodson aboard USS PIERCE when the ship visited Pitcairn Island during World War II. Young was a 5th generation descendant of Midshipman Edward (Ned) Young, one of the nine original BOUNTY mutineers who settled on the island in 1790.