This article from more than one decade ago explores how a Japanese team from the University of Tokyo, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and others explored the ruins of Nan Madol to research how the basalt islets were formed–if they were formed at all. The goal of the survey was to establish an underwater topography of Nan Madol for long-term research.
There was said to have been a legendary city called Kahnihmweiso that existed below Nahkapw Harbor. Just like Nan Madol, it rested on shallow waters and was said to have been constructed according to local mythology.
There were said to have been megalithic pillars of basalt discovered in a 1978 survey of the Nahkapw Harbor ruins. The original team argued that the rainwater caused the dissolving of calcium carbonate akin to caverns forming stalactites. However, further research by other teams found no strong evidence for manmade activity. The Japanese team relied on the University of Oregon’s findings more than the 1978 findings.
Basalt is volcanic rock, which would make sense why it would appear in natural formations, since the volcanoes formed Micronesian islands and atolls. The University of Oregon’s 1988-89 findings imply that the ruins consisted of fallen, discarded buildings.
Within the article, it does not use strong language when it comes to the anthropogenic origin of the Nan Madol structures, instead they use such words as “likely” and “seems.” While the article appeared to be translated from Japanese with its various typos, it doesn’t call into question the validity of the article. The researchers were clearly limited by what they can find just like the University of Oregon team, based on archaeological findings and mythologies that provide the trajectory towards discovery. In my case, I am not limited as a fiction writer, since I can always make do with what little I have.
Since there is no strong evidence to suggest that the basalt islets were created, then I would need to somehow figure out how that might be worked into Yimulos. Perhaps the natural basaltic formations that created the islets would have been a feature in the original Yajalo Archipelago from where the Masug nation emigrated from. The Stonebeaver Numbers-Gathering would have existed as a builder caste in ancient Masug society. Observing the way the basalt towers formed, this builder caste would have experimented on basalt-and-coral architecture before Smoyemp’s time and before their establishment as a Numbers-Gathering.
Arriving in the Qashathad Estuary without any access to basalt, they probably made use of limestone as a substitute. If I am left with little, then as a worldbuilder I will fill in the rest.
Further Reading
- Ishimura, Tomo; Asada, Akira; Maeda, Fumitaka; Sugimoto, Ken’ichi; Ogawa, Toshihiro; Hikoyama, Akio; Matsumoto, Yoshinori; Sugimoto, Yusuke; Brennan, Charles; Haramoto, Tomomi; Kohler, Augustine (2014). “Underwater Survey at the Ruins of Nan Madol, Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia” (PDF). Proceedings of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage. Honolulu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2015.
- Yimulos Worldbuilding Sources.