Hawaiian Archaeology Volume 02

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    Through Volcanic Glass, Darkly
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Hommon, Robert J
    Few tools are available to us for the construction of the chronological frameworks that are vital to an understanding of the evolution and history of pre-contact Hawaiian culture. The presence, absence, and/or frequency of a few portable ar­tifact types and of even fewer non-portable artifact types may indicate that a site or deposit (or simply the artifact itself) is relatively early or relatively late (e.g. Emory et al. 1959; Pear­son et al. 1971; Kirch 1974). However, the Hawaiian archaeo­logical record is devoid of time-sensitive evidence such as pottery or other artifactual material whose formal attributes or frequencies vary through time sufficiently to make possible the construction of detailed inter-site relative chronologies.
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    Pathways in Hawaiian History
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Hommon, Robert J
    Nearly all that we know of Hawai'i's precontact chronolo­gy is based on several hundred radiocarbon age determi­nations of samples collected during the past 30 years. Essential to the use and refinement of this chronology is the translation of the chronometric raw material, ex­pressed as mean radiocarbon years before present (B.P.) with a standard deviation, into calendrical years. One translation method, the calibration of radiocarbon data according to recently published tables representing a con­sensus of decades of calibration research, has already been accepted by most archaeologists in Hawai'i (cf. Clark and Kirch 1983; Hommon 1983; Schilt 1984).
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    Aboriginal Sweet Potato Farming in the Hawaiian Dry Forest
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Kennedy, Joseph ; Merlin, Mark David
    Geography and Geology forms the western part of O'ahu Island. It is the deeply erod­ ed, subaerial portion of a typical mid-Pacific oceanic shield volcano. Kea'au is an older, headward eroded amphitheater­ like valley located southeast of Ka'ena Point at 21° 30'N lati­ tude and 158° 15'W longitude on the leeward side of the Wai'anae Range. The valley has a maximum length of about 4 km (E-W), is a little more than 3.2 km wide along the coastal portion (N-S), and covers an area of approximately 775 ha.
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    The Kualoa Archaeological Research Project, 1975-1985: A Brief Overview
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Gunness, Jo Lynn
    Kualoa Regional Park, as part of the ahupua a1 of Kualoa, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as being of Statewide significance. The entire ahupua'a was placed on both the State and National Registers in October of 197 4 on the basis of its mythological and legendary importance to the Hawaiian people. Since December of 197 4, the Kualoa Re­gional Park area (which encompasses approximately ¼ of the entire Kualoa ahupuaa) has been the focus of on-going ar­chaeological research conducted under the auspices of the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Parks and Recreation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of that work.
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    Archaeology Of Kaloko: A Generalized Model of a Hawaiian Community's Social Organization and Adaptation
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Cordy, Ross ; Tainter, Jospeh ; Renger, Robert ; Hitchock, Robert
    A major settlement pattern project involving survey and extensive excavation was undertaken during the summers of 1970 and 1971 in a small region called Kaloko, located in the North Kona district on the west coast of Hawai'i Island (Fig. 1). Descriptive preliminary analytical reports on the project and detailed analytical-theoretical reports reconstructing social organization are presented elsewhere (Renger 1970, 1974; Kelly 1971; Cordy 1974a, 1976a, 1978, 1981; Cordy and Kaschko 1980; Tainter 1973a, 19736, 1974, 1975, 1976; Tainter and Cordy 1977). Here our aim is to provide the initial steps for construct­ing a model of how Hawaiians in the Kaloko area were organized socially before contact (A.D. 1778) and how this social organization reflected adaptations to the natur­al and social environments, and to internal pressures. This analysis departs from typical Hawaiian ecological studies in that a greater emphasis is placed on recon­structing social organization and on conceptualizing the entire social-ecological network (social organization, pop­ulation, natural environment, and social environment).
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    University of Hawaii Archaeology Field Schools 1950-1984
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Spriggs, Matthew J.T.
    Since joining the UH Anthropology Department in 1981 I have often heard the criticism by local archaeologists and oth­ers that the results of University field school courses in archae­ology never get written up. This is a serious accusation as it implies that an activity little better than looting has taken place rather than a piece of scientific research involving the training of students. In researching the question it was a relief to find that most field schools have been written up, at least in manuscript form or are currently in active process of being written up.
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    Artifactual Landscape: Kahana Valley, O'ahu, Hawai'i
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Price-Beggerly, Patricia
    Kahana Valley, O'ahu, Hawai'i, is the location of new research formulated to examine early Hawaiian settlement patterns and economic practices from an innovative perspective. The re­search is designed to examine the geomorphological modifica­tions produced by Hawaiian utilization of the landscape, especially those pertaining to early horticultural activities. I consider the landscape alterations to be examples of Hawaiian artifacts, defined in the broadest sense as, "anything that has been influenced by human activity ... plowed fields ... pollut­ed streams" (Rathje and Schiffer 1982).
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    To Fill a Vacuum
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Hommon, Robert J
    the digging archaeolo­ gist spends a great deal of valuable time separating the analyti­ cally important wheat-artifacts, ecofacts and the samples that science is heir to from the huge mass of disposable chaff-the soil matrix of the site being excavated. In Hawai'i, where small-scale handwork is the rule, the common process is to clear away the loosened and obscuring dirt generated by one's digging by scraping, sweeping, brushing and scooping it into buckets that are then carried to screens for sifting.
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    A Radiocarbon Chronology for the Upper Anahulu Valley, O'ahu
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM) Kirch, P.V. ; Spriggs Matthew J.T.
    Penetrating the western slopes of the Ko'olau mountains, the Anahulu Valley is the principal geographic feature of the large ahupua'a of Kawailoa, in Waialua District, O'ahu. Kawailoa, and the Anahulu Valley in particular, played a significant role in the early history of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom, for these fertile lands were among the prized holdings of the high chiefess Ka'ahumanu (favored wife of Kamehameha I, and first "Premier" or kuhina nui of the Kingdom), and her succes sors (including Kina'u and Victoria Kamamalu). Anahulu, with its irrigated taro pondfields, fishponds, and extensive dryland cultivations, not only supplied much of the material support for the chiefˡy establishments at Honolulu, but its population was called upon to provide produce and materials to underwrite the ch1efs' considerable trade with Western fur traders, whalers, and other entrepreneurs.
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    Front matter and Table of Contents
    ( 06/01/93 12:00 AM)