Hawaiian Archaeology Volume 08
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ItemA Beach, a Lava Flow, and an Old Road: Archaeological Research on the Island of Hawai'i, 1995-1997( 2002-06-01)Between 1995 and 1997, the author and students at the University of Hawai'iHilo (UHH) carried out three field projects on Hawai'i Island. In 1995, we conducted test excavations at a habitation site at 'Anaeho'omalu Bay. In 1996, we conducted a reconnaissance survey around the perimeters of two anchialine ponds near Pueo Bay in the ahupua'a of Pu'uanahulu in North Kona. In 1997, we carried out a reconnaissance survey along a portion of the Old Government Road in the ahupua'a of Kea'au in Puna. All of these projects consisted of preliminary field investigations of historic properties coupled with accompanying historical and documentary research. While detailed site descriptions will not be presented here (due to landowners' and agencies' concerns over site security), we offer some preliminary findings and make suggestions for future research in each case. More detailed site information may be obtained from project reports on file at the State Historic Preservation Division (Lass 1995, 1996 & 1997).
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ItemEarly Human Activity at a Leeward Coastal Pondfield near Kalepolepo, Maui( 2002-06-01)This paper presents the results of excavations undertaken near the historic Kalepolepo Church (SHIP #15-10-1587) in Kihei located in leeward east Maui. This place was an important component of the ancient coastal enclave of Kalepolepo, known for its series of coastal fishponds, and later for, the religious community of David Malo. The goal of excavation was to provide comparative coastal subsistence information for the upland survey conducted in Waiohuli (Kolb, Conte and Cordy 1997). Ethnohistoric records indicate that this area was primarily suited for sweet potato cultivation, although land documents suggest that a number of coastal pondfields in the area provided opportunities for the production of wetland taro. Most studies on Hawaiian dryland agriculture have focused on upland leeward agricultural systems (e.g. Rosendahl 1994) since many leeward coastal ponds have been destroyed by coastal development. Our results indicate human activity at the Kalepolepo church site began around a small inland pond about the same time as intensive permanent upland settlement in Kula.
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ItemLate Prehistoric Fishing Adaptations at Kawakiu Nui, West Moloka'i( 2002-06-01)Fishhooks are one of the more common items of material culture found in Polynesian archaeological sites, and sizeable hook assemblages were accumulating in museum and private collections from as early as the 18th century from early explorers such as Bligh and Cook who amassed large ethnological collections from New Zealand and tropical Oceania (Kaeppler 1978). On the basis of the collections available by the early decades of the 20th century, ethnologists became aware that variation in hook form showed strong spatial patterning. Skinner (1924), for example, defined a number of prehistoric culture areas in New Zealand on the basis of hook form and discussed these in terms of alternative migration models. Buck (1927) also saw the potential for using fishhook distributions as a means of tracing, Polynesian migration routes and interpreted Polynesian colonization history on the basis of one-piece hook distributions. Additionally, the distribution of onepiece hooks, Ruvettus hooks, and bonito hooks (trolling, lures), were used by Burrows (1938) to differentiate western, central, and marginal Polynesian culture areas.
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ItemHistory on Stones: A Newly-Discovered Petroglyph Site at Kahikinui, Maui( 2002-06-01)Archaeologists have listed more than 135 petroglyph sites in the Hawaiian Islands (Cox and Stasack 1970; Kirch 1985:271), yet for the vast majority of these there is little or no settlement-pattern context, material culture assemblage, or temporal association. Thus Hawaiian petroglyphs have typically been studied as a thing apart, of interest primarily for their aesthetic qualities, rather than as integral components of larger cultural and social systems.
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ItemSettlement Patterns and Subsistence Strategies in Kahikinui, Maui( 2002-06-01)The nature of pre-Contact settlement patterns and subsistence practices in dry leeward portions of the Hawaiian islands has been one focus of archaeological investigations for over three decades. This research has revealed two basic agricultural and settlement systems which are largely defined by geographical and environmental parameters-"enclosed" systems which are found in narrowly circumscribed but relatively well watered valleys on the older islands, and "open" systems which are found in areas lacking such valleys and water courses on the younger islands. Archaeological studies of enclosed leeward systems include Nu'alolo Valley on Kaua'i (Bennett 1931; Soehren ms.), the Makaha (Green 1969, 1970) and Halawa (Klieger 1995; Damp 1998) valleys on O'ahu, and the Halawa Valley on east Moloka'i (Kirch and Kelley 1975). Open leeward systems have been studied in upcountry Kula on east Maui (Kolb, Conte, and Cordy 1997), and in Lapakahi (Rosendahl 1994) and Kaloko (Cordy et al. 1991) on the island ofHawai'i. The archaeological remains of these two pre-Contact leeward systems vary not only between the two basic types of geographical features (valleys and slopes), but also within the individual islands themselves. In enclosed leeward systems with permanent water courses, irrigated taro pondfields (or lo'i) and terraces can be found close to the water sources at the head of the valleys, spreading out downstream as seasonal water fl.ow permits. Permanent settlement in these valleys is generally concentrated toward the mouth of the streams (Kirch and Kelley 1975), with dispersed residential housing being located upstream near the field systems (Green 1969, 1970). In the karst landscape of leeward coastal O'ahu, natural sinkholes constitute a separate agricultural component to this system (Davis 1995).
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