A Brief Report on Test Excavations at the Hawaiian Mission, Honolulu

Abstract

During the restoration of nineteenth century buildings at the Hawaiian Mission, immediately south of Kawaiaha' o Church in Honolulu, limited archaeological excavations were conducted. The project architects, Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood Frost, contacted the University of Hawai'i Department of Anthropology regarding the potential for archaeological work. Test excavations were carried out over sev­eral short periods in 1968, 1969, and 1970, with the aid of Anthropology gradu­ate students and participants in introductory courses. Washing, numbering, and some repairing of the large number of artifacts was done at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa campus. The Hawaiian Mission, occupying its present site since 1820, constitutes a most important resource for the study of the latest period of Hawaiian archaeology. Archaeological study of the Mission is indispensable for understanding the role of the missionaries in the transformation of Hawai'i.