Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 4, 1 April 1986 — Luluku Soil Tests May Date to 390 AD [ARTICLE]

Luluku Soil Tests May Date to 390 AD

Bishop Museum archaeologists say that the Luluku area of Windward Oahu may be of far greater historical significance than had been earlier suspected. Previously unrevealed data suggests that Luiuku may be one of the earliest agricultural sites in the Hawaiian Islands. Office of Hawaiian Affairs Culture/Education Committee Chairman Gard Kealoha called the new findings extremely significant. He said they provide a dramatic example of why

the area must be preserved. Luluku has been the subject of recent controversy because it sits in the right-of-way of the proposed H-3 Freeway Project. During a Mar. 13 meeting of the committee, Bishop Museum contract archaeologist Jane Allen startled committee

members by reveailing that tests of soil from one of the buried agricultural terraces dated the sample at 390 AD. she stressed, however, that the data is preliminary and that further testing must be done to verify the date.

She also identified the remains of house and refuse sites along with other signs of later habitation in the area. Allen told members of the committee that the "lo'i" or agricultural terraces are extensive arid very impressive. Excavation has unerathed layers or strata of lo'i eaeh coming from a different period. This is considered an unusual and significant finding. Allen said the luluku sites were submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior Feb. 21 to determine their eligibility for inclusion on the Nahonal Register of Historic Places.

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