Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 5, 1 May 1988 — Dig Location is Poupou Kauka Settlement [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Dig Location is Poupou Kauka Settlement

Volcano Archaeological Sites Threatened by Lava

By Earl (Buddy) Neller Archaeologist/OHA Cultural Specialist Hundreds of archaeological features, including some of the most significant ones in the Kalapana extension of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, are in imminent danger of being buried by lava. Beginning in 1986, the National Park Service has been conducting archaeological surveys and excavations at sites likely to be covered by lava in the near future. Field director of the current project is Laura Carter, a graduate student at the University of Hawaii. She and her field crew have been working steadily and sweating it out as lava continues to flow into the oceanjust afewhundred yards from their dig. Located between Wahaula Heiau and the active flows of Kilauea volcano, the dig site is known as the Poupou Kauka Settlement. As of November, 1987, more than 900 recorded archaeological features had been covered by the current eruptive phase of Kilauea volcano whieh began in January, 1983. Important and well known sites that are now gone include Makaiwa Heiau, Queens Bath and Punaluu Heiau. It is not known how many unrecorded archaeoloqical sites have been lost.

Approximately 1,154 acres of the endangered area have been completely surveyed for archaeological sites so far. Other areas have been partially surveyed. Intensive survey work began in 1974, when native Hawaiians applied for homesteads within the Kalapana extension of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Public Law No. 680, passed in 1938, authorized the Nahonal Park Service to lease land suitable for homes to native Hawaiians, when such use did not interfere with free access to points of historic, scenic, or scientific interest. Wahaula Heiau is built on the oldest pieee of rock in the area, a hill of lava from a f!ow that dates back to the fifth century. Wahaula Heiau was originally built and dedicated by Pa'ao, a priest from Kahiki. The heiau is quite large, with many divisions, and may be the oldest heiau in Hawaii. Different species of endemic Hawaiian trees ean be found growing on the hill around the heiau. The house sites and other archaeological features surrounding the heiau rest on lava flows that are only 500 to 700 years old. Thus, when archaeologists began their digging they didn't expect to find too mueh. "What surprised us most was the depth of the deposits," said Gary Somers, National Park Service archaeologist.

The ruins of house sites are important to archaeologists because they represent households. The household is a standard unit of analysis for ecologieal and anthropological studies. House ruins often contain clues to social status, eeonomie class and ethnic variability. Through the comparative study of households, archaeologists attempt to understand and explain the similarities and differences between regions and between settlements and between neighborhoods and between households.

Archaeologists look at a eanoe shed excavation in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The thick midden deposit below the stonewalls had been deposited before construction of the shed.

This is a lava flow around a house site at Poupou Kauka Settlement in Volcanoes National Park. These photos were taken by the author on Mar. 19, 1988.