Erosion hurting Kaho'olawe artifacts
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — Recent archaeological work on Kaho'olawe indicates the island is even more rich in historical features and artifacts than initially thought, a Navy archaeologist said yesterday.
But Theresa Donham warned the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission that artifacts located at one of the most culturally significant areas of the island, Lua Makika, the highest point on Kaho'olawe, are in a state of crisis due to erosion.
"The artifacts are being washed away,'' she said.
Donham said shell scrapers, adzes and other cultural material found in and around the heavily eroded hardpan summit is being scattered by water erosion.
If a site, such as a shrine, loses the pattern that gives it meaning, she said, "it's history already.''
Lua Makika, translated as "mosquito pit,'' was an important place for the people of Kaho'olawe, according to Hokulani Holt-Padilla, the commission's cultural adviser. She said a high concentration of historic sites are found at the crater rim, and the fertile soil — helped by water trapped in the crater — made it a center for agriculture.
The Navy's ordnance removal contractor recently completed the clearance of 400 acres at the summit, and the commission is preparing a multimillion-dollar restoration and stabilization project there as a pilot project for the whole island.
But the Navy has yet to certify the land as safe and turn it over the commission. Navy officials said the handoff will occur soon, but no date has been given.
Donham, a former state archaeologist on Maui and now the Navy's technical representative to the ordnance cleanup project, has been in charge of the archaeological work since the cleanup began two years ago.
She said that a little over a third of the archaeological work has been completed and that 1,881 historical features — including nearly 400 new ones — have been identified.
The original archaeological survey conducted in the 1970s identified just 2,377 features on the entire island, she said.
While Donham is not surprised by the amount of cultural material being found on Kaho'olawe, the quantity of material does confirm a long-held belief that the island's archaeology is rich and that it deserves its 1982 designation as a National Historic District.
The reason Kaho'olawe has so many cultural features and artifacts — many more than the other major Hawaiian Islands — is simply that the island has escaped development, she said.
Even though the land was bombed for 50 years and goats, sheep and cattle accelerated erosion for an even longer period, many artifacts remain.
Archaeologists who surveyed the island in the 1970s apparently missed some cultural material because of overgrown vegetation, among other reasons.
Donham said nearly 4,500 artifacts have been identified and mapped during the current project.
She expects to find about 10,000 historical items by the time the cleanup ends in 2003. Nearly all the artifacts are to remain in the field.
