Aloha from Hawai'i. This is not really a political diary, but I thought that you might be interested in reading about our fieldwork in our 50th state. There is, of course, a political dimension to all the historical sciences (just look at what the Texas State Board of Education is doing to US history), and archaeology is no exception. Modern archaeology is about community building, and the local community is involved in all aspects of our project. Follow me below the fold to learn more about the royal site of Moku'ula and our fieldwork in Hawai'i.
The site of Moku'ula is located in Lahaina (formerly Lele) in West Maui. In the early 19th century, it was a palace and mausoleum for King Kamehameha III. At that time, the palace was located on an island surrounded by freshwater fish ponds. Around 1914 the site was filled in, and today it is home to a little used ball field.
Preliminary archaeological testing was carried out at Moku'ula in 1993 by a team from the Bishop Museum that included Kossack wahineslc. We are building on their work to try to try to identify the outer limits of the island. When the research is complete, the Friends of Moku'ula plan to restore the island. You can read more about the restoration project here.
We begin and end our work days with chants that were chosen for us by our native cultural advisors. It is very important that we respect the traditions and the wishes of the Native Hawaiian community. Here is one of the chants that we say in the morning:
E ho mai ka 'ike luna mai e
O na mea huna no'eau
O na mele e
E ho mai, e ho mai, e ho mai
And here is the English translation:
Grant me the knowledge from above
Of artistic and skillful secrets
In the chants
Grant me, grant me, grant me
The project is headed by my former student, Dr. Janet Six, who teaches archaeology and anthropology at University of Hawai'i Maui College. It is a field school for students from Maui College and NYU. Field schools help train our undergraduates in archaeological techniques such as excavating, mapping, recording, and processing artifacts.
Here you can see some of our students laying out the grid. We work in one-by-one meter units, and we plot the exact location of any finds.
Here we are beginning the actual excavation. We are working very slowly and carefully, and we are now excavating through fill that was deposited in the 1940s:
Here you can see two of our students using our total station. We record the depth of each one by one meter unit at the beginning and the end of every day. We can also use the total station to record the exact location of each artifact we find.
We have just finished the first week of what will be a five-week field season, so there will be lots more to report in the next few weeks.
Here is a gratuitous picture of the Maui landscape just to show how lovely the island is. This makes up for the time I spent digging in the poison sumac in Bayonne, NJ.
This will also be cross-posted at mud-brick.com.