Summary Goals Objectives Related Research Future Research Opportunities to Participate Images References
		Fieldwork at Kohala will be an intense research experience for advanced students but one that should be fulfilling and indicative of the nature and range of issues that archaeologists confront when they tackle significant questions or problems concerning human history. It will also be an enjoyable experience as students integrate active learning, are exposed to a variety of archaeological field and laboratory techniques, and experience living on one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific.
		Application for Summer 2004 HARP Archaeological Field Training Program

Students will spend a portion (about 50% of their time) during fieldwork conducting GPS mapping and recording surface features during the day, five days a week.  All mapping and recording will be done by teams, under the supervision of an archaeologist (graduate student or professor) and including from 2-4 students.  In addition to the trails and walls that comprise the formal features of the Kohala Field System, we will also be mapping ancillary agricultural features such as water diversion devices, terraces, and rock planting/clearing mounds.

The goal is to produce GPS maps that will sample the range of variability in the Kohala Field System. We will be examining these maps against environmental gradients in the larger, more comprehensive research project. Our previous work on this field system suggests that our sampled areas must be sufficiently large (encompass more that one ahupua`a territory), and must extend in elevation across much of the extant field border walls. Of the approximately 60 sq km area encompassed by the Kohala Field System, we have already GPS mapped approximately 10% of the area.  With work conducted during between 2003 to 2005 we will raise the area of the field system mapped to between 15 and 20% (or 8 to 11 sq km) of its total extent.

GPS mapping by students in both the uplands and coastal areas of North Kohala will also include residential and ceremonial features and structures that are visible on the surface. Along with mapping, architectural attributes of each structure are noted on a computerized form, as are any artifacts or ecofacts (bone, shell) visible on the surface. Within the upland agricultural area that we have already surveyed with GPS units, we have also mapped a large number of residential and ceremonial features. Additionally, we have previously mapped the residential and ceremonial features along the coastline of the ahupua'a of Pahinahina and Makiloa near the North-South Kohala border. We have permission to add to our GIS coverage the coastal surveys of Kahua, Waika, and Lapakahi where residential and ceremonial sites have been mapped. We will extend our mapping of residential and ceremonial structures to all of the new upland locations where we will conduct the agricultural survey and to their associated coastlines. This will include at minimum a total of five additional ahupua'a beyond those already GPS surveyed or instrument mapped. This would bring to a total of at least 10 ahupua'a, the number that will be extensively mapped and tested through excavation.

Ancillary work on agriculture in Kohala will involve selecting key sections of the field system to place trenches and field school students will assist in this work. This will comprise about 30-40% of the field training program each year and Dr. Julie Stein, geoarchaeologist from the University of Washington joined our program to supervise this phase of work. We have also experimented with this previously and have discovered that once field border walls and trails are placed in their relative construction order, then excavations can target those field borders which will most likely provide relevant subsurface information. For the most part, this will focus on obtaining charcoal samples suitable for 14 C dating and identification of woody plants. We have funding for approximately one hundred (100) 14 C dates for the Kohala area. Again, our previous work has shown that often charcoal is present at the base of field border walls or is situated within the soil horizon which underlies a field border wall. By selecting field border walls that are assignable to different portions of the field system's construction sequence (determinable from wall and trail offsets), we can test the adequacy of the relative chronology and place building or clearing events in their approximate calendrical time. Multiple samples of charcoal will be needed to reduce the problems associated with dating this late period in the islands' history. We have also discovered that construction of field borders preserves the contemporaneous landscape including soil nutrient availability. Additionally, test excavations will be placed in locations (usually associated with residential structures) where there is greater likelihood of acquiring information on the range and intensity of past human activities in the area. In particular, we will be attempt to recover faunal and artifactual remains which have been shown to co-vary with different social variables (Rosendahl 1972; Weisler and Kirch 1985) in Hawai'i.

Because of the nature of the GPS mapping and computerized site recording, the hand held locational devices and hand held devices with the computerized forms that have been completed will have to be downloaded on a daily basis. Students will be taught how this is done and then how to create data files and folders that will compile this information. This will require regular lab work in which students participate in the process of converting the locational data to our GIS data base, correcting the locational information from the roving units with base station data, reviewing maps and forms that have been completed, and identifying questionable information or gaps in the record keeping. Other laboratory work will include processing flotation samples and preliminarily sorting archaeological materials.

Students will be rotated through the different field work research teams:

• the GPS mapping of agricultural features;
• GPS mapping of coastal and upland residential and ceremonial sites;
• site recording of settlements using the computerized data form;
• test excavations within the KFS and among the residential sites that we map; and
• geoarchaeological trenching

During the field training session students will have the opportunity to attend presentations by archaeological and other faculty members from U.H. Manoa, along with professional staff who have expertise on Hawaiian or Pacific archaeology, economic patterns and subsistence practices, research methods, geographic and locational analysis, archaeological methods, specialized laboratory research such as wood charcoal identification, faunal analysis, basalt sourcing, artifact classification, geoarchaeology, state historic preservation laws and regulations, and Hawaiian oral traditions and genealogies. We will also have presentations by the collaborating natural scientists. We will also arrange weekend field trips to other locations on Hawai'i Island that reflect its environmental and climatic variability and will sample its rich archaeological history.

This will be an intense research experience for advanced students but one that should be fulfilling and indicative of the nature and range of issues that archaeologists confront when they tackle significant questions or problems concerning human history. It will also be an enjoyable experience as students integrate active learning, are exposed to a variety of archaeological field and laboratory techniques, and experience living on one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific.