ʻUkoʻa Habitation Site

Surveying

Surveying was the most difficult task since it entailed roaming around the entire site like a blind man and hoping we find something hidden under the brush and trees. There was a lot of walking and climbing, hacking up grass, and battling mosquitoes. It was an exhausting job but the reward of finding something undiscovered was great motivation. The portion of the course that involved pedestrian survey involved an excavation of Kawailoaʻs surface. A majority of our time involved scanning the ground for signs of human activity, which included coral, rock placement (ex: rock stacking, ahu or platform formations, rock walls), and augmented landscapes within the Kawailoa Site. At most we worked with an intuitive nature ever aware of all of our surroundings. When a feature was thought to have been located, our group removed and documented the flora fauna surrounding the possible component to Kawailoa. The pedestrian survey was the most grueling portion of the work we had conducted on site. Nevertheless, the methods used revealed important data, to create a story of people long gone and now never forgotten.