Ancient Hawaiians made use of the Makauwahi Sinkhole at Maha‘ulepu – considered the oldest dated ecological site in Hawai‘i — about 1,000 years ago, says a renowned mainland scientist. Evidence collected from the sinkhole shows there was a constant disbursal
Ancient Hawaiians made use of the Makauwahi Sinkhole at Maha‘ulepu – considered the oldest dated ecological site in Hawai‘i — about 1,000 years ago, says a renowned mainland scientist.
Evidence collected from the sinkhole shows there was a constant disbursal of charcoal soot in the air, a trend that suggests more and more fires had been ignited for cooking or for clearing of forest for hunting of the Maha‘ulepu area by ancient Hawaiians, said Dr. David Burney.
Burney, a paleoecologist and an instructor at Fordham University, made that point and others during a “open house” visit to the sinkhole Saturday. Another “open house” session was planned for Sunday.
His conclusions have compelled archeologists to review their own research on when man first stepped foot in Hawai‘i,” Burney said in an interview with The Garden Island.
“In recent years, archeologists have sort of revisited that question and have concluded that earlier radio-carbon dates for people in Hawai‘i are probably questionable,” Burney said.
For the past 12 years, Burney has been the prime investigator in the study of the sinkhole, which is located along a jungle-covered shoreline near Kawelikoa Point in Koloa.
Burney’s work has focused on the study and distribution of fossils, plants, birds, shells and Hawaiian artifacts within the sinkhole.
The sinkhole appeared after the ceiling of a large cave collapsed some 7,000 years ago, and fell over most of a lake or pond that exists today. At one time, it was a rich fish ground for ancient Hawaiians.
Burney has studied 450,000 thousand years of history during investigations assisted by up to 300 volunteers and experts, including those from the Smithsonian Institution and the late Dr. Bill “Pila” Kikuchi.
Kikuchi was a longtime archeology instructor at the Kaua‘i Community College and a renowned expert on Hawaiian fishponds.
Burney hopes his work will allow for better understanding of the evolution of Hawai‘i, its flora and fauna and its people.
Some historians contend the first migration of Polynesians to Hawai‘i came from the Marquesas Islands in eastern Polynesia between the fourth and fifth century A.D.
Around 1,200 A.D., Tahitians arrived in the second wave of migration of Polynesians to Hawai‘i.
Burney said tests connected to his study of the sinkhole showed “sudden jump in the amount of microscopic charcoal or sediment” took place around 1,000 A.D, at the cave site and 14 other test sites on Kaua‘i.
The fires burned by the first settlers to Hawai‘i created a continuous “airborne signal of charcoal dust” and validated a “sustained record of soot,” suggesting that more people had begun colonizing the land, Burney said.
“We think that it is pretty convincing evidence that people were well established by that time, because we also got it from many other sites from around the island,” Burney said.
Scientists arrived at different dates because they used different methodologies in ascertaining man’s arrival in Hawai‘i, Burney believes.
“The questions (now being asked archeologists) are based on two things: Wood charcoal in the ground they found may not be associated with people. There were natural fires from brush being struck by lighting,” Burney said.
Scientists also analyzed driftwood that was picked up and burned by ancient Hawaiians as a marker, Burney said.
The wood that was used as firewood didn’t rot because it had drifted at sea for a long time and had been cured by sea water, a phenomenon that could make precise dating of the burned wood difficult, Burney said.
“It isn’t’ necessarily the dating of the fire. It is the dating of the wood,” Burney continued.
Burney said he is taking his research to another level – investigating the impact of humans on areas around the sinkhole.
Documenting the time when humans made first contact with a pristine natural Hawaiian environment is a central theme in his study, Burney said.
“To me, the most interesting moment in time is that brief instant in any place where people first make contact with nature, in the case of an island, when an island is discovered and colonized,” Burney said.
The biota of Kaua‘i had been fine tuning itself through the evolutionary process for millions of years without human interference, he said.
“And when humans arrived, a whole bunch of changes are set in motion, and this is the thing that has interested me for much of my professional life,” Burney said.
Burney said there were pluses to minuses to man’s arrival in Hawai‘i and his impact on the environment, and that he had no judgment call on it.
Evidence taken from digs revealed bits of kukui nut and bones of the Pacific Rat, which Polynesians brought with them during their migration to Hawai‘i, along with dogs, pigs and chickens, Burney said.
An ancient village consisting of at least 34 huts existed just mauka of Maha‘ulepu Beach, Burney said.
The area had great appeal because Hawaiians could catch fish from the ocean or mullet in two, freshwater stream ponds, including one that existed in the cave at one time.
Burney said he and his wife, Liva Pigott Burney, plan to write about the history of human activity in the area for a scientific journal soon.
The oral history adds color and depth to scientific data that has been collected so far, Burney said.
One story will deal with the ancestor of LaFrance Arboleda Kapaka, who heads the Kaua‘i office of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
According to stories she heard as a child, Kapaka’s great, great grandfather was a kahuna (priest) who had control of the cave in the mid-19th century, Burney said.
As the stories go, he “sat back in the cave and would build a fire, scatter the ashes and look at the smoke and the ashes and the patterns he saw he used as a oracle,” Burney said. As a kahuna, he carried much influence among Hawaiian villagers in the area.
Another story dealt with a Kaua‘i king who had control of ahupua‘a in which the cave is found. As the legend goes, the king, in the 14th century, complained that his refuge of squid was being depleted.
“He got a kahuna to look into it,” and while in a trance on the cave ridge, saw a giant crab came out of the cave and took the squid, Burney said.
The chief assembled warriors to go to the cave to kill the crab, but when they got there, they found instead poachers, or Hawaiians who were not loyal to their king, Burney said. The story may be symbolic in nature, but is part of the oral history of the cave, he said.
The Maha‘ulepu Beach also was the scene of a battle that took place between Kaua‘i warriors and warriors from another island, possibly in the 14th century, Burney said.
The Kaua‘i warriors spotted the invaders in canoes off the coastline, and in a military tactic, lured the invaders inland by “showing themselves” repeatedly as they made their way mauka of the beach, Burney said.
The invading warriors followed inland, where they were ambushed and killed, Burney said.
Burney said he would like to incorporate these stories in a published article called “Millennium of Human Activity at Makauwahi Cave.”
Burney said he had been writing the paper with Kikuchi, who conducted extensive surveys of the early literature on the cave and interviews with kupuna, or elderly Hawaiians, who had recollections about the cave.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
