Archaeological Survey Work Underway at Mokuʻula

Friends of Moku‘ula and the County of Maui welcome back the Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i team to the Moku‘ula/Mokuhinia restoration site on Front Street in Lahaina this month. The team of archaeologists, led by Maui Island Director Tanya Lee-Greig, MA, will be completing the Archaeological Inventory Survey work that was started last spring. They expect to be on the restoration site for six to eight weeks.

The goal for this year’s work is to find the perimeter wall of the holding pond that was located on the Front Street side of Moku‘ula Island, and to finish locating the outer edges of the island. The County of Maui recently installed a chain link fence around the perimeter of the restoration site so that any features unearthed during the archaeological work can be protected.

Lineal descendants of Piʻilani and families from the Ahupuaʻa Waine‘e offered their support for Friends of Moku‘ula to supervise and maintain the restoration site.

Once the Archaeological Inventory Survey report is submitted to the State of Hawaiʻi Historic Preservation Division for review, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment over a period of 30 days, and a community meeting will be scheduled in September. After that, SHPD has 15 days to submit its comments, and a final AIS report will be available by the end of November.

Archaeologists, Jonas Madeus, BA and Jennifer Frey, BA digging for pohaku and sifting fill. The archaeologists are now on site Monday – Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Photo courtesy: Karee Carlucci via Friends of Mokuʻula. (3.21.16)

Closeup shots of the Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i work trench that uncovered the location and corner stones of the causeway (last year). The causeway connected the King’s Road (Front Street) to the island and would have been guarded by sentries. It’s located in the Moku‘ula parking lot at the Front Street driveway entrance. Photo courtesy: Friends of Mokuʻula.

Closeup shots of the Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i work trench that uncovered the location and corner stones of the causeway (last year). The causeway connected the King’s Road (Front Street) to the island and would have been guarded by sentries. It’s located in the Moku‘ula parking lot at the Front Street driveway entrance. Photo courtesy: Friends of Mokuʻula.

Moku’ula. Photo by Wendy Osher.

Photo courtesy Friends of Mokuʻula.