Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 2, 1 February 1992 — piece of Hawaiian history [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

piece of Hawaiian history

The area from Nu'uanu Stream to Kakaako as described by John Pap li in fhe book "Fragments of Hawaiian Hlstory." Map by Paul Rockwood.

have seen Honolulu grow up and change," he remembers. Realizing Island heritage needs to be preserved, McCormack says becoming involved in the mystery below the property where the eompany intends to develop has been exhilarating. "I think we feel we contributed our fair share and a little more but we are definitely happy we

b I S [f? I ° I -- I V) I 8 -£ 1° I ^ I I 2 1 o " £

r where modern-day Honolulu was born.

were a part of this and supporting the Hawaiian community," he says, noting that the archaeological work has cost the company approximately $1 million. Although company officials are still deciding how to best explain the historic significance of the complex, one of the options is to build a display case on the plaza level, says McCormack. Another option is to name the section Kamehameha Plaza.

Harbor Court Developers, however, had little ehoiee on whether to become involved in the project. Developments planned on city, county or state owned land are required to go through the historic preservation review process to determine whether the property is historically important, according to Dye. "We're (Historic Preservation Division) very active. In fact, people have told me, since I've eome to work here, that our office is among the most active in the nation, that we're really tough watchdogs," he added.

While mueh of the media attention surrounded what the team of archaeologists uncovered at the site, the results of lab work over the next few months could reveal even more about the loeation. "You eome out of the field thinking you know pretty well what has happened," says Allen. "But you don't want to just look at artifacts but what they represent. I think when we're eventually able to sit down and compare and share, we'll eome up with a pretty interesting picture." During the next half year, reports from

archaeologists at both Bishop Museum and Paul H. Rosenthal, ine. will be submitted as well as one on the inventory survey conducted during the demolition. The many artifacts found during weeks of excavatfon are in the midst of being cataloged.

Yet research on the site, Dye predicts, will continue for mueh longer. The amount of material uncovered ean be studied by students of Hawaiian history for years. A Yale University graduate who spent two years in Tonga working on his dissertation, Dye points out that interpreting and analyzing what has been collected will never yield a final historic picture. "lt's not science. There is never a definitive statement. It's always an idea to be tested but this is going to contribute very significantly to progress in those ideas so that we are not always asking the same questions," he says.

Eventually, Dye says he hopes the information gathered from a variety of future archaeological projects ean be presented to the public. He notes that several cities such as Mexico City and London have produced books about "the city under your feet." "The important thing is that if we miss the center, we never figure it out. And this is the birth of Honolulu right here, right next to the harbor," explains Dye. "So that if we missed this, if we didn't dig enough, collect enough from this site, these potential insights would never be realized and we would have missed a golden opportunity."