Na Ko`i O Wai`ahukini: Adze Size and Sources of Toolstone at Wai`ahukini Rockshelter

Summary

This is an abstract from the "How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Wai‘ahukini Rockshelter (H8/50-Ha-B21-006), located near South Point on the Island of Hawai‘i, was initially investigated by K. P. Emory, W. Bonk, and Y. Sinoto in the 1950s. The collection has since been curated at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, HI. Excavation recovered as many as 18 complete ko‘i, or adzes, and many fragments. Three of the complete ko‘i are small (<5 cm long), possibly intended for finish carving, or ko‘i kikoni, as opposed to the larger adzes used to fell trees, till fields, or hollow out canoes. The ko‘i and other stone tools and debris have been studied for their geochemical source by Lunblad et al. (2014), which determined nine sources of toolstone for the site. This research takes a closer look at the geochemical test results to determine if there are differing source localities for the small ko‘i versus the large ko‘i. This research is part of a collaborative project, the Kamehameha Schools Archaeological Collections Curation Program, between the Bishop Museum and Kamehameha Schools that involves interns from Hawaii curating and researching existing collections from Kamehameha Schools lands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23425