A preliminary Look at Moanalua Cave (Site 0-15)

Abstract

This research project is in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honors and its main goal was to synthesize field records from the 1 9 8 0 excavations of Moanalua Cave (Site 0-15). Moanalua Cave is located in an intermediate position between the coastal lowlands and the uplands of Kamana-nui Valley of central Oahu. The site was first excavated by the Bishop Museum in 1964, and later by the UH-Manoa Archaeological Field School in 1980. Although excavations and record keeping at the site were exceptionally detailed, a final report was never produced for the UH-Manoa fieldwork. However, several analyses of the archaeological assemblages were undertaken by archaeology students at the university, under the direction of Dr. Matthew Spriggs (formerly at UH). This thesis provides a preliminary summary of the field records and artifact collections from this site. In addition to providing an account of the field project and the laboratory analyses, this honors project acquired the first radiocarbon date for this site. The radiocarbon date was acquired from wood charcoal that was identified to the species of Lagenaria siceraria, commonly known by its Hawaiian name as Ipu, a gourd plant. In addition to assessing the relevance of this date to Hawaiian archaeology, I will suggest several directions for future archaeological research on the collection from Moanalua cave site.