Prehistoric and Historic Landscapes
The archaeological research team consists of four students: Lawrence Fujiwara, Samantha Hauser, John O’Connor, and Avery Sandborn. We are exploring the prehistoric agricultural field systems in the Kona district of Kauai. Our assessment of Hawaiian agricultural practices includes four complementary projects designed to better understand the extent of farming in the region prior to Euro-American contact.
Lawrence Fujiwara will be using the spectrometer to find out if different archaeological structures such as wall, auwai, etc have separate spectrum reflectance. If different archaeological structures have different spectrum reflectance, it will help archaeologists detect different archaeological structures using high resolution MSS satellite images. Lawrence Fujiwara will also use aerial photographs from the kite, fixed airplanes and Gatewing X100 to make a 3D model using the program Agisoft photoscan. From photoscan Lawrence Fujiwara will try to make a topographic model to combine with the data generated from the spectrometer.
The Grove Farm Quarry has not been used for years and historically was a place for Hawaiian burials and habitat for endangered species such as the Hawaiian Stilt. The National Tropical Botanical Garden hopes to restore this area. Samantha is focusing on the stone quarry restoration by mapping out the historic and present landscape. First, the present landcape must be mapped out with Gatewing X100 photographs, ground truthing with gps data, and LiDAR data. This data has been generated, but the historic data has not yet been collected. The historic landscape can be taken from historic topographic and landscape maps from museum resources tomorrow. By looking at these two time periods, the potential restoration efforts can be determined.
John O’Connor is comparing the effectiveness of various remote-sensing methods for the identification of archaeological features across prehistoric landscapes. Hawaiian basalt archaeological features are often difficult to visualize due to invasive vegetation, destruction from contemporary land-use practices, and the human scale of observation. The application of airborne investigative methods and multi-spectral imaging enables the classification of large area anthropogenic structures. Data is currently being generated from PAP (pole aerial photography), KAP (kite aerial photography), fixed-wing and helicopter UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) platforms, and specific satellite operations such as Quickbird, NASA Pathfinder, and Worldview. Research has taken place in Koloa and Mahaulepu but may expand to include other areas of Kauai. Resulting imagery will be evaluated for ease of data extraction and used for region-wide archaeological analysis.
Avery is researching past and present archaeological features and land cover in order to study the changes in Hawaiian landscapes. Currently, the areas of interest are the southern and south-central areas of Kauai. Data from remote sensing technologies and ground-truthing instruments can be merged with prehistoric maps and imagery to determine how archaeological and agricultural features have evolved. While in the field, she can obtain color and infrared imagery from kites, blimps, and remote controlled planes, as well as coordinates from GPS technologies. Data analysis will be completed by georeferencing all relevant maps and imagery obtained from both the field and literature review. Ultimately, a time series of digital layers will aid in the restoration of native species and provide a historical context for archaeological features in Kauai.