PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER IX:
PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (continued)

F. Description of Resources: Central Keokea Ahupua'a (continued)

4. Holua

As mentioned earlier, the longest holua in the park (1,290 feet) terminates behind a house platform in the Paumoa area (Map 5). Its beginning point is outside the park boundary back of the pali, and the 1871 trail crosses its lower section. Emory found the upper part of the slide almost intact and the traceable boundaries of the lower stretch. [215]

5. Keanae'e Cliff Burial Caves and Shelters

Another area of interment in the park is the Keanae'e Cliff section (Map 5), which contains several caves used for disposal of bodies. Emory noted three major burial caves and several shelters. William Ellis, proceeding on his 1823 journey after a restless night in a leaky house at Keokea inhabited by a group of boisterous natives intoxicated on 'awa, was extremely impressed by the "singular appearance of the lava:"

As we passed along this vaulted avenue, called by the natives Keanaee, we beheld a number of caverns and tunnels, from some of which streams of lava had flowed. The mouths of others being walled up with stones, we supposed were used as sepulchres.

Mats, spread upon the slabs of lava, calabashes, etc. indicated some of them to be the habitations of men; others, near the openings, were used as workshops, where women were weaving mats, or beating cloth. Some, we also saw, used as storehouses or depositories of sandal wood. [216]

The first shelter site Emory mentions is at the north end of the cliff where it begins to recede. There the mouth of a lava tube forms a large natural shelter reached by two entrances. The floor of the shelter was paved with waterworn stones, and various artifacts and animal bones indicated its early use. A small, walled-off lava tube leading from it held the ancient skeletal remains of at least twelve persons. Farther around the bend to the south, Emory found a small shelter with a platform and wall in front. Farther south he found another shelter behind a small, primarily natural, platform. Above this was a twelve-foot-deep cave containing five infant burials in gourd containers. A small stone cairn stood above the cave near the edge of the cliff.

Emory found two other important burial caves, one where the cliff began to dip lower that consisted of a walled entrance leading into a wide tube in whose walls shelves had been built. The burials of at least twelve individuals laid on the shelves dated from prehistoric to historical times. Southwest of this cave was one thought to have originally contained prehistoric burials but whose heavy use up until the turn of the century seemed to have obscured earlier evidence. Modern coffins there had been burned, the cave showing signs of intrusion and vandalism. Emory noted that natural shelters all along this cliff, formed by arching lava flows, offered ideal workshop areas because the shade and dampness facilitated working with plant materials. At the upper end of the Alahaka ramp, a shelter opening in the cliff leads into a lava tube called Waiu-o-Hina. One hundred sixty feet long, two to six feet high, and varying in width from ten to fifteen feet, it emerges in a hanging entrance in the cliff about thirty to forty feet above the ocean at Pukakio Point. [217]

Within the first few years of the park's establishment, archeological field excavations and salvage projects took place in connection with the park's long-range planning and development program. Recovered skeletal material was initially placed in a shed in the park. This was acceptable neither to preservationists nor to the public concerned about ancestral remains. Another solution was sought that would meet the requirements of safe, permanent storage as well as the emotional needs of the Hawaiian people.

In 1966 a shelter cave in the Keanae'e Cliff, identified as Cave C58, was decided upon as a repository for skeletal material. Previous occupation in front of the cave was evidenced by several low stone terraces, a low stone fence, burned areas, and scattered animal bones. [218] Salvage work on the site suggested that the shelter predated the European contact period, functioned as a workshop, and was abandoned soon after Ellis's visit. [219]