Hawaii's Ancient Village

The Site

I am here in Hawaii with my archeological team because we got a call about someone who found ancient coins while on vacation. My team and I flew in to one of Hawaii's smallest islands where few people live. We hope to find some evidence or remains of an ancient village. We are near an active volcano, and about half a mile away from a beach. It is very beautiful here but the heat will not be very nice for the long dig ahead.

Formation

I am in Hawaii near a active volcano digging up artifacts, hoping it won’t erupt any time soon. I am in Hawaii after some people said they found some old coins near a volcano. We started digging and finally found a bone sticking out. It turned out to be 2 bodies in what looked like a hole. I believe that a volcano had to do with how the people died because when we excavated the area we found lava rock. Also, we assume the bodies were sealed tight in ash. I can tell that they died in that hole and someone must have put antlers on their heard and buried them. Also, a few very old coins were found along with necklaces that the bodies had on.

Excavation

We did it! we found 2 bodies and some ancient artifacts here in Hawaii. We do not know how old the things are but we will find out. The air is humid and the weather is very hot, making us want to rush but, we made sure not to go to fast and break something. We went to go excavate the area and after some digging found an area filled with a little bit of ash and a lot of dirt. Seeing that made us wonder why there was ash so far underground and we dug it up. After taking out all the dirt we found 2 bodies, coins, a small lava rock, and harden lava in the hole holding everything in place. My team and I very carefully lifted the bodies out of the hole we made and made sure to support and hold all the bones to prevent it from breaking. Once everything was out it was all stuck to the harden lava. Our plan was to make the harden lava really hot and then try to pull everything out.

Dating

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Dating

It is finally time to figure out how old everything is, it could be very old I cannot wait to date it. I am very excited to date this because we believe it could have been part of a small village in Hawaii thousands of years ago. This is a primary source because it formed or became a source as soon as the people died. I will be using radiocarbon dating on the bodies and absolute dating on the coins and necklaces. Radiocarbon dating is measuring the amount of radiocarbon left in a body to see how old it is. Absolute dating is the ability to give an artifact a specific age in years. After using all those methods we figured out the 2 people died in 600 B.C. and the coins were made in around 700 B.C

Interpretation

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Interpretation

My team and I are looking over all the artifacts and are interpreting this story which so far seems to be very interesting. I believe the 2 bodies found died in a rare way. After further research it seems like they were underground for cover from an earthquake and they died. Then someone who survived found them, put antlers on their head, and then buried them. Then a volcano erupted sometime around then, destroying the village and then sealing it in ash. Also, we found a small rock that was dried lava in the hole leading us to believe a volcano eruption was part of it. All in All, it seems like thousands of years ago in around 600 B.C. there was a tiny village on Hawaii and then all the people died after an earthquake and a volcano eruption to top it of.