Hawai'i Archaeology Week runs Saturday to April 28, and local archaeologists are leading events at various sites around the islands. We called an archaeologist at random - "That's me, a random archaeologist," said Dr. David Tuggle of International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. in McCully - to find out why they're inviting average citizens into the office. Even if the office is a 500-year-old heiau."Well, most of us are very concerned about getting information to the public about historic sites. It's an education process," said Tuggle. "And then there's the interpretation of sites, which gives people a sense of the very real history that occurred there."
Tuggle is leading a field trip around Barbers Point Naval Air Station, an area not really known for much of anything beside the airfield.
"When you talk pre-contact and post-contact Hawaii, there's still a continuity of Hawaiian life," said Tuggle. "You just move into the archaeology of peoples other than Hawaiians. There's a lot of 20th century sites at Barbers Point, mainly of the World War II period."
Which is now ancient history, going by the generic federal 50-year-rule in determining historical worthiness. Some sites at Barbers Point, however, include the Cold War period.
"As an archaeologist, we prefer to see sites preserved rather than destroyed. That's often pretty difficult in areas that have a lot of growth," said Tuggle.
Some of the archaeology events are field trips, and participants are urged to wear appropriate hiking footwear, hat, sunscreen and bring water. Reservations are required for some trips.
See a complete list of Archaeology Week events on page B-7 of today's Star-Bulletin.