Introduction
Too much planning can be dangerous; it can lead to a fixation on getting the planned work done that blinds one to discoveries and the effects of serendipity. But too little planning is even worse; you wander around and waste time. Particularly where time is short and you can’t just pop back later to do more work – as is, of course, the case on Nikumaroro – it’s vital to have a plan, even if you end up doing a lot of things that aren’t in it.
This is my first cut at a plan for the conduct of archaeological research on Nikumaroro in May-June 2010, on the Niku VI Expedition. Actually, I lied; it’s the second cut. I presented the first cut at the Earhart Project Advisory Council (EPAC) meeting in Philadelphia on July 18-19; this version is slightly refined based on the EPAC’s discussion.
Research Focus: The Seven Site
It’s been generally agreed that the focus of our work will be on the Seven Site, near the southeast end of the island, where –
- Evidence indicates that the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme (PISS) colonists and administrator Gerald Gallagher found a partial human skeleton, a man’s and woman’s shoes, and a sextant box in 1940;
- In 1996 TIGHAR found evidence of colonial-era (1938-63) activities;
- In 2001 we found much more evidence of camping on the site, including evidence of cooking birds, fish, and turtles, together with some enigmatic artifacts;
- In 2007 we found what appears to be the remains of a woman’s compact from the 1940s, together with various clothing items and two more campfire features, with bones that suggest that whoever camped there did not fish or cook fish like a Pacific islander.
We have three goals at the Seven Site in 2010:
1. Make sure we’ve characterized the geography of the site correctly – that its components don’t extend beyond the area we’ve cleared of vegetation and examined;
2. Examine the entire site in much greater detail; and
3. Make a particular effort to collect material that might present recoverable DNA.
The site presents some serious physical challenges, notably:
1. It’s covered with Scaevola, a truly nasty shrub, which must be cut and removed; it’s hard to remove because wherever you try to put it, there’s more Scaevola growing.
2. Much of what we’re interested in is right on or very close to the surface, easily disturbed by walking around on it, dragging Scaevola over it, etc.
3. The top 3-5 cm. of the site is a sort of pavement of coral gravel, a deflated surface through which the smaller-grained material has sifted. As a result, artifacts and features tend to be hard to see even though they’re virtually on the surface, and almost always in the top 10 cm. of the “soil” (There really isn’t any soil; it’s coral rubble with patches of humus and fire features).
In the past we’ve cleared the Scaevola off areas of the site (dragging it to clearings where it could be piled, or just throwing it deeper into the bush), done systematic metal detecting, ultraviolet light scans, and raking, and excavated selected locations (mostly fire features) employing standard archaeological methods. I think we now understand the site well enough to take a somewhat different approach.
This approach will be destructive: I propose to turn over essentially the entire surface of the site. This is an inherent problem in archaeology: we destroy what we study.
Proposed Fieldwork
As soon as we arrive on the island and get a boat into the lagoon, I propose to move a team to the Seven Site to begin clearing Scaevola at one end or the other of the area we cleared in 2007 (which will certainly have grown up again). We need to discuss which end to begin at – the NW end or the SE end – and where to take the cuttings. Assuming a beginning at the SE end, the team will clear to the NE along a front about 30 meters wide, opening up the crest of the ridge that bisects the site. Needed technology will include pneumatic loppers, chain saws or other brush cutters, knives, and trimmers. We’re discussing some sort of high-line system to loft the cut Scaevola out of the area.
As soon as the cutters have cleared an area of about 10x30 meters, I propose to peel two people off to cut an exploratory trail 20 or 30 meters to the SE to make as sure as possible that there’s nothing else lost in the Scaevola in that direction. At the same time, I propose to stake out a line perpendicular to the ridgeline and running right across it, along which we’ll deploy about 7 team members, each responsible for about 5 meters of the line. We’ll also need to set up a total station over Datum 3, the most convenient of our datum points to use in mapping along the ridge. One or two team members will have permanent control of the total station. We’ll hold 2 or 3 screens (sieves) in readiness.
Each of the Magnificent Seven along the line will then begin simply scraping the surface with a Marshalltown trowel, moving the top 5 cm. or so of coral rubble back behind him or her to expose and examine the surface. He or she will go on and do the same thing to the 5 cm. or so of finer-grained material underlying the surface armor. Every time an artifact, feature, bone, or anything else other than coral is encountered, it will be shot in by the total station crew, labeled and bagged, always using latex gloves to avoid DNA contamination. An exception will be made for ferrous metal, which is ubiquitous on the surface; it will be mapped and sampled, but not collected in its entirety.
As the clearing is completed, clearing crew members can trade off with surface scrapers, or give special attention to particular locations, or open up areas that the exploratory team has found (if any).
Assuming the site is not much more extensive than what we mapped in 2007, I estimate that by the end of 14 days we will have turned over the entire surface of the ridge, finding and recording whatever is there to be found. Besides field notes and total station mapping, we will document the site using kite aerial photography and low-level photomosaics. We will use the daylight ultraviolet scanner on any areas where there is reason to think that bones might be lurking.
Ancillary Research at Ritiati/Karaka Village
Study of fishbones from the Seven Site by Dr. Sharyn Jones of the University of Alabama at Birmingham has suggested that the patterns of fish procurement and consumption are unlike those found in indigenous cooking sites – in other words, that whoever cooked the fish was not a Pacific Islander. It would help us evaluate the typicality of the fish remains at the Seven Site if we had something from Nikumaroro itself with which to compare them – that is, if we had the cookfire of a demonstrable Pacific Island population.
Although we do not have a “campfire” produced by such a population on Nikumaroro, we do have domestic cookhouses in the colonial village of Karaka, on the land unit called Ritiati in the north-central part of the island. I propose to excavate one or two cookhouses in Karaka Village to gain material to compare with the fire features at the Seven Site.
In 1949, Lands Commissioner Paul Laxton oversaw the establishment of residential sites for all the families then in residence on the island. Each is a swath of land 100’ wide, fronting on Sir Harry Luke Ave., the broad boulevard extending from the landing site to the government station. Much of the avenue is traceable today, marked as it is by standing coral curbs. Each plot was assigned a number. Plot boundaries along Sir Harry Luke Ave. were marked with steel pipes driven into the ground, standing coral slabs, and puddles of cement with the numbers marked in them. In 1997 we documented one of these monuments, marking the boundary of parcels 17 and 17. Laxton prepared a report containing a sketch map of the plots, and a table showing which was assigned to each family.
We should be able to locate one or two target parcels simply by following Sir Harry Luke Ave. and looking for boundary markers. Laxton says, and our observations confirm, that residential houses are set back a more or less standard distance from the road, and cookhouses are next to or behind them. It should not be too much of a trick to locate a couple of cookhouses to excavate.
To maximize the possibility of a serendipitous discovery while digging the cookhouses, I propose to:
1. Give priority to the house sites of original colonists, who would have had the longest time on the island to collect interesting things like airplane parts; and
2. Conduct systematic metal detecting and surface collection of aircraft-related artifacts from each residential site examined.
A problem in the village is that the coconut canopy is very dense, making it difficult to connect with GPS satellites for locational purposes. We will need to address this problem either by finding a way to loft a GPS antenna above the canopy or by using the total station to map our way to a fixed reference point, probably at the landing.
I think a 1x1 meter excavation in each cookhouse should be sufficient, in 10 cm. levels, passing excavated material through ¼” screen and collecting all bones by level.
I estimate that the village operation should take about a week for a team of 5-7 people.
Scheduling
If we split the expedition in half as currently planned, with a several-day period in the middle when only a smallish “castaway corps” will be on the island, we should have time to carry out the Seven Site work during the first and third weeks, and the Karaka Village work during the middle week.
