Niku VI (2010)

2011-05-16T23:52:18Z

Tfking106:

Niku VI (2010)

2011-05-04T09:44:44Z

Tfking106:

Niku IIII (2001)

2011-05-01T00:10:07Z

Tfking106: Pasted in 2001 report on Seven and Triangle

'''"Courage is the price."'''

''Why is it Niku IIII instead of Niku IV? It's not that we don't quite grasp the Roman Numeral system (really, it's not). It's purely a marketing ploy. On the '''Niku IIII''' logo the four "I"s are represented as slashes as if made by the claws of a tiger ([[TIGHAR]]). Maybe it "works," maybe it doesn't, but we're sorta stuck with it.''<ref>[http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/forum/Highlights81_100/highlights100.html Ric Gillespie 7 August 2000 Forum.]</ref>

* [http://www.tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/13_1/nikuiiii.html Preliminary plans.]
* [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Expeditions/NikuIIII/NikuIIIIsumm.html "A Summary from a Jet-Lagged Perspective."]
* [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Expeditions/NikuIIII/NikuIIIIdailies.html Daily updates.]
* [http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Help/help.html Help wanted with artifact analysis.]
* [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/23_SevenSite/23_SevenSite.html "The Seven Site."]
* [http://tighar.org/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=36&product_id=97]--video taken from a helicopter that arrived unexpectedly from a nearby tuna boat.

== Fieldwork 2001==

Fieldwork in 2001 was focused on three locations, at opposite ends of the island.

'''The Seven Site'''

The "bones" files found by Peter MacQuarrie in the [[Kiribati]] National Archives in 1997, and the detailed documentation of the 1940 bones discovery subsequently located in the Western Pacific High Commission archives in England, had led us to take another look at the site cursorily examined in 1996 at the southeast end of the island. Now called the "Seven Site" because of its association with a natural seven-shaped clearing in the scaevola, it had several things to recommend it as the site of the 1940 discovery.

1. It was near the southeast end of the island, as Gallagher had specified.
2. It had clearly been the scene of some kind of activity during the colonial period -- perhaps the "detailed search" that Gallagher was directed to make, or whatever activities had led to discovery of the bones.
3. A 1941 U.S. Navy airphoto of the island showed evidence that vegetation had been cleared there -- again perhaps reflective of the search or some other colonial land-use activity.
4. There was a hole in the ground on the site, which conceivably could be where the cranium was buried and then excavated.

So a major purpose of the 2001 expedition was to clear scaevola from the vicinity of the hole and then re-excavate it and its backdirt pile, in case teeth had been lost from the cranium and wound up there.

'''The Triangle Site'''

In examining the satellite image obtained before fieldwork began (See below), we noticed a roughly triangular area of high-canopy forest in an area that otherwise appeared to have been cleared and overgrown in [[scaevola]]. This site was directly across the lagoon from the Seven Site, and therefore, like the Seven Site, could be said to be at the southeast end of the island. We speculated that perhaps this was actually where the bones were found, and that it had been left alone while nearby areas were bulldozed (presumably during the Coast Guard's stay on the island) because of its association with the bones. It was even possible to imagine the discussions leading to its not being bulldozed as the source of Floyd Kilts' story. So a survey of what we came to call the "Triangle Site" was scheduled.

'''The Nutiran "Grave"'''

During the 1999 fieldwork, a standing coral slab resembling a traditional I [[Kiribati]] gravestone had been recorded on the Nutiran shore, not far from the ''[[Norwich City]]''. Thinking that this might represent the skeleton reported by [[Emily Sikuli (Tapania Taiki)‎| Emily Sikuli]] to have been found in the vicinity, we proposed to excavate this location; permission to examine any human remains found there was granted by the government of [[Kiribati]].

'''The Lagoon and Reef'''

Seeking the kinds of airplane parts reported by Tapania Taiki and her father, further underwater surveys were planned along the Nutiran-Ritiati reef face, and in the north end of the lagoon -- the latter involving both diving and wading metal-detecting.

==The Satellite Photo==

Leading up to the 2001 expedition, TIGHAR was able to obtain a high resolution satellite photo of Nikumaroro that proved to be an excellent research tool for locating specific areas of the island, particularly the 7 site. Upon examination of the area North of the wreck of the ''Norwich City'', a particularly unusual rusty colored area revealed itself, and became a focus of attention and excitement leading up to the expedition.

http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/images/5/51/Nikucolor.jpg

==GPS Data and the Start of the NIku GIS Project==

NIKU IIII was the the first year during which multiple Expedition Team Members brought with them handheld personal GPS units (was it?) . Many waypoints were logged during the trip and collated after the expedition. The data has been overlaid by James Thompson of Select GIS Services onto a copy of the second 2001 Sat photo (post expedition) as you will see below.

http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/images/d/d1/GIS_Niku_GPS_Mstr-1.png

And also overlaid onto this outline of the satellite photo.

[[image:Niku GPS Mstr2.png]]

== Results ==

The results of fieldwork at the Seven Site are detailed at (LINK). Results of the Triangle Site survey are given at (LINK).

A 2x2 meter square was excavated at the Nutiran "grave" site to a depth of two meters, and exposed only natural stratigraphy resulting from repeated overflooding events. We concluded that the standing stone was in fact a property boundary marker. The excavation was backfilled.

Divers excamined the reef face from landing channel, to the wreck of the ''Norwich City'', and all the way up to near the NE corner of the island from the surf line down to a depth of about 20 meters (60 Ft) including the many "canyons" in the reef face. The "rusty" colored area of interest seen in the satellite photo turned out to be a shallow shelf of coral that was covered in reddish algae. The underwater search Results were negative with exception of the obvious debris field directly down slope from the remains of the ''Norwich City'' shipwreck.

Divers and waders examined and metal-detected the shallows of the northern lagoon, also with generally negative results. Much of the northern end of the lagoon was inspected by two divers towed behind the aluminum skiff using Manta boards to skim the bottom of the lagoon. A truck wheel and tire were recorded, and a stainless steel exhaust manifold of a B-24 was recovered. Both are interpreted as trash from the later colonial village period; the Loran Station was equipped with a truck, and we have found other B-24 parts in the village, probably from a crash site on Canton Island, where some of the Nikumaroro colonists were employed in the 1940s and 50s.

== Team Members ==
* [[Karen R. Burns, Ph.D.]]
* William M. Carter
* [[John Clauss]]
* Richard B. Gifford
* [[Richard E. Gillespie]]
* Richard Walter Holm
* Van T. Hunn, Col. USAF (ret.)
* Christopher N. Kennedy
* [[Thomas F. King, Ph.D.]]
* James Morrissey
* [[Andrew M. McKenna]]
* Gary F. Quigg

==The Seven Site==

(Note: The following text was prepared by Tom King as a preliminary report immediately after the expedition's return)

''Introduction''
The Seven Site –so named because it abuts a natural clearing in the te Mao that has the shape of a crude numeral “7” – also lies at the southeast end of the island. Strictly speaking it is on the north shore of the southeast end, not on the southeastern shore, but there is no reason to assume that Gallagher felt compelled to report such fine distinctions. Airphotos show that the Seven Site vicinity was cleared in 1941, about the time Gallagher would have been conducting the “intensive search” of the bones site that the High Commissioner’s office told him to carry out. Paul Laxton (1951) says that in 1949 there was a “house built for Gallagher” on land cleared from the lagoon to the ocean shore in this vicinity. A land parcel at approximately the location of the Seven Site was reserved for government, or for Gallagher himself, on maps of land divisions as late as the 1950s, over a decade after Gallagher’s death .

The Seven Site first came to TIGHAR’s attention through reports by former members of the U.S. Coast Guard Loran unit on the island during World War II. Dr. Richard Evans and Mr. Herb Moffitt reported seeing a tank used as part of a water collection device, unknown to the I Kiribati colonists, in the general area (c.f., King et al 2001:117-8). Thinking the tank might be from Earhart’s Electra, and represent an Earhart/Noonan campsite, TIGHAR searched for it unsuccessfully during the 1991 expedition (c.f., King et al 2001:121-2). In 1996, after finding the image of something that might be the tank on a 1941 air photo, TIGHAR revisited the area and this time found the tank (c.f., King et al., 2001:151-6). The tank, about a meter square, was (and is) made of steel, and bore the name of the Tarawa Police. Nearby were bird bones, a roll of green asphalt siding, and a hole in the ground measuring about 1.5 meter in diameter, together with a piece of copper hardware cloth, a 30 caliber cartridge, a white stoneware plate sherd, and other artifacts clearly of either colonial or Coast Guard origin. Concluding that the site had nothing to do with Earhart, TIGHAR gave it no further consideration until the bones discovery papers came to light in 1998. Faced now with a documented discovery of bones in an apparent campsite on the southeast corner of the island, and the coincidence of Gallagher’s intensive search with the photo-documented clearance of land at the Seven Site, TIGHAR had to reconsider its dismissal of the site from investigation. Perhaps, we thought, the tank and other colonial-era objects were the remains of the intensive search, in support of which a “house” might even have been “built for Gallagher” – especially since Gallagher’s quarterly report for the end of 1940 indicates severe inclement weather.

This line of reasoning drew attention to the hole in the Seven Site. Gallagher says that when the bones were discovered, several months before his own relocation to the island from Manra, the cranium was buried, apparently at the direction of Native Magistrate Koata. Although Koata had left the island by the time Gallagher learned of the discovery, and Gallagher did not immediately excavate the cranium, he says in one of his initial telegrams that “many teeth are present.” After excavating the cranium, and the intensive search, he reports only five teeth, all in the mandible. Perhaps, we reasoned, the hole in the Seven Site was where the cranium had been buried and subsequently exhumed. Perhaps “many teeth” had been present in the cranium when it went into the ground, but not when it came out. If this were true, these teeth – excellent reservoirs of mitochondrial DNA – might still be in the hole or its backdirt pile. The Seven Site, and its hole, thus became a major focus of the 2001expedition.

''Study Approach''
Using satellite imagery and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigation, we cut through the te Mao from the lagoon shore to the “7” – a long-persisting natural clearing – and then backtracked to find the hole and tank. These features were separated from the “7” by about thirty meters of very dense te Mao. We began clearing along a ten-meter front, beginning at the outward (southern) tip of the “7’s” top member, proceeding southerly. Clearing was accomplished using chainsaw, bush knives, loppers, and much tedious hauling and piling of green and dead te Mao. Cut material, which developed into quite major piles, was heaped in the “7” itself. Reaching the tank, we widened the cut to about twenty meters to clear its vicinity and that of the hole. Later another cut was made to the west to open up whatwe called the Morrissey Locus after its discoverer, expedition medic Jim Morrissey.

As clearing progressed, the topography of the site, hitherto obscured by the vegetation, became clear. Just south of the “7,”and more or less parallel with its long limb, is a low ridge with a maximum elevation of about 3.5 meters above sea level. The ground drops off to the south-southwest, about a meter, to the level of the tank and hole. It then continues to drop gently to the lagoon shore, a total distance of about 200 meters from the ocean-side high tide line. The microclimatic difference between the ridge and the tank/hole vicinity is marked. Temperatures at the site routinely ran in the high 90s (f), and temperatures of 110 degrees (f) were not uncommon, even in the shade, but the prevailing trade winds kept the ridge relatively pleasant while the tank/hole area was always baking hot.

The ridge also benefited from the presence of several good-sized te Ren and te Uri. About fifty meters northwest of the "7” a stand of large, apparently old-growth te Buka begins, which runs for perhaps half a kilometer up the spine of the island. Air photos suggest that this forest may have extended across the Seven Site (though not across the “7”) in 1938.

Because the ridge was so (relatively) pleasant, it naturally became the place to which team members gravitated to cool off during rest breaks. This led to the discovery of fish, bird, and turtle bones just under the forest-floor duff, together with an elongate cluster of giant clam (Tridacna gigas) valves. Since Gallagher had described the bones discovery site as including the remains of bird, fish, and turtle, the ridge naturally became an important focus of our attention.

Eventually, we excavated and/or carried out intensive surface examinations in five loci – the Hole Locus, the Tank Locus, the Ridge Locus, the Slope Locus, and the Morrissey Locus. At each locus, work was carried out under tarpaulin sunscreens constructed by expedition medic James Morrissey, which proved remarkably capable not only of making work bearable in the blazing sun but of standing up through frequent gusty rain squalls. In addition to controlled work in specific loci, all cleared areas were mapped and swept with metal detectors, and a good deal of informal reconnaissance was done in the te Mao to the southeast and the te Buka forest to the northwest. Reconnaissance was also carried out for comparative purposes at the Ameriki Loran Station Site, at Karaka Village on Ritiati, and among the house sites on the Nutiran shore. Reconnaissance was also carried out along the lagoon shore, and along the route of an apparent trail that appears in a 1938 air photo between the Seven Site and the lagoon.

Descriptions and preliminary observations are provided below, organized largely by locus.

''Hole Locus''
After surface mapping and photography, -- during which a white stoneware plate sherd decorated with the U.S. Coast Guard emblem was found and recovered -- the backdirt pile from the hole, which was quite evident to the south and southeast of the hole itself, was excavated and passed first through ¼” and then through 1/8” screen. It should be said, however, that much of the material both in the Hole Locus and elsewhere did not pass through the screen at all, since it comprised finger-sized to fist-sized pieces of coral rubble. The hole and its backdirt were particularly rubbly, with a very light humic content. Once the backdirt pile had been removed, the same system of excavation was applied to 2 x 2.5-meter rectangle enclosing the hole itself, subdivided into quarters. All material caught in screens was carefully inspected by daylight, and everything that passed the ¼” screen but was caught in the 1/8” was inspected under ultraviolet (UV) light during two overnight sojourns at the site. Bones and teeth fluoresce in UV light. All work at the Hole Locus was supervised by forensic anthropologist Dr. Karen Burns, with Mr. Gary Quigg and various associates doing the digging.

At 50 cm. , the depth of the hole’s surface expression, the excavation unit floor was scraped and revealed what appeared to be evidence of two pits – one coincident with the original hole, the other slightly to the southwest of the first. Both were filled with coral rubble and very little humus, while their surroundings were somewhat more humic and made up of smaller rubble fragments. The second pit could also be seen in the south and west sidewalls of the excavation. In subsequent levels the two pits seemed to coalesce, and at 80 cm. they disappeared altogether.

No human bones or teeth were found, but fish and bird bones were sporadically recovered from about 40 cm. downward, sometimes associated with small rust flakes. Several bird and fish bones appeared in the very deepest level excavated (90-100 cm.). At this point, we decided that however intriguing these bones might be, they were not likely to be relevant enough to our research to justify further work. The excavation was clearly marked for future reference, partly backfilled, and closed down.

''The Tank Locus''
The Tank Locus, at the southern base of the ridge slope, of course contains the tank – a 99 x 99 cm. steel box with “Police X Tarawa” hand-lettered on two opposing sides. Collapsed inside the tank is the heavy steel rim for a dogged hatch, the hatch itself (labeled “Baldwin Tank Co., London”) lying on the ground outside. Coconut shell halves first noted in 1996 also were found in the tank. Two holes in the tank, filled with bolts, nuts, and washers, recall a story told TIGHAR just before departure by an ex-Coast Guardsman, about a tank shot through by one of his companions, that had to be patched because the colonists were still using it. The holes, with their surrounding metal and contents, were collected by Skeet Gifford for analysis.

Very similar tanks were recorded in the village at the Rest House, at the Carpenter’s shop, and at what may have been the dispensary. In each case (except possibly at the Carpenter’s shop, where the tank may simply have been in storage), the tanks were used to collect rainwater from the buildings’ roofs. In the case of the possible dispensary, Christopher Kennedy was able to demonstrate that the tank still contained water, which still ran out of a spigot at the bottom when the latter was turned on.

Adjacent to the tank at the Seven Site, to the west, were two wooden posts and a rust field that clearly represented corrugated iron. Mapping suggested that this feature represents a collapsed iron-roofed structure, whose roof drained rainwater into the tank.

South of the tank was a rather extensive scatter of bird bones, first noted in 1996. These were mapped and collected.

In 1996 the base of a light bulb was found near the tank. In 2001 two more pieces of this bulb were found. Other artifacts in the Tank Locus included screening scraps, pieces of wire, a plate sherd with a blue line near its rim (much like a line on the U.S. Coast Guard plate sherd found in the Hole Locus), and 30 caliber shells.

''The Ridge Locus''
Three 2 x 2 meter and one 1 x 2 meter units were intensively surface-collected and excavated on the crest and north face of the ridge. Two surface features outside the excavation units were also investigated, together with a number of metal detector hits. Each excavation unit was dug in 1 meter quadrants, with all “soil” passed through ¼” and then 1/8” screen. The “soil” was uniformly dominated by coral rubble, but with a considerable admixture of humus. Each unit was excavated to 10 cm., and then the most productive quadrant was taken to 20 cm. Invariably, the 10-20 cm. levels were virtually devoid of bones or other cultural material. All bones and plates were collected by level and quadrant, together with a sample of the very numerous scales.

The Ridge Locus produced a large amount of bird, fish, and turtle bones, together with turtle shell plates and fish scales, in several discrete concentrations. Some of the bone was clearly burned, and small flecks of charcoal were noted. One of the concentrations also contained an odd folded piece of green asphalt siding, identical with the roll of such material found in 1996 about ten meters to the southeast along the ridge. The siding is folded around what appears to be a felt-like fabric. A similar but more deteriorated artifact was found about two meters from the first.

About five meters south of the four excavated units, a cluster of smallish Tridacna gigas (giant clam) valves was described and recovered. The cluster was elongated, with its long axis running NE-SW. It was made up of some 35 valves and fragments, most fitting together to represent fifteen to sixteen clams. Average length of valve is about 20 cm. A number of the valves were badly fragmented, as though bashed with a rock. Several fist-sized chunks of coral were noted among the shells. Particles of the green material that coats the asphalt siding formed a thin layer in the soil immediately east of the Tridacna feature, suggesting that a sheet of the material had deteriorated there.

In a 1938 air photo, what appears to be a trail can be seen extending from the Seven Site to a point on the lagoon shore somewhat northwest of the site. The approximate route of this trail was traced, and was found to be relatively easy walking. At its lagoon-side end was a bed of Tridacna similar in size to those in the Seven Site feature. Other small beds of Tridacna were noted along adjacent stretches of lagoon shore. The Tridacna were invariably dead; cause of death was not determined.

Immediately to the northeast of the Tridacna feature was a cluster of small bivalves, species not yet determined. The feature was about a meter across and some ten cm. deep. It is estimated to comprise one hundred or more individual valves, presumably representing fifty or more individuals. Only a sample of valves was collected.

Three to four meters northeast of the small bivalve feature is the roll of green-coated asphalt siding, a sample of which was collected. Vigorous searches were made for similar material at the Loran Station Site, in the village, and among the Nutiran housesites. Two small patches of apparently identical siding were found on the outer side of the southeastern corner of the wireless station in the village.

Metal detecting and visual examination revealed a dense field of rust just east of the Tridacna feature, extending for several meters up and down the ridge slope and for an unknown distance into the uncleared te Mao to the east. Careful examination indicated that the rust represented multiple rectangular sheets of iron, some if not all of it corrugated. The sheets appeared to measure about 2 x 4 meters, but each deposit may in fact represent multiple sheets. Corrugated iron siding, originally galvanized but now rusted to closely resemble the Seven Site material, was noted at the Loran Station. Similar material, usually less badly oxidized, is also present in the village and at Nutiran. The metal sheets at the Seven Site appear to have lain on top of the small bivalve feature and the roll of siding, though both features have emerged as the iron has disintegrated.

Isolated artifacts at the Ridge Locus included a number of 30 caliber and 22 caliber bullet casings, a small piece of milled lumber, and two pieces of asbestos siding identical to that found in the village on the cistern, on the Rest House cookhouse, and in the ruins of another public building. Both the cistern and cookhouse are roofed with corrugated asbestos, which has not yet turned up at the Seven Site.

''Morrissey Locus''
The Morrissey Locus is about twenty meters west of the Ridge Locus, along the same ridge. After burned bird and fish bones were found here by its namesake, James Morrissey, one 2 x 2 and one 1 x 2 meter unit were excavated using the same techniques employed at the Ridge Locus. These revealed a concentration of charcoal, burned fish and bird bones, and fish scales. A small sample of charcoal was collected for radiocarbon age determination, together with all bone and a sample of scales.

Metal detecting in the vicinity yielded a number of 30 caliber shells, one unexpended 30 caliber round, and a 30 caliber bullet. At the very end of the project, another fire feature was found, downslope to the southeast, which contained two 30 caliber cartridges and burned brown bottle glass. Time did not permit excavation of this feature.

''Slope Locus''
This locus comprises the ridge slope southeast of the Ridge Locus and upslope from the tank. Metal detector sweeps resulted in multiple hits here, whose excavation revealed not only the usual rest flakes and 30 caliber shells, but also pieces of glass and some enigmatic electric or electronic components. A single 2 x 2 meter unit was excavated here, and a single external feature was mapped but not recovered. The excavation was done in the usual way, except that only ¼” screen was employed.

The excavation unit was devoid of cultural material except in its southeast quadrant, where many fish and bird bones were found. There is evidence of another burn feature just upslope, which can be seen in the profile of the unit’s east and south walls.

Upslope to the southeast, on the other side of the apparent burn feature (which supports a vigorous growth of te Mao), a second Tridacna feature was cleared and recorded but not removed. As in the first such feature, some fifteen clams were represented by about thirty valves, in an elongate cluster. Some of the clams were somewhat larger than those in the first feature (up to about 30 cm. long), and only one or two were broken as though bashed with a rock. Associated with this feature were a ferrous cap for some kind of container, two odd screw-mounted clips, a strip of small-mesh copper screen (common all over the site), and a 40 x 40 cm. rectangle of rust, apparently either a sheet of iron or a collapsed metal box, with what look like rivets or studs along one edge. All these associations were collected except for the last, from which only the pieces with stud- or rivet-like bumps were recovered.

Several other pieces of copper screening were found on the surface of the Slope Locus, as well as elsewhere on the site. Other artifacts recovered included 30 caliber cartridges, the cut-off end of a battery cable, a small apparatus that may be an electronic component, and three pieces of glass. Each of the last is of a distinct kind of glass, and two show edge flaking that may represent use as tools.

''Preliminary Interpretation''
At least three distinct sets of human activities are evident at the Seven Site, which may or may not be related to one another.

The ubiquitous 30 caliber and (much less common) 22 caliber cartridges almost certainly represent recreational shooting by Coast Guardsmen during World War II. The plate sherds may also reflect this activity; tossed into the air, they would make good skeet-like targets. Some of the bird bones, notably those in the Tank Unit, may represent a similar use of birds as targets.

The tank and its associations, probably the ferrous sheets and asphalt and asbestos siding, and the hole are probably the results of work done at the site by I Kiribati colonists. The kinds of work involved remain mysterious. The tank and its associated structure, and the hole, are consistent with our hypothetical identification of the site as the location of Gallagher’s intensive search. The structure by the tank may have been the “house built for Gallagher,” though there are questions to be resolved about this interpretation. The extensive sheet metal features, asbestos siding fragments, and rolled asphalt siding have no obvious relevance to a search operation. The sheet metal, at least, probably arrived at the site sometime after 1946, when large amounts of it became available with abandonment of the Loran Station. The asphalt siding may have arrived earlier, since it underlay the sheet metal and has been found elsewhere only in thevillage, not at the Loran site. The asbestos siding is identical to that found on the cistern and cookhouse, among the village’s oldest buildings. The copper screening also seems most likely to be of colonial origin; identical screening was found in the village and on the Nutiran shore, while only screening of a smaller gauge was found at the Loran site.

Of most interest, of course, are the several (at least six) deposits of burned and unburned fish, bird, and turtle bones, together with the two Tridacna features and the small bivalve feature. Clearly these represent someone’s use of local food resources, probably for subsistence, but who the user or users may have been remains to be determined. At least the following possibilities exist:

 Prehistoric or historic period voyagers from other islands (e.g., Manra or Orona, which supported populations in prehistoric times), visiting Nikumaroro to fish and hunt.

 PISS colonists.

 Coast Guardsmen.

 The castaway or castaways.

There is some reason to think that the last possibility is the most likely. The lack of evidence either of traditional earth oven (umum) cooking or of post-contact cooking pots tends to argue against traditional or colonial-period Polynesians or Micronesians as the ones responsible for the burn features. It is difficult to imagine Coast Guardsmen doing much cooking of local fauna on the site, and one would expect such an activity to have produced more World War II-vintage food and beverage containers than we have thus far noted. On the other hand, things like the possible flaked-glass tools suggest adaptation of available tools to serve subsistence needs – something that is very much to be expected of a castaway. All this is speculative, however, and requires much more analysis.

==The Triangle Site==

The Triangle Site is a roughly triangular patch of apparent pristine native vegetation on the southeastern shore of the island, surrounded by the dense masses of te Mao (Scaevola frutescens) typical of land that has been cleared but not successfully planted in coconut. It was investigated because it meets the general geographic description given by Gallagher (Southeast shore), and because its character suggested an answer to an otherwise rather mysterious question. Former U.S. Coast Guardsman Floyd Kilts reported in 1960 that he had been told about a discovery of bones on Nikumaroro, which the island’s “Irish magistrate” had associated with Earhart (c.f., King et al 2001:54-6). Since we now know that Gallagher was instructed to keep the discovery confidential – direction that it seems likely he would have passed on to his I Kiribati colleagues, why did a colonist tell Kilts about it? We speculated that if Kilts had been involved in land clearing operations (Veterans of the Coast Guard Loran Station on the island have told us that they did engage in such operations), he might have been warned not to disturb the site, and told about the discovery in order to explain the warning.

The Triangle Site was accessed from the lagoon shore by cutting a trail into what proved to be a grove of (apparently) rather young te Kanawa (Chordia subchordata), and then through dense te Mao to the ocean shore just west of the site. The site itself was found to be wooded in rather small Buka trees (Pisonia grandis), together with te Kanawa, te Ren, and te Uri. Elsewhere on the island te Buka have trunk diameters of up to a meter; at the Triangle Site twenty to forty centimeter diameters were typical. This is comparable with the diameter of te Buka observed growing through World War II-era corrugated metal at the Ameriki Loran Site.

The Triangle Site was first given a general surface inspection by John Clauss, William Carter, and the author. Subsequently Carter and James Morrissey swept the site with metal detectors and raked the surface clear of surface litter, permitting close visual inspection. The only human association found, besides contemporary flotsam in the shorefront vegetation, was a single 30 caliber rifle or carbine cartridge. Without anything of evident interest to investigate, and in view of the pressing need to devote resources to the Seven Site (See below), the Triangle Site was not investigated further.

== References ==
[http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights81_100/highlights100.html]

== Links ==
* [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Expeditions/NikuIIII/NikuIIIIsumm.html Niku IIII Summary]

* [http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/38_SecretsKnob/knob1.html Secrets of the Knob]


[[Category:Expeditions|Niku 2001]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Archaeology of Nikumaroro]]

Niku VI (2010)

2011-04-30T23:52:43Z

Tfking106: Initial composition of this section.

2009-02-11T01:36:33Z

Tfking106:

Fun With Clams

2009-02-11T01:23:46Z

Tfking106:

'''Fun With Clams: Three Experiments with Tidacna sp. Valves'''
By Thomas F. King

'''''Experiment 1: Throwing the Tridacna'''''

''Issue:'' In initial inspection of photographs showing Clambushes 1 and 2 at the Seven Site, it appears that well over half the valves are lying with their concave sides up. Does this high proportion of up-facing valves indicate purposeful placement, for example in order to catch water?

''Null hypothesis:'' The aerodynamics of Tridacna valves is such that when thrown a short distance (as would happen after one has eaten the contents), the valves tend to land face-up in disproportionate numbers.

''Experiment:'' I tossed a small (ca. 20 cm. long) T. gigas valve (obtained in Chuuk in the 1970s) one hundred times over a distance of about eight feet and a height of about six feet, with the valves landing on dirt with a light and sporadic cover of ivy and other low plants, tallying the number of times it landed face-up, face-down, and on edge.

''Observations:'' Sixty-two times out of one hundred, the valve landed face-up; Thirty-seven times it landed face-down. In one instance it landed and remained on edge. Thus:

Face-up: 62%
Face-down: 37%
Edge: 01%

Often the valve would land on an edge and tip “backward” to fall face-up; falling the other way occurred much less often. In a few occasions the valve even landed face down and immediately flipped over to face up.

''Conclusion:'' The null hypothesis is confirmed.

'''''Experiment 2: Cooking in a Tridacna Valve'''''

''Issue:'' In Chuuk, and probably elsewhere in the Pacific, Tridacna valves were traditionally used to contain liquid medicines as these were being warmed on a fire before application or consumption. Could cooking in a fire, and/or the application of water to the inside of a Tridacna valve while the valve is in a fire, cause the sort of splitting and spalling observed in the valves of Clambush #1 at the Seven Site?

''Hypothesis:'' Cooking in a Tridacna will cause spalling and other damage similar to what was observed in Clambush #1.

''Prior observation:'' A number of the valves in Clambush #1 show severe trauma near the byssal orifice, with either or both the exterior layers and/or the interior mother-of-pearl layer spalled back from the ragged edge of a break, as well as splitting and shattering.

''Experiment:'' The same T. gigas valve used in the tossing experiment was placed in a wood and charcoal fire, filled with water. As the water evaporated, the valve was refilled. In total, the valve was refilled seven times before it became too cracked to hold water. The fire was then allowed to die down and cool, without moving the valve.

''Observations:'' By the time of the second filling, the outer surface of the valve had begun to blacken and char. By the fifth filling, a serious latitudinal crack had developed. By the seventh filling the valve could no longer hold water. When the fire had died down the valve had split in several directions and literally fell apart into five pieces, which broke further upon being touched. The valve had become very fragile, and crumbled easily. Parts of it were blackened, others dark gray, others chalky white (especially in the interior). Although in some places the mother-of-pearl broke away from the other layers, there was nothing like the spalling observed in the Clambush #1 specimens. Nor was the damage confined to the vicinity of the byssal orifice; the entire valve was damaged.

''Conclusion:'' Burning and cooking do not appear to cause the sort of damage observed in Clambush #1.

''Caveat:'' Other ways of cooking (for example, suspension over the fire rather than laying the valve in it), fires of different strengths, and other variables may affect the breaking pattern and result in something more like what is observed in the clambush.

'''''Experiment 3A: How Much of a Load?'''''

''Issue:'' Clambush #1 at the Seven Site apparently represents some seventeen Tridacna, presumably carried in from elsewhere, perhaps the lagoon margin. Would a load of seventeen such clams be too much for a lone castaway to carry?

''Calculations:''

Step 1: Of the entire collection of individual valves from Clambush 1, twenty-two were complete enough to make it possible to obtain fairly accurate full-valve weights. All were weighed, and found to range from 79 to about 340 grams, with an average weight per valve of 175.3 grams. This means an average clam weight (valves only) of 350.6 grams.

Step 2: Lacking a meaty Tridacna, a good-sized Cherrystone Clam was obtained from a local supermarket ($0.29 donation to TIGHAR). Its live, wet weight was found to be 136 grams. The clam was then boiled until it opened (about five minutes), and with some feeling of guilt the meat and innerds were removed and discarded. The wet empty-shell weight of both valves was found to be 94 grams. The valves were then dried over a charcoal fire for two hours. The dry(er) weight was 92 grams. Note, this drying, on a rack about 15 cm. above the fire, did not cause cracking or any other noticeable change to the shell.

Thus in this particular Cherrystone clam, the dry shell accounted for 68% of the total weight, while the meat accounted for 32%

Step 3: Assuming a meat-shell ratio in Tridacna that is similar to that in Cherrystones, then a Tridacna with a 350.6 gram shell should have weighed about 515.6 grams when alive and wet.

Step 4: The seventeen clams in Clambush #1 thus should have collectively weighed about 8.765 kilograms.

Step 5: One kilogram equals 2.2046 pounds.

Step 6: It follows that the clams in Clambush #1 should have weighed about 19.32 pounds, which should not have been beyond the capacity of an individual to carry, assuming he or she had something to carry the clams in.

''Note:'' Clambush # 1, with all its individuals wrapped in padding, now resides comfortably in an archive box.

'''''Experiment 3B: Refined Study of Projected Meat Weight, Clambush #1'''''

''Issue:'' Clambush #1 at the Seven Site apparently represents some seventeen Tridacna, probably species crocea. The clams were presumably carried in from elsewhere, perhaps the lagoon margin. Would a load of seventeen such clams be too much for a lone castaway to carry?

''Calculations:''

Step 1: Of the entire collection of individual valves from Clambush 1, twenty-two were complete enough to make it possible to obtain fairly accurate full-valve weights. All were weighed, and found to range from 79 to about 340 grams, with an average weight per valve of 175.3 grams. This means an average clam weight (valves only) of 350.6 grams.

Step 2: Scott Russell of Saipan procured five live Tridacna, by diving on Saipan’s reef. These were almost certainly T. gigas. Russell provides the following documentation on his specimens:

Clam 1:
Length = 15.5 cm
width = 7 cm
thickness when closed = 7.5 cm

Total weight (shell and meat) = 595 g.
Total weight of meat = 54 g.
Total weight of meat minus guts = 48 g.

Clam 2:
Length = 17.5 cm
width = 9 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 1,010 g
total weight of meat = 125 g
total weight of meat minus guts 113 g.

Clam 3:
Length = 17 cm
width = 9.5 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 980 g.
total weight of meat = 133 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 128 g.

Clam 4:
Length = 20 cm
width = 11 cm
thickness when closed = 11.5 cm

total weight = 1.239 g.
total weight of meat = 139 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 133 g.

Clam 5
Length = 18 cm
width = 10.5 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 933 g.
total weight of meat = 128 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 119 g.

From which we can derive the following averages:

Average total weight: 951.4 g
Average weight of meat: 115.8 g.
Average weight of edible meat: 108.2 g

Thus in the average Tridacna gigas in Russell’s sample the wet shell accounts for about 88 % of the total animal weight, with the innerds accounting for about 12% and edible meat adding up to about 11%.

Earlier, I had procured a good-sized Cherrystone Clam from a local supermarket ($0.29 donation to TIGHAR). Its live, wet weight was found to be 136 grams. The clam was then boiled until it opened (about five minutes), and with some feeling of guilt the meat and innerds were removed and discarded. The wet empty-shell weight of both valves was found to be 94 grams. The valves were then dried over a charcoal fire for two hours. The dry(er) weight was 92 grams. Note, this drying, on a rack about 15 cm. above the fire, did not cause cracking or any other noticeable change to the shell.

In this particular Cherrystone clam, the dry shell accounted for 68% of the total weight, while the meat accounted for 32%. Since the shell of a Cherrystone is much thinner than that of a Tridacna, this ratio is not nearly as relevant to Clambush #1 as are the ratios derived from Russell’s T. gigas, but what is relevant is the Cherrystone’s loss of 2 grams – about 2% of its weight – to drying. Assuming that Russell’s clams, if dried, would have lost a similar amount of weight, (average 19.02 grams) then we derive the following corrected averages:

Average total wet weight: 951.4 g
Average dry shell weight: 816.58 g (951.4-19.02-115.8; 86% of total wet weight)
Average weight of meat: 115.8 g. (14% of total wet weight)
Average weight of edible meat: 108.2 g (11% of total wet weight)

Step 3: Assuming a meat-shell ratio in a Clambush #1 T. crocea that is similar to that in a Saipanese T. gigas, then we can derive the following averages for Clambush #1:

Average total wet weight: 357.6 g
Average dry shell weight: 350.6 g
Average weight of meat: 50.1 g.
Average weight of edible meat: 39.3 g

Step 4: The seventeen clams in Clambush #1 thus should have collectively weighed about 6.079 kilograms.

Step 5: One kilogram equals 2.2046 pounds.

Step 6: It follows that the clams in Clambush #1 should have weighed about 13.4 pounds, which should not have been beyond the capacity of an individual to carry, assuming he or she had something to carry the clams in.

Step 7: We can also calculate that the total weight of edible meat procured by transporting Clambush #1 to the Seven Site was about 668.1 grams or about 1.5 pounds. A reasonably substantial meal for one person or even two people. It may also well be that the shell/meat ratio is higher in the large, thick-shelled T. gigas than in the smaller T. crocea, which would mean that the total edible meat weight of Clambush #1 would be greater and the total wet weight of the clambush would also increase. If we double the estimated edible meat weight to three pounds (which seems liberal), this would increase the total clambush weight to about fifteen pounds, still easily within the range of what an individual could carry if he or she had a container in which to carry it.

Fun With Clams

2009-02-11T01:22:46Z

Tfking106: New page: '''Fun With Clams: Three Experiments with Tidacna sp. Valves''' '''''Experiment 1: Throwing the Tridacna''''' ''Issue:'' In initial inspection of photographs showing Clambushes 1 and 2...

'''Fun With Clams: Three Experiments with Tidacna sp. Valves'''

'''''Experiment 1: Throwing the Tridacna'''''

''Issue:'' In initial inspection of photographs showing Clambushes 1 and 2 at the Seven Site, it appears that well over half the valves are lying with their concave sides up. Does this high proportion of up-facing valves indicate purposeful placement, for example in order to catch water?

''Null hypothesis:'' The aerodynamics of Tridacna valves is such that when thrown a short distance (as would happen after one has eaten the contents), the valves tend to land face-up in disproportionate numbers.

''Experiment:'' I tossed a small (ca. 20 cm. long) T. gigas valve (obtained in Chuuk in the 1970s) one hundred times over a distance of about eight feet and a height of about six feet, with the valves landing on dirt with a light and sporadic cover of ivy and other low plants, tallying the number of times it landed face-up, face-down, and on edge.

''Observations:'' Sixty-two times out of one hundred, the valve landed face-up; Thirty-seven times it landed face-down. In one instance it landed and remained on edge. Thus:

Face-up: 62%
Face-down: 37%
Edge: 01%

Often the valve would land on an edge and tip “backward” to fall face-up; falling the other way occurred much less often. In a few occasions the valve even landed face down and immediately flipped over to face up.

''Conclusion:'' The null hypothesis is confirmed.

'''''Experiment 2: Cooking in a Tridacna Valve'''''

''Issue:'' In Chuuk, and probably elsewhere in the Pacific, Tridacna valves were traditionally used to contain liquid medicines as these were being warmed on a fire before application or consumption. Could cooking in a fire, and/or the application of water to the inside of a Tridacna valve while the valve is in a fire, cause the sort of splitting and spalling observed in the valves of Clambush #1 at the Seven Site?

''Hypothesis:'' Cooking in a Tridacna will cause spalling and other damage similar to what was observed in Clambush #1.

''Prior observation:'' A number of the valves in Clambush #1 show severe trauma near the byssal orifice, with either or both the exterior layers and/or the interior mother-of-pearl layer spalled back from the ragged edge of a break, as well as splitting and shattering.

''Experiment:'' The same T. gigas valve used in the tossing experiment was placed in a wood and charcoal fire, filled with water. As the water evaporated, the valve was refilled. In total, the valve was refilled seven times before it became too cracked to hold water. The fire was then allowed to die down and cool, without moving the valve.

''Observations:'' By the time of the second filling, the outer surface of the valve had begun to blacken and char. By the fifth filling, a serious latitudinal crack had developed. By the seventh filling the valve could no longer hold water. When the fire had died down the valve had split in several directions and literally fell apart into five pieces, which broke further upon being touched. The valve had become very fragile, and crumbled easily. Parts of it were blackened, others dark gray, others chalky white (especially in the interior). Although in some places the mother-of-pearl broke away from the other layers, there was nothing like the spalling observed in the Clambush #1 specimens. Nor was the damage confined to the vicinity of the byssal orifice; the entire valve was damaged.

''Conclusion:'' Burning and cooking do not appear to cause the sort of damage observed in Clambush #1.

''Caveat:'' Other ways of cooking (for example, suspension over the fire rather than laying the valve in it), fires of different strengths, and other variables may affect the breaking pattern and result in something more like what is observed in the clambush.

'''''Experiment 3A: How Much of a Load?'''''

''Issue:'' Clambush #1 at the Seven Site apparently represents some seventeen Tridacna, presumably carried in from elsewhere, perhaps the lagoon margin. Would a load of seventeen such clams be too much for a lone castaway to carry?

''Calculations:''

Step 1: Of the entire collection of individual valves from Clambush 1, twenty-two were complete enough to make it possible to obtain fairly accurate full-valve weights. All were weighed, and found to range from 79 to about 340 grams, with an average weight per valve of 175.3 grams. This means an average clam weight (valves only) of 350.6 grams.

Step 2: Lacking a meaty Tridacna, a good-sized Cherrystone Clam was obtained from a local supermarket ($0.29 donation to TIGHAR). Its live, wet weight was found to be 136 grams. The clam was then boiled until it opened (about five minutes), and with some feeling of guilt the meat and innerds were removed and discarded. The wet empty-shell weight of both valves was found to be 94 grams. The valves were then dried over a charcoal fire for two hours. The dry(er) weight was 92 grams. Note, this drying, on a rack about 15 cm. above the fire, did not cause cracking or any other noticeable change to the shell.

Thus in this particular Cherrystone clam, the dry shell accounted for 68% of the total weight, while the meat accounted for 32%

Step 3: Assuming a meat-shell ratio in Tridacna that is similar to that in Cherrystones, then a Tridacna with a 350.6 gram shell should have weighed about 515.6 grams when alive and wet.

Step 4: The seventeen clams in Clambush #1 thus should have collectively weighed about 8.765 kilograms.

Step 5: One kilogram equals 2.2046 pounds.

Step 6: It follows that the clams in Clambush #1 should have weighed about 19.32 pounds, which should not have been beyond the capacity of an individual to carry, assuming he or she had something to carry the clams in.

''Note:'' Clambush # 1, with all its individuals wrapped in padding, now resides comfortably in an archive box.

'''''Experiment 3B: Refined Study of Projected Meat Weight, Clambush #1'''''

''Issue:'' Clambush #1 at the Seven Site apparently represents some seventeen Tridacna, probably species crocea. The clams were presumably carried in from elsewhere, perhaps the lagoon margin. Would a load of seventeen such clams be too much for a lone castaway to carry?

''Calculations:''

Step 1: Of the entire collection of individual valves from Clambush 1, twenty-two were complete enough to make it possible to obtain fairly accurate full-valve weights. All were weighed, and found to range from 79 to about 340 grams, with an average weight per valve of 175.3 grams. This means an average clam weight (valves only) of 350.6 grams.

Step 2: Scott Russell of Saipan procured five live Tridacna, by diving on Saipan’s reef. These were almost certainly T. gigas. Russell provides the following documentation on his specimens:

Clam 1:
Length = 15.5 cm
width = 7 cm
thickness when closed = 7.5 cm

Total weight (shell and meat) = 595 g.
Total weight of meat = 54 g.
Total weight of meat minus guts = 48 g.

Clam 2:
Length = 17.5 cm
width = 9 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 1,010 g
total weight of meat = 125 g
total weight of meat minus guts 113 g.

Clam 3:
Length = 17 cm
width = 9.5 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 980 g.
total weight of meat = 133 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 128 g.

Clam 4:
Length = 20 cm
width = 11 cm
thickness when closed = 11.5 cm

total weight = 1.239 g.
total weight of meat = 139 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 133 g.

Clam 5
Length = 18 cm
width = 10.5 cm
thickness when closed = 10.5 cm

total weight = 933 g.
total weight of meat = 128 g.
total weight of meat minus guts = 119 g.

From which we can derive the following averages:

Average total weight: 951.4 g
Average weight of meat: 115.8 g.
Average weight of edible meat: 108.2 g

Thus in the average Tridacna gigas in Russell’s sample the wet shell accounts for about 88 % of the total animal weight, with the innerds accounting for about 12% and edible meat adding up to about 11%.

Earlier, I had procured a good-sized Cherrystone Clam from a local supermarket ($0.29 donation to TIGHAR). Its live, wet weight was found to be 136 grams. The clam was then boiled until it opened (about five minutes), and with some feeling of guilt the meat and innerds were removed and discarded. The wet empty-shell weight of both valves was found to be 94 grams. The valves were then dried over a charcoal fire for two hours. The dry(er) weight was 92 grams. Note, this drying, on a rack about 15 cm. above the fire, did not cause cracking or any other noticeable change to the shell.

In this particular Cherrystone clam, the dry shell accounted for 68% of the total weight, while the meat accounted for 32%. Since the shell of a Cherrystone is much thinner than that of a Tridacna, this ratio is not nearly as relevant to Clambush #1 as are the ratios derived from Russell’s T. gigas, but what is relevant is the Cherrystone’s loss of 2 grams – about 2% of its weight – to drying. Assuming that Russell’s clams, if dried, would have lost a similar amount of weight, (average 19.02 grams) then we derive the following corrected averages:

Average total wet weight: 951.4 g
Average dry shell weight: 816.58 g (951.4-19.02-115.8; 86% of total wet weight)
Average weight of meat: 115.8 g. (14% of total wet weight)
Average weight of edible meat: 108.2 g (11% of total wet weight)

Step 3: Assuming a meat-shell ratio in a Clambush #1 T. crocea that is similar to that in a Saipanese T. gigas, then we can derive the following averages for Clambush #1:

Average total wet weight: 357.6 g
Average dry shell weight: 350.6 g
Average weight of meat: 50.1 g.
Average weight of edible meat: 39.3 g

Step 4: The seventeen clams in Clambush #1 thus should have collectively weighed about 6.079 kilograms.

Step 5: One kilogram equals 2.2046 pounds.

Step 6: It follows that the clams in Clambush #1 should have weighed about 13.4 pounds, which should not have been beyond the capacity of an individual to carry, assuming he or she had something to carry the clams in.

Step 7: We can also calculate that the total weight of edible meat procured by transporting Clambush #1 to the Seven Site was about 668.1 grams or about 1.5 pounds. A reasonably substantial meal for one person or even two people. It may also well be that the shell/meat ratio is higher in the large, thick-shelled T. gigas than in the smaller T. crocea, which would mean that the total edible meat weight of Clambush #1 would be greater and the total wet weight of the clambush would also increase. If we double the estimated edible meat weight to three pounds (which seems liberal), this would increase the total clambush weight to about fifteen pounds, still easily within the range of what an individual could carry if he or she had a container in which to carry it.

The Seven Site

2009-02-11T01:21:23Z

Tfking106:

== Introduction ==
The Seven Site lies on the crest and southwest slope of the surge ridge that forms the northeast side of the Nikumaroro atoll. It is about 1.1 km. from the southeast end of the island, and just west of the seven-shaped natural clearing from which it takes its name. The site is densely vegetated in ''Scaevola frutescens'' (<u>mao</u>), with scattered (get list from Josh). A large ''Tournefortia'' (<u>ren</u>) tree stands on the ridge crest near the northeast edge of the site as we have defined it (Figure xx Contour map including elevation and lat/long; also work in KAP mosaic). This “big ren" – or its ancestor – can be identified in airphotos as early as 19xx. The ''Pisonia grandis'' (<u>buka</u>) forest begins just northwest of the site and continues sporadically to the north cape, interwoven with and bordered on the ocean and lagoon shores by dense thickets of mao. When we found the site in 1996, and cleared a portion of it in 2001, its most obvious surface features were a rectangular steel tank, 1 meter on a side, labeled “Tarawa Police” and containing six half-coconut shells, and a roughly circular excavated hole some 1.5 meters in diameter and 1 meter deep, with an evident though much eroded backdirt pile adjacent to the northwest.

[[Image:ksevensitekap4.jpg|600px|center]]
{{tcbug}}

Needs:

* Dave Steadman report.
* Get ’01 bones from SI and add to analysis.
* Resolve cartridge problem.
* Integrate revised Sharyn Jones report.

[[Image:all_units_features_corrugated_plus_e.jpg |600px|center]]

== Fieldwork ==

We inspected the site in 1996, but undertook no further work there until discovery of the WPHC papers raised the possibility that it was where the 1940 bones discovery was made. We speculated that the hole might have resulted from burial and excavation of the cranium, and the tank might have been brought in as a rainwater catcher to support Gallagher’s detailed search. In 2001 we cleared a swath through the mao from the “Seven” to the hole, which we carefully excavated together with its backdirt. We mapped the vicinity and swept it with metal detectors. Results of the hole’s re-excavation were generally negative.

In the course of this work, however, we found two deposits of charcoal, ash, and burned animal bones on the ridge crest near the big <u>ren</u>. We interpreted these as the remains of cooking fires, and shifted the focus of investigation to their vicinity. We excavated six 1x1, 1x2, and 2x2 meter areas to explore these and other features, passing all excavated material through 6 mm.-mesh sieves. We also mapped all surface features and artifacts identified.

In 2007, with improved brush-cutting technology, we cleared a larger area, which we swept with metal detectors and mapped. We also scanned much of the site surface with a daylight ultraviolet light source in search of bones, which fluoresce in UV light. We further excavated the hole, together with two more fire features and a few locations where visual inspection or metal detecting suggested the presence of interesting material. Finally, we imaged the site and its vicinity using kite aerial photography (KAP).

== Site Structure ==

The ridge on which the Seven Site lies is composed of coral rubble thrown up by wave action and stabilized by vegetation. There is little soil accumulation, though screening does produce a small amount of humic material. The surface is somewhat deflated, creating a loose “armor” or “pavement” of irregularly shaped coral pebbles and larger pieces of rubble. Immediately beneath this “armor” is a thin layer of somewhat smaller coral pieces; it is here that the humic soil and most of the cultural material is found. Below this level the chunks become larger again; at about 1 meter depth there is more or less consolidated coral with very large void spaces loosely filled with rubble.

All cultural material we found at the Seven Site was almost universally either on the surface or in the thin humic layer occupying roughly the top ten centimeters of the site.

== Sequential Uses of the Site ==

Some historical and archaeological evidence, summarized briefly below, indicates that the Seven Site vicinity was used by personnel of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) during their sojourn on the island (1944-46). Other such evidence is clearly associated with use of the site by PISS colonists, before and/or after the USCG period. A third body of evidence suggests use of the site by the “castaway” whose bones were collected by Gallagher and his PISS colleagues in 1940. After briefly summarizing the relatively unambiguous evidence of USCG and PISS use, we will focus on the possible castaway associations.

=== U.S. Coast Guard-Related Material ===

Material obviously related to the 1944-46 U.S. Coast Guard loran station is ubiquitous on the site, though not in large quantities. The most common artifacts recovered were .30 caliber cartridges most plausibly associated with the M-1 carbines issued to the Coast Guardsmen. Veterans of Loran Unit 92 recall taking their carbines into the “bush” in the area for informal target practice. Fragments of ironware, some with the U.S. Coast Guard insignia, doubtless represent targets. Fragmentary bottles and radio parts found on the site are also probably associated with target use.

=== PISS-Related Material ===

The steel tank was almost certainly brought in by the PISS colonists, perhaps to support tree cutting or Gallagher’s search of the site for bones and artifacts in 1940, or perhaps as part of subsequent efforts to plant the area in coconuts. We recorded the remains of a corrugated steel roof adjacent to the tank, almost certainly representing a small structure whose roof was designed to drain rainwater into the tank. Although completely reduced to rust, this roofing can be identified as galvanized steel, and hence was probably Coast Guard material used by the colonists after 1946 (though the structure itself, and the tank, may be older).

On the surge ridge itself there are several more or less linear deposits of corrugated and sometimes flat iron sheets, reduced almost entirely to small flakes of rust. Unlike those near the tank, these are not steel, and were not galvanized. Toward the southeast edge of the site there are also a few somewhat heavier channel-shaped iron pieces. The purpose of this material on the site is somewhat mysterious, but we suspect that it was brought there in about 1940 to facilitate skidding large kanawa logs as part of the logging operation apparently carried out at that time (Note: Earlier discuss historical evidence of logging). A roll of asphalt construction siding, a portion of which was apparently spread on the ground at some point before the iron was laid down, is also probably of PISS origin.

=== Possible Castaway Associations ===

==== Shellfish Features ====

We recorded three deposits of shellfish at the Seven Site – one made up of small bivalves representing genus ''Anadara'', two of large bivalves of genus ''Tridacna''. The ''Anadara'' feature comprises at least one hundred valves of the small shellfish, concentrated in an area about one meter across near the crest of the ridge (Figure xxx). It extends only about ten cm. into the rubbly ground, and is overlain by a thin layer of scattered fiberglass flecks derived from the gritty covering of the rolled asphalt siding. The asphalt siding, in turn, was apparently placed on the ground before the corrugated iron sheets were laid down; we found fragments of iron on top of the roll, but none under it. This suggests that the ''Anadara'' feature predates use of the site for whatever activities brought the siding and the iron there.

About two meters south of the ''Anadara'' feature we recorded a loose cluster of valves representing the “giant” clam genus ''Tridacna'', most probably ''T. crocea''. At least seventeen clams are represented by twenty-nine complete and fragmented valves. In most cases one valve of each pair is complete, while the other is often broken or even smashed into multiple fragments. Several examples show evidence of battering and/or prying around the byssal orifaces and on the siphon end. In one case (Fig. xxx), the tip of a small iron tool, apparently fabricated from the rim of a steel drum and found in metal detecting about three meters from the shell cluster, fits precisely into a chipped wound in the clam’s hinge.

The second ''Tridacna'' feature (Figure xxx) is a more linear concentration of shells, aligned roughly north-south. It lay about 10 meters from the first feature and just upslope (east) of the “SL” fire feature (see below). This cluster contains 32 valves representing 16 clams, plus six valves representing three clams scattered within a few meters downslope to the south and east. All are complete, with no sign of chipping, prying, or battering.

==== Discussion ====

The average weight of a live ''Tridacna'' about the size of those on Nikumaroro is calculated to be 360 g, yielding about 39 g of edible meat . Each of the ''Tridacna'' clusters therefore, when fresh, should have weighed between six and seven kilograms – a modest load for one individual to carry from the lagoon southwest of the Seven Site or the reef northeast of it, and an easy burden for two. ''Tridacna'' can be observed living in both areas today. Each cluster would have produced 650-700 g of edible meat – a solid meal for one or two individuals ('''See [[Fun With Clams]] for basis of clam and meat weight calculations).'''

Archaeological and ethnographic data suggest that indigenous Pacific islanders did not and do not often collect ''Tridacna'' and bring them to an interior site to be processed, though they did do so in pre-contact times when ''Tridacna'' valves were used in the production of adzes and other implements. The usual practice, unless one has some need for a shell, is to cut the live clam’s adductor muscle and then extract the meat, leaving the valves at the clam bed. xxx Munro, for example, says

''“Fishing methods for giant clams are exceedingly simple. In remote areas where the
shells have no significant value and have strong byssal attachments to the reef, the flesh is simply excised from the shells by slipping a sharp knife along the inner surface of the shell to cut one end of the adductor muscle. This also applies to the larger species in which the shell is too heavy to be readily lifted from the water” .''

While the Seven Site shells are not too heavy to be readily lifted from the water, they would have no particular value to the Nikumaroro colonists, and if they had been of any value one would expect them to have been taken to the village. The impression that the Seven Site ''Tridacna'' were harvested by someone not indigenous to the islands is heightened by the way the clams in the first cluster have been opened. It appears that someone first tried to pry them open on the hinge and/or siphon ends, and when this failed, simply smashed one valve of each animal with a rock. The linear arrangement of the second clam feature, and its proximity to the fire feature, suggest that the clams were placed around the edge of the fire, where the heat caused them to open, leaving no evidence of prying or bashing. This may indicate that the clam harvester(s) learned from experience with the first group of clams that a more patient technique was in order, but neither technique is characteristic of indigenous Pacific Islander ''Tridacna'' consumption.

If the Seven Site clams were not harvested by indigenous people (the PISS colonists), the remaining suspects are the Coast Guardsmen and the castaway(s). Coast Guard veterans of the loran station, while some recall using the Seven Site area as a place to shoot their guns, deny ever collecting and consuming shellfish there. This does not mean that one or more Coast Guardsmen did not at some point have a clambake on the site, but the condition of the clams in the first feature argues against the Coast Guardsmen as their tormenters. The Coast Guardsmen were equipped with heavy, serviceable knives, and would hardly have needed to fabricate a prying tool and chip away at the clam’s hinges. We think it most likely that the ''Tridacna'' features, and perhaps the ''Anadara'' feature, represent the subsistence activities of the castaway(s). It is notable that on a 1937 airphoto of the Seven Site vicinity (cite), faint lines can be made out that appear to be trails running between the site and a cove on the lagoon shore where today there is a bed of (mostly dead) ''Tridacna.''

==== Fire Features ====

We excavated four features that we interpret as the remains of cooking fires were excavated: two in 2001, two in 2007 . One (Feature D) is on the ridge crest near the big ren tree; another (Feature M) is some fifteen meters to the west along the ridge crest. A third (Feature WR) is on the southwest slope of the ridge about ten meters south of the big ren, and the last (Feature SL) is about 24 meters southeast of the ren, on a southwest-tending spur of the ridge.

The features are difficult to see until the surface armor has been cleared away, so there may be more that we have not yet found. Each feature consists of burned coral, wood ash, some charcoal, and the burned and unburned bones of fish, birds, and sometimes sea turtles, together with burned and unburned artifacts of various kinds. None extends to a depth of more than 10-15 cm. Their horizontal boundaries are indistinct, but they all appear to range between one and two meters in diameter, and to be roughly circular to ovoid.

=====Feature D=====

Feature D lies on the ridge crest about five meters northeast of the big ren tree, shaded by the edge of its canopy. [ INSERT DISCUSSION OF FISH BONES, ARTIFACTS, BIRD BONES].

=====Feature M=====

Feature M, some fifteen meters from Feature D, is visually similar to the first feature and exhibited a paucity of artifacts. [ INSERT DISCUSSION OF BONES, ETC.]. A single radiocarbon sample taken from this feature yielded a “recent” age.

=====Feature SL=====

This fire feature adjoined the second of the Tridacna features, whose valves were relatively undamaged and which was organized in a linear fashion. It contained abundant bird bones and relatively fewer fish bones. [ INSERT DISCUSSION OF BONES].

Artifacts were numerous and puzzling in Feature SL, including:

Gidgies
Screw
Pin
Gutta-percha washers
Black tube
Rouge
Lubricant top
40-cm. ferrous thing
Other ferrous

=====Feature WR=====

This feature, somewhat downslope to the west from the ridge crest, was much more complex than the first two features and contained more fish bone than any other.

Feature WR also contained a diverse collection of artifacts, including:

Cartridges
Snap
Bottles (Ric discuss)
Wire
Ferrous
Rouge

Feature WR also produced a fragmentary cervical vertebra from a medium mammal identified as probably either sheep or goat. The bone was not burned, but showed cut marks suggesting that the animal from which it came had been butchered. We interpret this bone as most likely originating (locally) in a can of mutton stew.

==== Discussion ====

The small number of fish represented by the remains in each fire feature suggests that each represents a single incident, with the likely exception of Feature WR, which may reflect several fish-cooking episodes. Feature SL appears to reflect an effort to cook <u></u> birds.

[SUMMARIZE SHARYL’S REPORT RE. DIVERSITY, HABITATS, ACQUISITION, PREPARATION, NUMBER OF INCIDENTS REPRESENTED, ETC.]

[SUMMARY DAVE STEADMAN’S REPORT WHEN RECEIVED]

== Was the Seven Site the Site of the Bones Discovery? ==

=== Documentary evidence ===

* Gallagher's descriptions
* Reservation of land for him or komitina

=== Photographic evidence ===

* Evidence of logging
* Evidence of clearing
* Evidence of trails

=== Archaeolgical evidence ===

* Fire features
* Hole
* Artifacts

== Was the Castaway Amelia Earhart? ==

* The woman's shoe (Gallagher)
* The compact
* The zipper
* The snap
* The button

== The Kilts Account: Discussion and Speculation ==

By Tom King

Shortly before Peter MacQuarrie found Gerald Gallagher's correspondence about the bones discovery, we had a couple of highly qualified analysts of oral tradition look at the Kilts account, asking their advice about what in it had, to them, the ring of truth. Both said, in essence, that there was no particular reason to believe any of it.

With Peter's discovery in the Kiribati National Archives, however, we learned that at its core, the Kilts account was true. A skeleton <u>was</u> found, near one end of the island, by a party of islanders, with a cognac bottle and a woman's shoe, and though Gallagher wasn't an "Irish magistrate," didn't hop in the island's 4-oared boat to row the bones to Fiji, and didn't die en route, he <u>was</u> Irish, <u>was</u> in charge of the island, must have sent the bones in the 4-oared whaleboat ''Nei Manganibuka'' out to the schooner ''Nimanoa'' for the voyage to Fiji, and <u>did</u> die shortly after coming back from Fiji. It's not hard to imagine a conversation among Kilts, a colonist without much English, and an interpreter scrambling the facts of the bones story into the tale that Kilts wound up telling.

The one piece of the Kilts story that doesn't make sense as a loose interpretation of what we know actually happened is the business about the superstitious natives throwing the bones into the sea. Where does <u>that</u> come from? Here's my hypothesis.

I think there were two bones discoveries. I think that after Gallagher left for Fiji, the colonists found a second set of bones, probably on Nutiran. I think they held them, probably in a bag, for Gallagher's return. When he returned and promptly died, I think they decided that messing with bones was not a good idea, and disposed of them by taking them well away from the island and committing them to the deep.

This is not entirely a wild-assed guess -- just mostly one. Consider:

:1. When Dirk Ballendorf interviewed residents of Nikumaroro Village in the Solomons (Provide link to Dirk's report), they told him that two skeletons had been found -- one at the SE end of the island, the other at the NW (Nutiran) end.

:2. When Barb Norris, Kris Tague and I first interviewed Emily Sikuli (link to interview), she said that the bones she remembered -- which she associated with the box her father had built -- had been found on Nutiran, "where the plane came down." When Ric and others interviewed her on video later, her story was rather garbled, suggesting to me that she'd been thinking about it and wasn't as sure of her facts as she'd been the first time around.

So there's some real indication of a second skeleton, found on Nutiran. There's no independent indication of its disposal at sea, however; that's found only in the Kilts account.

If there was a second skeleton, whose was it? If the skeleton at the SE end was Earhart's, then one on Nutiran, if it existed, might have been Noonan's. Noonan's death and burial on Nutiran would be consistent with our interpretation of the radio messages indicating that he was injured. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that we know that three bodies of ''Norwich City'' crewmen were buried on Nutiran, and others might have washed ashore and gotten buried by natural forces.

At this point, there's probably no way of finding out whether a second skeleton was found, and if it was, what happened to it. But it's one way of making sense of the only part of Floyd Kilts' account that doesn't otherwise bear any relationship to what's reliably documented as having happened.


[[Category:Nikumaroro|Seven Site]]

Shellfish Remnants

2009-02-11T01:19:59Z

USS Bushnell Survey (1939)

2009-02-10T21:48:34Z

Tfking106:

USS Bushnell visited Nikumaroro twice in November-Decembe 1939, mapping the island and the lagoon and making astronomical observations. Following are copies of original documents on the ship's visits.

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_1.pdf| First quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_2.pdf| Second quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_3.pdf‎| Third quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_4.pdf| Last quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

USS Bushnell Survey (1939)

2009-02-10T21:47:42Z

Tfking106:

USS Bushnell visited Nikumaroro twice in November-Decembe 1939, mapping the island and the lagoon and making astronomical observations. Following are copies of original documents on the ship's visits.

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_1.pdf| First quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_2.pdf| Second quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_3.pdf‎| Third quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_4.pdf| Last quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

[[Image:Bushnell_Part1.pdf|200px|thumb|left|alt text]]

USS Bushnell Survey (1939)

2009-02-10T21:45:55Z

Tfking106:

USS Bushnell visited Nikumaroro twice in November-Decembe 1939, mapping the island and the lagoon and making astronomical observations. Following are copies of original documents on the ship's visits.

[[Media:Bushnell_Part_1.pdf| First quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_2.pdf| Second quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_3.pdf‎| Third quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]
[[Media:Bushnell_Part_4.pdf| Last quarter of USS Bushnell papers]]

File:Bushnell Part 4.pdf

2009-02-10T21:45:08Z

Tfking106: