Welcome.
This site report is the result of survey, test excavations and
documentation of the archaeological features at the Maitaki Te Moa site,
Northwest coast, Rapa Nui, during the 2001 summer field season of the
Pacific Prehistory Project at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa. The site
inventory comprises 62 sites in 7 classes. Although this report represents
the results of 10 meter survey transects over the entire area mapped on
the following pages, we believe subsequent seasons of resurvey will
undoubtedly yield additions to this catalogue. Similarly, the site
boundary we present for this report cannot be considered exhaustive, as we
believe that archaeological features persist, at somewhat lower densities,
both easterly, up the rolling slope of Terevaka volcano, and on either
side of the topographic rise that bounds the valley on the North and
South. A siteless survey strategy may demonstrate the functional redundancy along the recurring coastal
valleys which we believe is characteristic of the northeastern coast. Additional years of
survey and mapping are already planned, and will help us test the
hypothesis of functional redundancy
in feature classes across discrete geographical units.
Click image above to learn more about the Pacific Prehistory Project