LECTURE: Archaeology in the Pacific

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The Kona Historical Society’s Hanohano ‘O Kona Lecture Series returns to the West Hawaii Civic Center Wednesday, May 29, 2019, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., featuring a lecture from Patrick V. Kirch, one of the leading experts in the field of archaeology in the Pacific, and the author of more than a dozen books about the subject, including Feathered Gods and Fishhooks.

Since 1995, Kirch has been studying the Kahikinui and Kaupo landscape of Maui, recording more than 3,800
archaeological sites. One focus of this research has been on the heiau system of these moku, where a total of 78 temples sites have now been recorded and mapped in detail.

The findings of this study were recently published by the University of Hawaii in the book, Heiau, ‘Aina, Lani: The Hawaiian Temple System in Ancient Kahikinui and Kaupō,
Maui.

Kirch is an archaeologist and anthropologist who has spent decades researching and studying the ancient cultures and peoples of the Pacific Islands. This work led him across the Pacific, from the Mussau Islands of Papua New Guinea where he excavated the early Talepakemalai site of the ancestors to Polynesians, the Lapita peoples, to remote Rapa Nui.

In between, he has carried out archaeological and anthropological studies in the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Futuna, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Mo’orea, Maupiti, Mangareva, and most extensively, in Hawai’i.

For the past seven years, Kona Historical Society has offered this community lecture series, spotlighting local and state speakers on a wide variety of cultural and historical subjects. It is a gift from the society to the community that has supported it for so long and it is presented in cooperation with the County of Hawai‘i.

The lectures are free of charge and open to all, residents and visitors alike.

Kona Historical Society is a community-based, nonprofit organization and Smithsonian Museum affiliate that has spent the past four decades collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the Kona districts and their rich cultural heritage within Hawai‘i.

For more information, call Kona Historical Society at (808) 323-3222 or visit www.konahistorical.org.

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