Archaeological Research Facility

This volume presents preliminary findings from archaeological fieldwork undertaken by three different institutionsin Kahikinui District on Maui. The contributors agreed last year that one aim of our work should be to prepare nontechnicalreports for public distribution in Hawai'i. In discussing the idea of such a volume, Patrick Kirch and I agreed that while thepublic in Hawai'i often is aware of archaeological fieldwork being conducted, all too rarely do they get a timely summary ofinitial findings. Often, results only become available some years later in highly technical reports. Easy-to-read summariesare rarely available. It seemed to us that providing such a summary of the Kahikinui research would be of considerableinterest to the public. After all, it is the public-the taxpayer-who ultimately has paid for much (though not all) of thisarchaeology, be it through national granting agencies, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, state university programs,or the State of Hawai'i Historic Preservation program.