Friday 24th of March.
The first week back in Tubuai has been very eventful, starting with a quick survey of TEADA HANATAI Site which has not been disturbed, Noema informs me that potato farming will not proceed as in previous seasons, but will commence by an initial planting in Haramea followed by a later planting in Mataura and Taahuaia with a final round in Mahu. This means that the Haramea plots are being prepared now while the Taahuaia sites will remain undisturbed for perhaps another month. Monday and Tuesday I concentrated on getting the first few pages of this report in order, being a sort of synthesis of the last two weeks work. Wednesday I checked the freshly tilled fields in Haramea near the area where I last discovered structures and artifacts (see Volume 12 Page 23). It is now my impression that there seems a minimum of artifacts in this area and very little if any visible midden in the areas presently under cultivation. The Taahuaia area is by far richer, however some artifact rich deposits may exist in areas other than those which are now being farmed, a few hours of careful searching were as on a number of other occasions virtually unrewarded, this lack of artifacts further emphasizes the importance of the Taahuaia sites. On Thursday Noema and I covered some of TAROTAPU which had been re-tilled, this site has always yielded artifacts although they are now becoming scarce, we recovered a number of hammerstones, 3F adze fragments, a 3C blade tip and various flake tools. Noema reported seeing deep deposits at the Fort George site when he was treasure hunting there so I immediately sought permission to dig a few test pits. Noema visited the site with me to indicate where he had dug and point out where he thought we might be able to confirm his initial observations. Another large pit dug last year and left open, some meters from Noema's excavations showed no sign of these reported deep layers (said to have been composed mainly of shell midden), another deep excavation, had been recently dug near the beach, this also was devoid of any trace of deep layers. I anyway took measurements to fix the major landmarks and prepare maps for test pit work. This data has been plotted on the ARCHEO computer map (Autocad), fortunately a freshly marked otia was found in the northeast corner of the Fort George Site (Parcelle #210 URUHAU) so the computer data should be reasonably correct. I have today spent some hours trying to plot the relative cadastral boundaries however one of the distances given along the southern boundary is obviously in error. The distance shown as 47 meters measures to be 35 this unusual inaccuracy is not the only problem I encountered in setting up this part of the Map.
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