Saturday 14th of April.
The past dew days have been spent collecting artifacts as heavy rain has arrived just in time to expose the many artifacts recently brought to the surface in the fields being prepared for potato planting. The most critically important of these being TIIRUA and AHOAPOFATU *1 the later being deeply tilled twice. I managed to collect artifacts there on both occasions as rain fell conveniently after each tilling. AHOAPOFATU is the site where the first fishhooks were discovered, and now after two extensive searches as well as many others previously it seems a bit of a miracle that two complete hooks were found so quickly without another complete hook ever being found. The artifacts from this site are rather limited, however the relative abundance of pearl-shell fragments, branch coral files, and fishhooks is striking in comparison with the marked absence many other kinds of artifacts. This seems to indicate that this site may have been particularly and perhaps exclusively a fishhook manufacturing area. This is complicated by the presence of some very ancient artifacts or artifact fragments which intimate a very early presence. Todays collected artifacts reflect this mixture with a number of pearl-shell fragments or blanks, some small drilled waste pearl-shell, a number of branch coral files (one large complete), porites sanding block, one octopus lure sinker, two fully patinated quadrangular or rectangular (squarish) adze fragments, one fully ground, rounded, chisel butt, a number of flake tools, one or two unfinished adze fragments and a great many prismatic blades. This later item is of particular interest as they are found in such quantity (perhaps as much as 30% of all stone objects) these tools must have played an important role at this site but almost exclusively at this site as they are by no means common elsewhere. While there is a noticable lack of hammerstones, adze fragments, midden, penu, coconut rasps and many of the artifacts commonly found in other areas are missing from this site. A number of test pits were attempted at this site which is now thoroughly disturbed and very little was recovered from them however I believe that there may have been an early settlement camp on this site and that the present tilling has brought up some of the dregs of this camp. A number of deep excavations should be again attempted. In the November 88 to March 89 Inventory report I have shown a plan of the test pits (APPENDIX C) unfortunately there was not enough time to attempt test pit 5 however I am convinced now more than ever that between test pit 5 and the road as shown by the arrow with the distance of 49 meters, some vestige of this early camp may be found. (A sixth pit to be more or less at the end of the arrow and the pits running along this line to the road).
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