Research specialist Helen Leidemann at the Bishop Museum is the first to explain what the scientists learned from the costly excavations, which were conducted as part of the construction of the H-3 Freeway.

For the past 20 years, she has been completing reports of work done in Leeward Halawa Valley and on the Windward side of the Ko'olaus on the route of the H-3.

The archeological survey began as a $700,000 project that ballooned to a cost of $14.8 million. It was funded by Hawai'i taxpayers through the state Department of Transportation.

Leidemann said the reports on H-3 archaeology are "an amazing resource" that will be valuable to other scientists. Discoveries made by the archaeologists suggest wide diversity in ancient Hawaiian culture.

The size of the H-3 project provided a built-in research design because it encompassed both Windward and Leeward sides of the island in one study, she said.

Carbon dating indicates that the Windward uplands were inhabited by 1000 A.D. The Leeward Halawa Valley uplands do not show evidence of temporary habitation until 1300 A.D.

By 1500 A.D., upland Halawa Valley had permanent residents in up to 30 individual housing sites. But on the Windward side, there never was a concentration of population in the uplands except in one area.

People on the Windward side apparently chose to live on the coast while more people in Leeward Halawa Valley chose the uplands. Leidemann said she can't explain why. Perhaps the coastlines made a difference. The coastline of Halawa Valley is Pearl Harbor, which then had many fish ponds and lo'i, fields of wet taro.

A drop in the number of sites dating to the 1600s and 1700s along the H-3 corridor in Halawa Valley suggests a drop in population for which Leidemann said she cannot give an explanation.

The one area in the Windward uplands that shows evidence of a concentration of population is a parcel called Luluku. This is the location of monumental taro terraces along Luluku Stream. Leidemann described them as possibly the largest remaining set of irrigated taro terraces on O'ahu, "enormous and inspirational."

Kane worshippers?

Gilbert McAlister's 1933 "Archaeology of Oahu" lists three sites known in the area at the time: Kukuiokane Heiau (Light of Kane Temple), the Pig Pen of Kane and three streams that were said to represent the three wives of Kane, a major Hawaiian god.

Leidemann said the names of the sites suggest that Kane was important to the people of Kane'ohe ahupua'a (a land division) in which the sites are located. Kane may also be the reason the enormous complex of terraces is located in this area while nothing like it is found in neighboring uplands.

Tools provide another difference between Windward and Leeward. The tools found along the H-3 corridor on the Leeward/Ha-lawa side include 10,000 artifacts and 7,000 basalt adzes but fewer tools made of volcanic glass.

On the Windward side, volcanic glass tools predominate. Leidemann said the glass tools suggest temporary habitation. Glass tools are easier to make than basalt tools and are more readily thrown away.

All of this suggests that ancient Hawaiian culture was not the same everywhere, Leidemann said. "Probably each island was different; different parts of each island were different."

Why was there a concentration of population, indicated by the number of sites found midway up Halawa Valley? No one knows, she said.

Some discoveries came in an unexpected way. Leidemann said bulldozers grading the H-3 route uncovered fire pits and imu that were not visible above ground.

"More than 1,000 subsurface sites were found by archaeologists following bulldozers," she said. She said there was nothing to indicate the presence of the underground sites; no middens (rubbish heaps, often found in ancient habitation areas) and there was no stratification, or accumulated habitation layers, in the below-ground sites.

So many cooking sites suggest that old Hawaiians were all over the land, she said.

"I suspect the people were doing multiple things," she added. "Tending lo'i, collecting raw materials for stone tools, collecting plants for medicine." She said some of the wood used in the fireplaces turned out to be breadfruit. This suggests that people came to plant, tend and harvest breadfruit trees.

Because ancient Hawaiians were not known for eating much breadfruit, Leidemann said, the discovery of breadfruit wood in the fireplaces "may suggest an agricultural system that hasn't been discussed before."

REPORTS DELAYED

One reason for the delay in getting this information to the public is the bureaucracy through which the reports must pass.

The reports by Bishop Museum archaeologists must be approved by both the state Historic Preservation Office and the state Department of Transportation, Leidemann said. Also, the planning and construction of H-3 went through many changes. Archaeologists had to go back and redo some of their work, said Marilyn Kali, a former Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Another reason is that the large group of archaeologists hired to work on the H-3 project split up. Some quit because of controversy, as reported by The Advertiser in 1995. Some left reports unfinished. Without a report on what archaeologists have found, the dig has no value, she said.

However, Leidemann defended the archaeologists as a dedicated group and said the reason she has worked for 20 years editing the reports is that she feels a responsibility that they be finished.

Contrary to criticism, Leidemann said, the reports on H-3 archaeology will be valuable to other scientists. Of the more than 100 archaeologists who worked on the controversial H-3 survey project, she is one of the last still on the job.

The monumental task of completing the unfinished work will result in 11 major reports, each as fat as a telephone book, nine of which are done, two to go.

Karen Chun, technical design engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said a limited number of copies of nine of the reports have been sent to libraries in Hawai'i, and the other two reports will be available in the same way.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.