The Makauwahi Cave (“fear, break through”) is the small
portion of the largest limestone cave found in Hawaii.
It lies on the south coast of the island of Kauaʻi, in the
Māhāʻulepū Valley close to Māhāʻulepū Beach, and is important for its
paleoecological and archaeological values.
It is reached via a sinkhole and has been described as
“…maybe the richest fossil site in the Hawaiian Islands, perhaps in the entire
Pacific Island region”.
The pale rock ridge that houses the sinkhole started as a
field of sand dunes.
Over time, rainwater seeped through the sand, converting it
chemically into limestone rock.
Underground water ate away at the lower parts of the
limestone, forming an extensive complex of caves, and finally one large section
of cave roof collapsed, creating a feature known as a sinkhole.
The feature is as much as 100 yards long from the entrance
to the most distant known cave, and as much as 40 yards wide, but it may
contain other caverns whose entrances are buried.
Paleoecological and archaeological excavations of the
sediment that has filled the pond in the sinkhole put its age at some 10,000
years.
More importantly, the findings show how the first humans
that inhabited Kauaʻi
affected the pre-human natural environment.
It is one of only a handful of sites in the world that show
such impact.
Before the first Polynesian settlers set foot on Kaua‘i,
Hawai‘i was a strange Eden, empty of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, because
none had ever made it across the vastness of the Pacific to these remote
islands.
The sinkhole contains nearly 10,000-years of sedimentary
record; since the discovery of Makauwahi as a fossil site, excavations have
found pollen, seeds, invertebrate shells and Polynesian artifacts, as well as
thousands of bird and fish bones.
An array of native birds that had evolved in splendid
isolation filled every kind of niche.
More than 40 species of extinct native bird fossils have
been excavated from Makauwahi, including an odd long-legged owl, which
specialized in hunting small forest birds, and a nocturnal duck with shrunken
eyes.
Among the bones discovered at Makauwahi were those of one
lumbering flightless duck with a heavy bill designed to graze like a tortoise
on short, tough grass and vegetation from rocks.
Bones of the endangered Hawaiian hawk and Laysan duck have
also been discovered at the sinkhole. Today,
these two species survive on single islands distant from Kauaʻi, but the fossil discoveries
suggest they were once more widespread throughout Hawaii.
Evidence from a full millennium of human activity chronicles
the details of life nearby and its considerable impact on the island
environment.
The Makauwahi Cave site provides a rich record of life
before and after human arrival, and preserves many artifacts and food remains,
including perishable cultural items.
Oral traditions said to extend back as far as the fourteenth
century in some cases show good agreement with the archaeological and
paleoecological record.
Following European contact, additional environmental
impacts, including a drastic increase in erosion and many additional biological
invasions, are documented from the site.
Paleoecologist David Burney and his wife Lida Pigott Burney,
with help from hundreds of local volunteers, has found 10,000-year-old buried
treasure in the Makauwahi Cave and wrote a book on the subject, Back to the
Future in the Caves of Kaua`i, A Scientist’s Adventures in the Dark.
Makauwahi Cave is one of the Points of Interest in the Holo
Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway. We
are assisting Mālama Kōloa and Kōloa Community Association with the preparation of the Corridor
Management Plan for the Scenic Byway.
The image shows the cave.
In addition, I have added some other related images in a folder of like
name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.
© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC
