Day 12: New Experiences

Before arriving to the field Kerry and I were unsure of what we would do since groups have been switching up. We ended up with as a sub-team of archaeology. Our leader was Jessica, who is awesome at explaining archeology and showed us the ropes. We headed into the southern part of the valley and the vegetation was extremely dense! I thought yesterday was tough, but today was way tougher to get through! The grass was knee high, but the amount of stuff to see was incredible. We found stone wall after wall and it was fun trying to imagine what they were used for. Before we headed out into the field we stopped in the main shopping area of Koaloa Ranch and watched a short video on its history. The room next to where the video was shown held a series of pictures and dioramas explaining the vast history of Koaloa Valley. Kerry pointed out that many of the walls we found matched the descriptions of images on the wall of the history room, which was very exciting.

After spending some time in ‘the bush’ many of us headed over to a Heiau replica to watch a Terrestrial Laser Scanner. It was very exciting to learn how accurate this type of surveying is and the potential for its use is sky high. The only problem with this type of data collection is the equipment is super expensive. For the last scan we got to stand directly behind the scanner while it was spinning. I wish someone was recording us running around in circles.

The rest of the day was spent on trying to process all of our project data. Kerry and I have spent the last 4 hours trying to navigate Ecognition with some success. We still have lots of work to do! We have to bring in our photos, polish our ArcMap map, and possible create a classification in EDRISI to compare. After so many computer hours we’re calling it a night and hoping for a fresh start tomorrow!