Allen With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Melinda Allen and Heidi Lennstrom will expand the archaeobotanical research laboratory located at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii. They will hire a technician to help to prepare and process samples and will purchase both a new flotation device and photographic equipment. Because botanical materials are usually lighter than their surrounding earthen matrix, it is possible to use water separation to collect them. A larger device will increase the productivity of the laboratory. Photographs permit the production of guides or keys which can facilitate identification at the Bishop and also be used by other laboratories. Botanical remains are often preserved in archaeological sites in Oceania. Few archaeologists are qualified to identify such materials however and the development of a specialized laboratory will further research in a number of areas. Botanical remains serve two principal goals because they provide insight into both the nature of prehistoric environments and human use of it. Archaeological deposits often include both plants used by prehistoric inhabitants and other remains which are accidently incorporated into the sediments. With such information, it is possible to reconstruct how different human populations subsisted and made use of their environments. It is also possible to understand how people affected these environments and how they changed over time. Many islands in the Pacific have been occupied for thousands of years and provide excellent laboratories to study human-environment interactions. This research is important because it will help to provide an important archaeological service. It will increase our understanding of human behavior and how people and environments interact over time.
