Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: August 31, 2004
Article Type: Journal

As part of the Drachen Foundation’s campaign to spread the word about the efficacy of kite aerial photography, Eric Muhs, resident boffin of the Foundation, journeyed to Hawaii to show Professor Don Ryan and his archeology cohorts how a rapid digital recording technique works. Ryan, of Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, Washington, has done projects in the Holy Land, Egypt, and the Canary Islands. The team target was ancient Polynesian rock carvings in a large ground level lava deposit on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The site is known as Kaupulehu and is on the protected grounds of a resort north of Kona airport. It is of particular interest to the Foundation because among its thousands of images of stick figures, boat sails, and abstractions it includes two of kites, similar to the famous Maori bird kites of New Zealand. Kite images have been found at two other lava sites in Hawaii.

Kites were widely used in ancient South Sea cultures, from Easter Island to the Banda Sea. They were used for sport, in ritual, and for utilitarian purposes. The ability of a kite to efficiently and rapidly tow a raft or boat is well documented in studies of Polynesian culture.

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