Chapter 3: Archeology

Bethany Maddox gently pulled the white Land Rover off the ferry and onto the dock. She had noticed a similar Land Rover earlier, but that one hadn’t been pulling a trailer loaded with equipment and supplies. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she knew she was supposed to be met by somebody at the dock, so she pulled over to the side once she was off the boat and out of the loading/unloading lane. Then she got out and looked around.

Haka Nuva seemed small and quiet to her eyes, but it also seemed relatively civilized. To her, that meant it had electricity and running water. In itself that made this one of the better archeological digs she had worked on. The roads also were paved, at least in the town, though she wouldn’t know about anything else until she got into the countryside. She had downloaded a map from Google and had satellite imagery in case she had to go it alone, but that could be chancy at best on some digs.

One of the locals was supposed to meet her and guide her to the site, but again that could be iffy. The best case would involve a member of the dig team, who spoke decent English and could drive or navigate them directly to the site. The worst case might involve none of that, a skeezy local who spoke broken English at best and wasn’t particular about when or where he took the foreigner. In some parts of the world archeology was simply not possible, because the locals would use foreigners and academics as hostages in the local conflicts. Much of the Middle East had been effectively shut down for years because of that.

She noticed a large and handsome man coming towards her and she turned to face him. “Doctor Maddox?” he asked.

The greeting committee had arrived, she decided. “That’s me,” she replied.

A grin split his face, revealing blinding white teeth in the darkly tanned skin. “Excellent! I was hoping you had made it on time.” Bethany noticed he spoke perfect English, without a trace of an accent. “Welcome to Haka Nuva. We are very glad you made it.”

“Thank you.”

The newcomer was carrying a dark red lei, and he stopped in front of her. He held it up, put it over her head, and dropped it down around her neck. “Haka Nuva loha!” he said. “That means welcome to Haka Nuva in Haka Lelo, the language of the Maltesanos. I am Maohinui Smith. I’m one of the other leaders on the dig and I came down to greet you and help you get to the site,” he told her.

“Well, thank you very much.” She sniffed the flowers and felt something she hadn’t felt in several months, an almost visceral stirring in her libido. “These are lovely! Do you give flowers to everybody who comes here?”

“Just the pretty ones,” he said, winking. Then he smiled. “Just about any newcomers on the ferry get them, at least if they walk off the boat. You drove, so I simply stole one from the stand for you. Loha!”

At the mention of being pretty, Bethany blushed. Mao-whatever-his-name-was Smith was a very handsome man. He was maybe a couple of inches taller than her five-foot-six, but looked very rugged and strong, with a broad chest and was very muscular. He was darkly tanned and looked very much the Polynesian native. He wore cargo shorts, a short-sleeved denim shirt, and sturdy hiking shoes. In that they were dressed similarly, though she was wearing khaki pants and not shorts.

“Loha? Is that like aloha?” she asked.

“Very much so. Haka Lelo is very similar to Hawaiian, which isn’t much of a surprise considering that as best we can tell the islands were settled from Hawaii. That was the first wave, anyway. A second wave moved in later from the Tahiti region. Since then, the language has deviated and differentiated some. If you can speak Hawaiian, you can probably figure out Haka Lelo,” he explained.

She smiled at that. “Too bad I can’t speak Hawaiian. I gather you are here to take me to the dig? I have some maps and satellite images, but you can never be sure how useful they will be.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Considering the place is a tropical jungle, I wouldn’t trust them outside of town here. Still, that’s what I’m here for. Maohinui Smith, trusty native guide, just like in the old Tarzan movies.”

She laughed at that. “Nice to meet you, Moe...”

“Mow-hin-ooey. Most people just call me Mao, like in Chairman Mao.”

“Mao, nice to meet you. I’m Bethany Maddox,” she put out her hand and he shook it. “Maohinui, does that have some special meaning in Haka...”

“Haka Lelo. Haka means island and Lelo means language. Haka Lelo simply means island language. It’s what is used throughout the islands, that and English. As for my name, Maohinui simply means ‘Big Polynesian.’ I think my parents were hoping for somebody a bit larger.” He made a hand motion several inches over his head.

“You look pretty big to me!” she laughed.

He waggled his eyebrows and made her blush. “It’s not completely wrong,” he said, grinning.

Bethany laughed. “That’s more information than I need to know!” she protested.

He nodded and smiled. “Maybe so. Are you all packed and ready? Do we need to stop in town for anything, or do you need to use the facilities? Once we get going, it’s a good hour’s drive to the other side of the island.”

“Do I follow you?”

He shook his head. “I had somebody drop me off in town the other night. I had a decent meal and stayed the night.”

Bethany wondered to herself where he had stayed - and with whom. “You want to drive?”

He shook his head. “Better if you drive. You’ll learn the roads faster that way. Don’t worry, the roads are decent enough.”

She nodded and led the way back to the Land Rover. Mao followed with a small rucksack, his overnight pack, which he tossed into the back of the Land Rover. “This is a pretty simple island to drive around on. This is Haka Nuva Road, which is the main road. Turn right and a few hours later you are pulling back into town over there, on the left. Haka Nuva Road circles the island. Don’t go too fast though. Once you get out of town, the asphalt stops and you’re driving on crushed stone.”

“And the site?”

“Turn right. We’re basically on the other side of the island.” She nodded in understanding and started up the Land Rover. A few minutes later they had left the town and were rolling along on the crushed stone ‘highway.’ Still, she thought the road was in better shape than could be expected at a lot of dig sites; she’d have to see about conditions when they left the main road.

As they left town, Mao said, “I forgot to ask, but have you eaten anything? Did you get something on the ferry? I’ve got a few energy bars, but if you want a real meal, we’ll have to go back.”

“An energy bar would be good.”

He reached back for his bag and dug out a couple of energy bars and two bottles of water. “Jet lag going to get you?”

“No, I’m good there. I got to Maltesano a day ago and spent yesterday sorting the equipment and loading the trailer. I had a decent night’s sleep and catnapped on the ferry. I’m good to go,” she explained. He nodded in acknowledgement.

It took little over an hour to hit the side road they needed to turn off onto. Along the way, Mao gave her a brief history of the Maltesanos. The islands were quite possibly the most recently colonized place on the planet. The first settlers, from Hawaii, had only arrived about 1200 AD, with a second wave coming from Tahiti showing up barely a hundred years later. Most of the settlers stayed on Maltesano, the largest of the islands, but they spread from there. Curiously, Haka Nuva, the smallest and most geographically challenging of the islands, was in some ways the spiritual center, and was considered the capital of the islands, to the extent that the people had a capital.

“So, most of the Maltesanans...”

“We call ourselves Haka’po’e. It simply means People of the Islands.”

She nodded. “So even though most of the Haka’po’e live on Maltesano, the capital was here, at the other end of the island chain?” she questioned.

He nodded back at her. “That is the legend anyway. It’s not so much that there was a capital, but it was more of a spiritual center. Each of the islands had their own clans and tribes, and everybody tended to fight each other. Still, Haka Nuva was where they came to settle things afterwards.”

“Huh.”

“And that’s why you are here, to help with figuring that out,” he finished.

“I’ll see what I can do to help,” she said, smiling back at him.

Once they left the main road, they turned and began climbing up into the mountains that formed the center of the island. The road wasn’t as good, being more rutted gravel and mud than smooth crushed stone, and the progress was slower. Still, ten minutes later Mao directed Bethany into a small camp laid out in a clearing in the jungle.

Once she shut off the engine, the heat and humidity became palpable. “Warm,” she remarked.

“I hope you brought some shorts. It’s pretty much a tropical jungle out here. You’ll get used to it. It’s better up here than lower, it’s cooler. Still, dress for hot and wet. It often rains, usually in the afternoon. With the normal wind patterns, we get more rain here on the northeast side of the island than in the main town, on the southwest side. Lots of bugs, though, so make sure you use bug spray or lotion.”

Bethany shrugged. “I did my doctoral work in the Yucatan. It was hot and humid there, too. I’ll cope.”

Mao nodded in understanding.

As she climbed out of the Land Rover, a small group of people came over from the nearby tents. Leading them was a man in his late thirties. “Mao, good work! You found her! Doctor Maddox, welcome to Haka Nuva!” he called out.

“Doctor Veracruz?” she asked.

“Call me Manolo,” he replied. “The trip in good?”

“Excellent. Doctor Smith here was very helpful and instructive.”

Mao smile and shook his head. “That’s Mister Smith. I’m still working on my doctorate. With any luck, what we do here will help with that.”

Bethany looked at Mao in surprise. Smith was in his mid-thirties, almost ten years older than the average grad student. She knew he was one of the three leaders of the expedition, with the formal leader being Doctor Veracruz, but in the paperwork which had said Smith was involved there hadn’t been any indication that Smith didn’t have his doctorate.

Veracruz interrupted her chain of thought. “Doctor Maddox, I don’t want to seem to be rushing things, but the afternoon rainstorm could start almost any time now, and today we are expecting a front to roll through, probably rain all afternoon and evening. If you don’t mind, we should unpack the trailer and get everything under cover.”

“Sure, whatever you say. Call me Beth.” She led the way over to the vehicle, followed closely by Manolo, Mao, and the others. She pointed out the various gear and equipment she had brought in, and Manolo gave quick orders to the group about what was to be done with it.

It was easy to figure out the pecking order on the dig. At the top was Doctor Veracruz, the team leader, a Venezuelan archeologist. After him came Mao Smith, which surprised her, since he didn’t have a doctorate, and his degrees were in history, not archeology. Both men were in their mid-to-late-thirties. After them came a small group of what she considered ’the kids.’ These were the undergrads and grad students, some Maltesanan and some foreign, all looking to use the dig for some kind of academic purpose, undergrad credit or background for a dissertation. Finally, there was a small group of locals who acted as contract workers. Mao, as both a team leader and a Maltesanan himself, was the liaison with the locals.

In short order, the trailer and Land Rover were unloaded. She had brought in a mix of items, some scientific and some various staples and consumables. As the saying went, ‘many hands make light work.’ She only had time to grab one of her own bags before the trailer and vehicle were empty. Mao took her car keys and drove it and the trailer over to a parking area and unhooked the trailer; the Land Rover would become part of their small fleet of vehicles. Bethany’s personal bags were taken over to the nearby campsite, and the equipment and supplies were taken to the excavation site. She followed along behind Doctor Veracruz as he led the way to the campsite.

The archeologist was impressed by what she saw. The campsite was well laid out, with several large tents on platforms surrounding a central area, and with walkways made from old pallets keeping feet out of the mud. The central space featured a very large tarped-over tent that obviously served as the communal area. A couple of port-a-potties were off to one side, as was a trailer with a generator mounted on it. Rainwater was collected in some giant barrels, and a shower area was nearby. Several other tents were up at the dig site.

Bethany followed Veracruz over to the communal tent, which was more of a tarp than anything else. While it had sides, they were rolled up neatly, leaving screens surrounding them. It was neat and practical, considering the heat and humidity. She noticed that almost all the tents were rigged the same way. Veracruz sat down at one of the picnic tables in the main tent and motioned for Bethany to sit down also.

“You’ve been to dig sites before, so I am sure you know the routine. You, me, and Mao are the leaders. He represents the University of Maltesano, so he’s more than just our trusty native guide, as he likes to say. We each have a small personal tent. The locals, the contract workers, mostly live down in the village at the bottom of the road, drive up here in the morning, and go home at dark. The kids, they have their own tents, mostly four-person tents, boy tents and girl tents.” He pointed out to the different tents. “Who sleeps where, that is their business, not yours and mine. They’re all over the age of eighteen, so...” He smiled and shrugged.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” she replied, smiling back.

“Precisely. So, how much do you know about Haka Nuva and the Maltesanos?” he asked.