Small barren and isolated island off the western end of the Hawaiian chain, containing a very large number of prehistoric sites (including 33 Heiau; houses, cultivation terraces) for its size. Small stone figures, representative of ancestral Polynesian carving, are among the earliest sculpture from Hawaii. The island may have been visited sporadically from the main Hawaiian islands or it is possible that it had a resident population of Hawaiians who died out, unable to return to their homeland. The island, the most northerly of the chain, was uninhabited on European discovery.