 Another archaeological survey was conducted in August 2001; fragments of pottery found during the later survey were of a type that had ceased manufacture in Tonga by 400 BC, meaning the settlement on Ata was considerably older than previously thought.According to oral tradition, the diviner Hama discovered Ata, but the first Tongans to live there were Motuapuaka and Tapuosi, who had eloped there to escape the wrath of Tapuosi's father, the Tuʻi Tonga Fakanaanaa; when they arrived in the early 1700s, the aboriginal inhabitants played a rough game which frightened Tapuosi, and Motuapuaka drove them into a cave, then suffocated them by building a great fire at its mouth.The two lovers were presumably accompanied by attendants, befitting their high status.