 The deity Laufakanaa was the first ruler of Ata.Archaeologist spent 18 days exploring the abandoned village of Kolomaile in 1977, which is accessible via a steep trail from the island's cobbled northern beach.Although it had been abandoned for over a century, remnants of stone walls and other evidence of human inhabitants were still visible; radiocarbon dating led Anderson to conclude that human settlement on Ata dated back to the 1500s or 1600s.