Diggers have uncovered a large burial bit at the Ward Village Shops project, raising the number of Hawaiian remains found at the site to 53.

Archaeologists say the burial pit could signal that the total number of remains could reach into the hundreds at the Kaka'ako site being developed by General Growth Properties Inc.

The state Historic Preservation Division has asked the developer to dig deeper around the six-acre site where a 17-story apartment building, a Whole Foods Market and a parking garage were to be built.

This discovery occurred on a June 5 visit to the diamondhead side of the construction site, where the 67,000-square-foot Whole Foods store is planned, according to a letter sent to General Growth last week.

In all, there could be about 335 burials at the site, according to an estimate by Thomas Dye, president of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology.

"Archaeologists have searched for decades to find an undisturbed deposit like this in Kaka'ako," Dye said.

The Historic Preservation Division recommended against disturbing Native Hawaiian remains unearthed at the $150 million project, and it is requesting that the project be redesigned, according to a June 25 letter from Melanie Chinen, administrator of the state division.

A redesign would potentially cost millions of dollars for General Growth Properties in construction delays and changes.

General Growth senior vice president Dwight Yoshimura has said previously that the company is reviewing the state's redesign request.

Jenny Picket, a staff archaeologist for the Historic Preservation Division, also said one of the sites in the area could contain multiple burials due to the size of the burial pit there.

The O'ahu Burial Council approved a plan last fall to rebury 11 sets of remains at the site, but several members later said they might have voted differently if they had known of the additional burials.

"From a professional archaeologist's point of view, it never made sense to me how the decision could be made with no recognition that there are likely to be hundreds of burials at the site," Dye said.