Archaeology is the study of earlier peoples through the cultural materials (artefacts) and other signs of habitation they have left behind them. It is a relatively new science in New Zealand, having evolved from the activities of historians, museum anthropologists, students of Maori lore, and private “fossickers” and collectors of artefacts. The museums in the main centres were the first to conduct extensive archaeological investigations, followed later by the departments of anthropology in the Auckland and Otago Universities. The few professional archaeologists in New Zealand today are employed by these institutions. In 1955 the Archaeological Association of New Zealand was formed, with the aims of coordinating archaeological research in New Zealand, keeping members informed of progress in other areas, and promoting public interest and understanding.
Early theories of New Zealand's pre-history owed as much to the study of Maori tradition as they did to archaeological techniques. Interest arose in the mid-nineteenth century by the discovery of moa bones in association with human remains. Many sites were investigated (rather haphazardly from the modern point of view) and several theories of the association of moa and man put forward. Sir Julius von Haast believed that the moas were exterminated by a race of people whom he called the “Moa-hunters” and who long preceded the Maori. His opponents held that the moa hunters were identical with the Maori, and that their remains did not predate the arrival of the Great Fleet of 1350 (this date being derived solely from traditional evidence). Early in this century Elsdon Best and S. Percy Smith suggested that the moa hunters were of Melanesian origin, but this theory was discredited in the 1920s and 1930s.
Archaeological evidence of the first Polynesians to arrive in New Zealand is very meagre, but most authorities agree that they landed some time between A.D. 500 and 1000 (some believe they arrived even before A.D. 500). As to their origin, the study of adze types strongly suggests the Society Group of islands as the Hawaiki (or homeland) of the New Zealand Maori, and South-east Asia as the original home of the Polynesians. (This theory is supported by traditional evidence and by language similarities.)
These first New Zealanders are called moa-hunters by archaeologists because of their association with this bird. (The term “Archaic” is used in some accounts.) They hunted the moa for food and used its bones to make some of their tools and ornaments. Moa eggshells were placed in ceremonial burials. These people were apparently peaceful, for no weapons belonging to them have yet been found. Most sites of the moa-hunter period so far discovered are situated on the coast, usually near a river mouth. Such sites occur at Opito (Coromandel), Waingongoro (South Taranaki), Paremata (Wellington), Wairau Bar and Kaikoura (Marlborough), Hurunui, Redcliffs, and Rakaia (Canterbury), Waitaki, Awamoa, Shag River, Murdering Beach, Pounawea, and Papatowai (Otago), and on Stewart Island. Some inland sites are also known (e.g., Hawkesburn, in Central Otago). Although concentrated along the east coast of the South Island, moa-hunter sites are more widespread than is generally realised; the above is not a complete list and more sites are being discovered and investigated each year.
With the virtual extinction of the moa about A.D. 1500, the moa hunter camps were abandoned, the occupants apparently turning to a fishing economy (judging from the increase in fish and shellfish remains found in their middens, or refuse heaps). This period, provisionally termed “Intermediate”, is complex and little understood. In some localities moa-hunter artefacts occur with moa bones; in others the artefacts are of moa-hunter type, but moa bones are absent, or there is a distinct break between typical moa-hunter and classic Maori occupations.
The classic Maori culture was that encountered by the early explorers and the first settlers. From the archaeologist's point of view it is characterised by large earthwork fortifications (pa), by tools and ornaments differing from those of the moa-hunters, and by the development of wood carving. All these cultures (moa hunter, “Intermediate”, and Classic Maori) are, however, generally considered to belong to the one people, the Maori.
The first Europeans to arrive in New Zealand have left their mark in the archaeological record; trading beads, crockery, mirrors, nails, and pieces of iron turn up quite often in late Maori occupation layers. The period of late intertribal and Maori-European warfare is also of interest to archaeologists; “gunfighting pa” occur in several areas, e.g., Te Kooti's Te Porere pa (National Park). It is here that archaeology and history meet.
Several categories of site are recognised by archaeologists. They may occur either separately or together; close proximity, however, does not necessarily indicate an association in the past, for each site may have been used at a different time.
Pa “fortified villages” are usually built in places already well provided with natural defences: on hilltops, cliff edges and headlands, oxbow river bends, etc., with defensive earthworks (ditches and/or banks) across any accessible entrance. Wooden palisades usually surmounted the earthworks, but are now represented only by post holes and occasional pieces of charred or rotted wood. The area inside the defences is usually terraced, and often contains pits, working floors, ovens, and middens (though these can also occur separately).
Pits vary greatly in shape and size, but the majority are rectangular and between 5 and 20 ft long. Some were used for storage, while others appear to have been house sites, but the exact function of the majority is still a subject of controversy.
Working floors are areas where the Maori manufactured tools and ornaments of stone, bone, or wood. Worked flakes of these materials, together with finished and broken artefacts, may occur in great abundance.
Middens–“refuse heaps” of shells and/or bones are common indicators of Maori occupation, especially in coastal sandhills.
Ovens, or hangi, are usually a few feet in diameter, containing shell or bone, together with charcoal and burnt oven stones.
Terraced habitation sites occur widely throughout New Zealand. Some are heavily fortified, while in others the terrace scarps provide the only protection. Agricultural terraces are also widespread. They vary considerably in size, but are usually more extensive and less regular than habitation terraces, and are often marked by the presence of a man-made gravel layer in the soil.
Caves, or rock shelters, often contain abundant evidence of habitation (middens, ovens, artefacts), of burials, and of artistic activity (rock paintings and carvings). Many rock shelters containing Maori art occur in South Canterbury. The drawings, executed in black, red, or yellow (or a combination of these), are stylised representations of men, animals, and everyday objects (spears, canoes, etc.). No reliable traditions concerning the drawings have been recorded; our understanding of them will depend on their artistic analysis, and on archaeological excavations of the shelters.
Quarries, the source of stone artefacts, occur only where the rock has desirable working qualities. Roughly shaped artefacts, flakes, and stone “anvils” and “hammers” may still be present.
Stone structures–walls, rows, and heaps–were usually formed when land was cleared for agriculture. Stones were also occasionally used in pa defences.
Swamps seem to have been used as storage places for precious wood carvings, either to cure and season them or to hide them in time of war.
Recording: Information about a site can be gained from local residents, particularly those with an interest in Maori history, from examination of aerial photographs, or from actual field work (often all three methods are used, in this order). In the field a detailed survey is made of the surface features of the site, using a map, tape measure, theodolite, camera, compass, and so on. The locality of the site, its type (hilltop pa, headland pa, island pa, etc.), main dimensions, proximity and relationship to other sites, the state of preservation and possibility of further damage, are all noted. If possible, the Maori name of the area and any historical references to it are obtained, together with a record of any artefact collections made from there.
Field recording is being done by small groups throughout the country. All the information collected is kept in regional files, with a duplicate set in a central file in Wellington.
Excavations are carried out on relatively few sites, due to the limited time, labour, and money available to the New Zealand archaeologist. The usual practice is to excavate 10-ft squares of ground, leaving a baulk of earth between each to act as a record of the stratigraphy (i.e., the positions and relationships) of the layers removed from the squares. Material inside the square is removed very carefully layer by layer, often a fraction of an inch at a time. The characteristics and contents of each layer are recorded in a field notebook, sketch plans are constantly drawn, and samples of important materials (bone, shell, charcoal, stone, pumice, etc.) are kept for further, and more careful identification and analysis.
“Emergency” excavations are sometimes necessary. Most sites are slowly being destroyed; banks, walls, ditches, pits, and canals are being levelled through natural processes of erosion, and earth structures and soil layers are being disturbed by tree-root penetration. Man, however, is the most destructive agent of all. In many places in New Zealand he has used shell middens for surfacing roads; in the Auckland area he has quarried into fortified volcanic cones, and in the South Island the hydro-electric development of the upper Waitaki River has flooded caves containing rock paintings. Road construction and house-building activities uncover and destroy countless sites throughout the country. The farmer discs and ploughs burial grounds, pa, working floors, etc., obliterating all stratification. When, however, such a threatened site is heard about in time, a salvage excavation is usually made to obtain as much information as possible before the site is finally lost. In Auckland, in particular, there is some concern over the amount of destruction occurring; a 1962 survey showed that of 267 recorded sites in the area, 204 were so badly destroyed that further investigations would not be worth while.
Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal, wood, shell, and bone is becoming increasingly valuable in dating New Zealand's pre-history. The method is still being perfected, but important results have already been obtained, notably the discovery that the country was settled by the Maori prior to the legendary Great Fleet of 1350, and that there was a large population between A.D. 1000 and 1200 in several areas. Dates ranging between approx. A.D. 1140 and 1640 have been obtained from Pounawea, South Otago, indicating that the site was occupied either continuously or periodically for 500 years. Other southern sites show a similar range of occupation, e.g., Papatowai, 1185–1640; Hawkesburn, 1350–1540. A date of approximately A.D. 1100 has been obtained from the Wairau Bar site. Motutapu Island (Auckland Harbour) has yielded dates of A.D. 1208 and 1768, showing that it was occupied during the important but little-understood “Intermediate” phase of culture.
With so much activity in New Zealand archaeology, it is impossible to single out and describe a few examples. Most of the research is described in the publications listed below, to which the interested reader is referred.
by Lawrence James Paul, B.SC., Fisheries Division, Marine Department, Wellington.