175: An Ancient Occupation of Marlborough

And yes - by ancient we do mean 'pre-Maori'. While many will naturally frown at that statement and roll their eyes, we will give a brief glimpse of this article, enough to at least slap them in the face with some reality. Notwithstanding Julius Haast's find of an ancient adze and sharpener many feet underground with mature forest on top in Westland (https://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2016/03/10/32-origins-evidence), this story is an additional alternative.

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In 1894, a Joshua Rutland, shortly after settling in the Pelorus valley, was directed to a black horizontal seam in a perpendicular clay bank, formed by the encroachment of the Pelorus river on a small island at the head of the tide-way. The seam consisted of charcoal mixed with burnt stones and large mussel-shells, obviously a cooking location. So? There are thousands of these middens scattered over NZ many will say, some even go back as far as AD 1400. Yes, we know - but they do not have three feet of solid clay over them, over which again stood a large Matai tree more than three feet in diameter. Growth rates of naturally grown Matai are very slow with the fastest recorded growth rate being about 1mm annually. A 1.16 m (radius) tree would be well over 1000 years old. In cutting down old trees in the eighteen hundreds, annular rings showed that a Matai is four centuries old when three feet in diameter (JPS 1954). One of the few ancient trees still standing is Tane Mahuta which is 2500 years old so we'll be conservative and suggest that the Matai in this observation was at least 1500 years old... AND under that lay a solid clay base of 1 metre... (another 500+?). And still, below all of this was a human cooking fire. Have you opened your mind a little yet? That is factual provable range of 2000-2500 years old...UNDER which a midden revealing human occupation existed. There is more, but this needed to be stated first in case as a sceptic you got too bored. The Matai are not there any longer - but that seam still is...!

The Pelorus district is one that always fascinates us at tangatawhenua16. From it we have already presented the Melanesian stone eggs, the spiked stone club, the Simian amulet and amny other odd non-Maori items. This is on top of early reports of a different people in this area once.

In the 1850's the Pelorus District, including the shores of the Sound and the adjacent inland valleys, was. a tract of mountainous forest-clad country, within which a number of small artificial clearings had at some time been made. A few of these clearings were under cultivation, the remainder being over-grown with fern, scrub, and small trees. Along the shores of the Sound these abandoned cultivations, always near the water, were particularly conspicuous, the brown fern and bright-foliaged shrubs covering them, contrasting well with the darker green of the tall forest trees which everywhere on the land-side surrounded them like a wall. Apart from these, there was little else to indicate that the lonely reaches of water had ever been disturbed by man; the dense forest that filled the numerous valleys and clothed the hills from base to summit when examined internally or externally, having all the appearance of a primeval growth. This observation is key.... primeval growth!

But time has proved that Pelorus was not always as solitary as when Europeans began to settle on its shores; the depopulation to which the overgrown clearings testified was only a repetition of what had taken place at some remote period on a much larger scale. When Captain Cook entered Queen Charlotte Sound in 1770, and again in 1773, he remarked the Natives were subsisting exclusively on fern-root and fish, having no land in cultivation, though in the North Island he had observed considerable areas under crop. The Maori garden, till lately covered with a dense growth of Kohe-kohe (Dysoxylum spectabile), about six inches in diameter, and various shrubs corresponding exactly with the deserted clearings throughout the Sound, show that a revival of agriculture must have taken place early in the present, or towards the close of the 1700's. A result probably due to the introduction of potatoes. When the Nelson settlement was founded, whole sections of land in the Waimea were almost entirely worthless owing to the many large irregular-shaped pits, or "Maori holes" from which gravel had been taken by some former inhabitants, and spread over the adjacent ground five or six inches deep. At this point we want you to note there are thousands of these pits and no pa. That's right - no defensive pa. These were a different people than the fighting Polynesian immigrants.

About 1855, the destruction of the forest on the shores of the Pelorus Sound to create artificial pasturage was commenced, and has gone on uninterruptedly with constantly increasing activity. In addition to the destruction for farming purposes, several large sawmills have worked in the district. Nearly all the marketable timber was removed and some thousands of acres are now in grass or pine forests. This uncovering of the land has brought to light traces of human occupation wholly unexpected.

Scattered over the steep hillsides and on the small flats, pits, terraces, shell heaps, cooking places, sepulchral mounds, stone implements, and other relics have been discovered in numbers that testify as plainly to a large population as do the ruined cities in other lands. Of these remains, the pits, owing to their unmistakably artificial origin and their wide distribution were the first to attract attention, the names kumara pit and rifle pit being given them; some concluding they had been used for concealing food, others that they were defensive works; the large forest-trees growing in as well as around many of them being overlooked. Although many pits are found without terraces, and where none are required, and there are a few terraces in which no pit has been sunk, they are so commonly associated and so plainly portions of the same work they can be best described together. The pits, always rectangular in form and with perpendicular sides, are of two sorts single and double. The single pit being merely an excavation varying greatly in size, the largest measuring eighteen feet by ten, the smallest and least numerous only five feet square; the general depth is about four feet though some are much deeper. The double pit consisting of two single pits placed end to end in a straight line, and separated by a wall or solid block of ground two to four feet wide. These pits, sometimes solitary, sometimes grouped in regular order, always occupy elevated situations on sloping hillsides or on high flat topped points of land. Unlike the almost inaccessible pas on Motuara Island and elsewhere, described by Cook; all could be easily approached, while many were commanded by higher ground. On the sloping hillsides before a pit was sunk the ground was carefully levelled or terraced. The terraces being always much longer and about three feet wider than the pit, allowing between it and the bank at the rear a foot or so of level ground. The bank or wall, generally about three feet high, was always levelled at the top so as to form a narrow horizontal ledge, behind which the hill rose naturally.

In Kenepuru Sound, these type of details can be plainly made out. At the foot of the spur (Williams Rd) which separates two small valleys, on nearly level ground the series commence with a double pit, having a dividing wall four feet wide, this is followed by another double pit, the dividing wall only two feet wide. Above the pits where the ground begins to be steep, is crescent-shaped terrace sixty feet long and nine feet wide, on it there is no pit. The second terrace contains one large pit. The third cut straight across the spur as are those above it, contains a single pit; The fourth, a double pit with small compartments; Fifth, a single pit; and the sixth, about two hundred feet above sea-level, a single pit. In profile the spur has the appearance of a gigantic staircase. On the hill-sides East and West of the small valleys many pits, single and double are scattered, all similar in their construction to those upon the spur.... and no Pa.

At Moetapu Bay, on the Elephant Rock a low knoll standing out in the sea, there are four pits, in one of which the remains of wood-work were still discernible in 1898. From it we learn that the pit had been lined with the trunks of fern-trees set up perpendicularly. On the ledge at the top of the back wall there is the remains of a Totara slab in a very decayed state. To form the ledge, the large root of a birch tree had to be cut through; the stump of the tree rotted down level with the ground is still visible. These remains seem to indicate that the pit was in use within a comparatively recent period; but in another pit lower down an unusually large Matipo (Mysene Urvillea), an extremely slow-growing tree is standing. Beside this near the edge there is a full-grown Birch (Fagus Solandris) having its roots projecting over the margin, thus showing that it had grown since the pit was dug; indeed it is probable that all the trees now covering the knoll have sprung up since the place was abandoned.

When the McMahon's settled their holding, the land now cleared was covered with dense bush in which there were but few large timber trees. Amongst the pits and terraces Hinau and Towai (Weinmannia racemosa) trees are standing, many of the Hinaus being hollow. In Crail Bay a spur still uncleared is occupied by a group of pits, the largest being eighteen feet long by ten feet wide and eight feet deep, another close by measuring nine feet by eighteen. Some of the birch trees standing amongst these remains being ten feet (3 metres) in girth. Every part of the Sounds shows the same unmistakable evidence, that the forest has taken possession of land once occupied by man. There can be little doubt that the Maori were correct in saying that these ancient pits were dwelling-places, though how they were covered, or whether the horizontal ledge on the top of the back wall supported the roof, there is no means of ascertaining. For whatever purpose the pits and terraces were constructed, we can gather from them how the population was distributed, where they are, we may at least be sure the people existed. On Rangitoto, or D'Urville Island, the spurs are terraced to a great height.

Found on D'Urville Island

We already mentioned where Joshua Rutland found a black horizontal seam in a perpendicular clay bank, formed by the encroachment of the Pelorus river on a small island at the head of the tide-way. The seam consisted of charcoal mixed with burnt stones and large mussel-shells, the whole evidently the remains of a cooking place. From one of the shells the lime portion had almost disappeared, but the more durable horny cuticle was intact. Above this ancient cooking place there was about three feet of solid clay, over which again stood a large Matai tree (Podocarpus spicata) more than three feet in diameter. Between the time when the fire was lighted and the discovery of the remains thirty-three years ago, the clay must have accumulated and the Matai sprung into existence, but more than that, the narrow channel separating the island from the mainland must have been still narrower, or probably it was not the bed of the Pelorus when the old inhabitants cooked their food. It could be plainly seen when the seam of charcoal attracted attention, that the island had been a point of land severed from the mainland by the river working its way into a stream that drained a small gully a little to the westward. The wide shallow channel on the south side of the island, now only carrying water in flood-time is plainly the old Pelorus bed. This was the first indication that the district had been inhabited longer than was commonly supposed. Subsequently the washing away of the clay bank continuing, exposed the burnt earth and stones of a kapa (or oven) three meters below the surface of the island, showing that at some period a filling up or raising of the land had taken place; and that men had occupied the spot occasionally or regularly during the time. (1)

The second discovery was made on his own property, Te Patoa. Carrying a line of fencing through the bush, the large root of a Matai had to be cut through in order to sink a post-hole, near the bottom of the hole, two feet deep, burnt stones and earth, the remains of a kapa, were found; the position of the tree showing it had grown since the oven was in use. (2)

Everywhere throughout the district these cooking places have been unearthed under similar circumstances along with numerous artifact finds. Many middens contained bones of moa, fishes, rats and dogs, but no human remains - so no cannibal feasts then. The most positive evidence yet obtained that the Pelorus Valley was inhabited prior to the growth of the present generation of forest trees (1000-2500 years old in 1890) was the discovery of a stone implement found when digging out the stump of a Matai tree, about three feet in diameter, they found embedded in the under portion of the wood a chisel-shaped tool. This implement of grey chert, nine inches long, two and a half inches wide, and one and a half inches thick, is well polished and had been used, the edge being notched, but not broken beyond re-sharpening. Just as stones are frequently embedded in the roots of trees through the wood growing round them, this interesting relic of some long-forgotten individual was entombed. Some time previous to this discovery a very rude implement, merely a long round water-worn stone having a four-sided point at one end, was dug out from beneath a Matai stump over four feet through (2000-3000 years old). These discoveries made upon adjoining blocks of land, both belonging to a remote period in the history of the district, are important. They warn us against concluding that the very rough unpolished tools found everywhere are the remains of a ruder people than the later inhabitants—they may have been merely made for work that did not require a more finished implement.

Some are made of a white close-grained quartz. One of these is a large adze highly finished and peculiarly shaped, of the others chisels, one is well polished, the second incomplete. More than a dozen kinds of stone were used in the manufacture of ornaments, weapons, and tools. Of these, greenstone, obsidian, pumice, and diorite were brought in from elsewhere. Yes, even pounamu over 30cm below the surface of the ground, where heavy bush was standing thirty years ago. Near the coast a greater number of these articles are discovered than inland, most being found where large trees were till lately standing. An unfinished mere, made of Mica Schist was found (MoriOri made schist patu), being fifteen inches long, five and a half wide, and one inch through in its thickest part. The blade, sharp on one side and thick on the other, is rounded at the end. This was found at Admiralty Bay. Others of coarse sandstone. A few items discovered show that the inhabitants of the Pelorus were as forward in the art of carving as any New Zealand tribe.

1n the 1860's a statuette four inches high, of a red material resembling hard pottery, was dug up in a burying-ground at the head of Mahakipaoa Bay. This was subsequently lost. Not far from the burying-ground a small head of a soft dark stone was found and is still preserved. The face fairly executed is more Simian than human... similar to the item we have shown before from the Clarence River (Marlborough of course). A greenstone kuru or ear ornament intended to represent some animal, but the species is not easily determined. Another kuru resembling a fish, and another long thein one was made of brown slate. Generally the greenstone implements and artifacts found in and around Pelorus are poor examples of what the Maori could produce for their skills with stone were far improved from the ancients in Marlborough; generally speaking. There are also a few huge stone implements been found in Pelorus.

In 1893 some mounds or heaps of clay, supposed to be graves, were found. Some dug them up looking for evidence of skulls; for that would have shown the type or race the ancient people were. However, the mound contained nothing but a quantity of ashes and charcoal, evidently the remains of a large fire, over which the clay had been heaped. A careful examination showed that the mound, consisting of clay mixed with small fragments of the mica schist of which the hill is composed, rested on a layer of ashes and charcoal. This was all contained in a dug out pit in which a very large fire was made. When it had burned down or gone out, clay taken from the hole at the rear was heaped over the ashes without being intermingled with them. The mounds were certainly not cooking-places, and such an amount of labour would not have been expended merely to cover up the remains of an ordinary fire, the conclusion was that the mounds were monuments raised over the ashes of persons who had been cremated on the spot. But the ashes failed to prove human remains existed within them. The Ngati-apa tribe, North Island, cremated their dead this way - "When a member of the tribe died, a place was selected in some secluded spot, and, a large quantity of fuel having been prepared during the day, a fire was lighted as soon as night fell, so that the smoke should not be seen, and when well under way the corpse was placed on it. All kinds of fat, including that of the porpoise when procurable, was added to increase the heat. The greatest care was taken to secure a perfect incineration of the body, and that every bit of the wood, even, should be completely consumed.”

Cremation had formerly been frequently practised by the Maoris, to prevent the bones of their people being carried away and converted into fish-hooks by their enemies. When the custom was in vogue, after the body had been laid on the funeral pile the nearest relative applied the fire. After the fire was lighted if the smoke began to scatter it was regarded as an ill-omen, or that death would soon claim another victim. If, on the contrary, the smoke ascended it was a good omen, the friends standing round calling out, “Mahaki-paoa! Mahaki-paoa!” piled on more fuel. When the mounds were raised, desecration of their graves, as remarked by Mr. Campbell, could not have been dreaded by the inhabitants of the Pelorus. It seems, therefore, inconsistent to suppose that the fat, fish, etc, fund in the ashes, was merely thrown in to increase the heat of the fire in order that the bones of the corpse as well as the flesh might be consumed. Their presence in the ashes proves that they could not have been added until the fire was nearly, or quite extinguished. Probably they were votive offerings, and the complete reduction of the body to ashes may have had a religious meaning. Why a people who practised cremation selected steep hillsides for burial places, can only be explained by their mode of life. Maybe that after death occupy a position similar in some respects to the position they occupied during life. The pits and terraces scattered over the hill-sides and on elevated points of land not chosen for concealment or defence, and the mounds so similarly situated, there can be little doubt are of the same people. Maoris in the ear were well aware that cremation had formerly been practised in the country, yuet not one knew anything of the mounds; further proof they were pre-Maori. There was also a large piles of stones in which was a decayed human skeleton found at Taradale. Another was found where the body had been interred in a squatting position or reclining with the lower limbs folded against the breast. At Beatrix Bay the remains of a hollow tree contain many human bones. On Rangitoto Island many human bones are buried in the sand; these they consider the remains of a former race, as the Maoris never inter so carelessly. That the Pelorus Valley was occasionally frequented at an early period is sufficiently proved by the stone implements and cooking places discovered. There is also the matter of the place name Taituku, further up the Pelorus River.

The original article presenting the above was not been obtained from one individual, or at one time, but little by little, only one item resting on a single statement. The district called the County of Sounds (in the 1880's), including Rangitoto and Arapaoa Islands was originally inhabited by a small dark-complexioned Maori-speaking people, who were very numerous, peaceable, and industrious. Being agriculturists they kept large areas of land in cultivation, but as seamen they displayed little ability, constructing only small canoes. These canoes when not in use were dragged by means of ropes up the hills, where the population generally resided; the numerous pits scattered along the shores of the Sounds and on the islands, being the remains of their habitations. They were well acquainted with the Moa. Upon this peaceful population the ancestors of the modern Maoris descended from the north in their large canoes; having only to encounter an unwarlike people, they destroyed all before them. A few of the inhabitants were enslaved, their descendants being still pointed out amongst the Pelorus Natives. One family in particular, the Pokiki, is said to be a remnant of the old race. In 1894, the only individuals bearing the name with whom Joshua Rutland was acquainted, certainly correspond with the traditional descriptions of the old natives, being shorter of stature and darker-complexioned than the Maoris, generally differing from them also in features. From the ancient inhabitants the Maoris obtained a knowledge of the greenstone, and how to work it, besides other useful arts in which they were farther advanced than their conquerors.

The preservation of the name 'Taituku', and the legend attached to it, necessarily implies that this locality or district has been continuously inhabited since the name was bestowed; had the place been deserted for any length of time after the valley assumed its present character, the name would have inevitably been lost. On the other hand, the re-growth of the forest along the shores of the Sound points to depopulation. Between the revival of agriculture when the over-grown Maori gardens were cleared and the days of the Pit-dwellers, there was an interval of centuries, during which the Sound could only have been inhabited by people subsisting on the natural productions of the district. What seems most probable is that a small remnant of the ancient population escaped destruction by concealment, and that thus their names and traditions have been handed down. The strange but persistently repeated story of the little canoes that were hauled up the hills, may relate to the unhappy times when the unfortunate survivors lived like hunted animals, surrounded by the ruins and memories of their once-peaceful homes.

1. Long before the discovery of Moa bones in the Middens of the Sound, Mr S. Swanwick of Picton mentioned that while working on the Otago goldfields in 1862 he assisted at the sinking of a shaft on the bank of the Manuherekia river, close to where it joins the Clutha. During the work of sinking, about ten feet below the surface of the ground, a funnel-shaped Maori Kapa, lined with much-burnt river boulders, was cut through. Within the Kapa were some charcoal and ashes, also two large Moa thigh-bones having the ends much charred, Round the Kapa there was a quantity of burnt earth, showing that it had long been in use. Before the sinking of the shaft commenced there was nothing to indicate that the ground had been disturbed; the surface of the claim being level with the plain that stretched away to the Dunstan township.

2. In the Pelorus Valley the preparation of forest land for the plough is not commenced until the trees have been felled and burned fifteen or twenty years, when all the timber has disappeared except the Matai stumps, which have to be dug out. This is why so many stone implements have been found beneath these trees, entangled in the roots. If you think people weren't here long before Maori after reading this, I would wonder if even seeing 8' skeletons would convince you.

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This below artifact that we've shown before came out of the beach at Okiwi. It's obviously man-made but may have had its original form come from an unusual ecofact. It is not made by Maori and is much older and leans toward at least some Melanesian form of spiked club design.

The one below came out of a bank and into a river. It seemed so odd and the handle so awkward to be a club that is just had to be an ecofact, not an artifact. And yet the one above is clearly an artifact. Yet when holding the one below the fingers so naturally grip the shaft as if made that way... and indeed the indentations when you hold it are perfect. The whole hand fits as if it is meant to. Surely not? We are careful not to name ecofcats as artifacts and it's so old it would have to belong to a people around long before Polynesians arrived here, long before 800AD. And the only ancient ones are an 8' race. We know this because we have a partial femur belonging to a 8' individual.

But we think it is likely an ecofact and then possibly chipped away to produce a better grip and head point for a chisel hammer maybe? The third pic shows definite signs of wear. It's not a weapon... not this one! It was found near a perfectly formed classical adze so it couldn't be man-made, and yet we know Maori inhabited many spots the pre inhabitants lived for the reason the locations were perfect; for food, defence or water sources. Observing the perfect fit of a large hand, and the marks where this was hit against another object to the point there are smooth sections upon it, this implement is actually a hammer stone and not an ecofact as we first suggested. Yet this implement did not come from Marlborough, it came from Waikato, near where the legendary tall ones lived. That would make it too small for a large hand (or would it?) So we gave to someone with large hands to try out and asking them that if it was an ancient implement, how would their hand suggest it was used?

There is an obvious way to hold it and it is balanced perfectly when doing so, not as a weapon, but as a hammer (a striking implement for a chisel maybe). And as we said right where the striking portion would be using the perfect hand grip there are signs of smooth wear. Amazing, but still not in any way a finite proof of anything.