- IJ
Sidestep: The Waiau Bar
Jim Eyles, whose family lived and farmed on the bar, discovered what has come to be described as the greatest archaeological find in New Zealand history described as “The birthplace of New Zealand” - well as far as traditional opinions go anyway. Wairau Bar has become the focus of scientific attention both here and abroad not only as the earliest settlement centre for New Zealand (maybe, perhaps, probably, say the scientists). But the artefacts reveal that.
A necklace of dolphin teeth found at Wairau Bar.
At Canterbury Museum, ethnologist Roger Fyfe identified one of only two clearly pre-European imports from the tropical Pacific to be found (the other being a black-lipped pearl fishing lure found on the Coromandel in 1964). Sitting in a museum drawer, item number 1871 in the Eyles collection, it is, says Fyfe, a direct link between Wairau Bar and east Polynesia, particularly the Society, Cook, Marquesas and Austral islands where similar tools have been found from the same time period as Wairau Bar.
In 1939, 13-year-old schoolboy Jim Eyles, whose family lived and farmed on the bar, discovered what has come to be described as the greatest archaeological find in New Zealand history. Searching for “Maori curios”, he came across an unexpected cavity in the ground. Using a piece of No 8 wire, he dug out what he first thought was a gourd but which proved to be a 20cm moa egg. Further digging unearthed bones – human and hollow moa bone “reels” – as well as a large necklace with a sperm whale tooth. Local interest was huge. The egg and necklace were put on public display in the window of Jim’s uncle’s fish and chip shop, and were transported each night in a Bycrofts biscuit tin back to the local bank for safekeeping. After much discussion, Eyles sold his findings to the Dominion Museum in Wellington.
While there have been some amazing artefacts recovered at Wairau Bar, such as the whale-tooth taonga above, the most valuable and meaningful discoveries at an archaeological dig are often subtle and not necessarily beautiful objects that you can hold in your hand.
This was the case with a discovery a team made in area #2 – something that had the archaeologists (quietly) excited. In an area of stones with pieces of adze lying on top they found a most unnatural line of darker soil, that intersects another one at a perfect right angle. This was the walls of an old house.
It’s not the easiest thing to show in a photo but is shown above. This is almost certainly a very rare find in New Zealand – the remains of an ancient structure. Only two others of this age have ever been found in New Zealand – one at Palliser Bay across the Cook Strait from us near Wellington, and the other at another site at the mouth of the Rakaia River, further down the east coast of the South Island.' Wood or other vegetation doesn’t tend to last very long when it’s buried, especially after 700-odd years, so what we are left with are faint traces in the ground of where the walls once were and where post holes were dug. This discovery also gives new meaning to the area where the pieces of adze were found nearby – the flat area of rocks they were on top of was deliberately put there, like cobble stones, to provide a working surface for a craftsman to make adzes – kind of a back porch in a way. It’s amazing to think that around 700 years ago, one of Wairau Bar’s residents sat down by his whare (house), on a “cobblestoned” area already worn smooth by the feet of himself and his whanau, and chipped away at making an adze, leaving the debris and an unfinished stone tool on top, which lay untouched and undisturbed for many centuries until we uncovered it. It’s exactly the kind of thing we had hoped to find – evidence of how these tupuna (ancestors) lived their day to day lives.
The Wairau bar site contained bones of moa and even bones of Haasts Eagle
When the first skull was dug up in the early days, the local iwi (Rangitane) said the remains had nothing to do with them. Of course now they claim the remains, but back some 100 years after Europeans arrived in the area, no local Maori knew these remains even existed.
I have found photo's of tops of skulls and other bones but nothing of the jaw line. We know early Polynesian arrivals (all of them), had a rocker jaw and I was curious to see no photos and even more surprisingly, no reference to the jaws in any documentation. This is odd because many other excavation reports I have read about excavations since the 1960's (and I have read a few) mention what I was expecting to find. However, that does not mean anything other than it was an interesting observation that the lack of it was glaringly apparent. This does not mean they were hiding anything and there is no need becuase these skeletons were surrounded by Polynesian artefcats.
OFFICIAL EXCAVATION:
The examination showed that the people were using the same cultural methods as those in eastern Polynesia, particularly the Marquesas Islands. Sixty-nine adzes were found at Wairau Bar, of which only three were made of greenstone. In 2009 a more modern analysis by Buckley found the skeletons had a wide range of estimated ages. None of the skeletons were from elderly people. The oldest was 39 and the second oldest was 36. Most of the skeletons were from people aged in their 20s. No children and only 1 teenager's skeleton was found. This is consistent with younger people being buried elsewhere, a practice that was quite common in the South Pacific. There was only one child's skeleton. The 21 skeletons with teeth all exhibited some developmental enamel disorders, showing they had suffered long stressful periods during childhood but survived to reasonably healthy adulthood.Tooth decay was rare, especially among males (a similar trait to neolithic people of the Americas (North American Indians). Many of the skeletons showed multiple signs of stress such as Harris lines (on X-rays of long bones such as the tibia) caused by either infection or a poor diet. (this would be typical of new arrivals learning to find the right foods initially) Tooth wear was substantial among older individuals, with teeth worn to the roots, but this did not seem to be due to bracken fern root chewing. All the adults showed healed bone fractures, indicating a well-balanced diet and a supportive community structure.
The later 2009–2010 study, using more precise modern methods, resulted in the site being more accurately dated by the radiocarbon method to 1288–1300 CE.
Buried with the skeletons were moa bone reel necklaces, whole moa eggs (used as water carriers), argillite adze heads, carved serpentine that looked like shark and whale teeth, harpoon heads and tattoo chisels. Few nephrite (jade or greenstone) artefacts were found. It is believed the site was primarily a factory for making stone adze heads. It has been estimated from the adze heads found and the large area of stone flakes that about 12,000 adze heads were made here or about 400 to 500 per year. Argillite,the most common adze head material is hard, compressed mudstone. It is found at D'Urville Island only 100 kilometres (62 mi) away from Wairau Bar. A Maori argillite quarry is located in the hills behind Nelson City. Such large numbers of adze heads have implications about trade in the early archaic period. One adze found in the 2009 study has been identified by archaeologist Richard Walter as Tahanga basalt from Tahanga Hill near Opito, a well known moahunter area. It was of quadrangular shape(known as Type 1), identical in design to those use in the Cook Island at the same time. Also found were chert from Kaikoura, which was commonly used for making holes, pumice from the volcanic plateau,which was used as floats and for making small handheld fire bowls and small amounts of greenstone from the West Coast which was made into two adze heads. This indicates that the Wairau Bar moa hunters travelled extensively through New Zealand exploring the land. Adze heads are associated with shaping wood, especially in the making of waka. The stone head was lashed to an L-shaped natural crook and swung so the blade struck the wood more or less horizontally.
An investigation by a team from Otago University found a huge stone-lined umu or hangi pit (earth oven) 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) deep by 4 metres (13 ft) across—estimated to be big enough to feed 1000 people by a local Maori familiar with modern hangi. However these large hangi or umu pits were identified in 1968 (in the Kermadecs) by Roger Duff, as being typical Polynesian umu ti. The purpose of the large pit was to cook the taproot of the ti plant. This was a common method of reducing the tuberous root to a sugary pulp. The ti can be cultivated easily but is slow growing. The root is about 900 millimetres (35 in) long by 90 millimetres (3.5 in) wide, to a point. It is cooked very slowly in an umu for 12 to 24 hours. The plant is usually associated with the far north of New Zealand but may have been grown further south during the warmer climatic period associated with early Polynesian settlement. Ageophysics study showed that it was only one of six such pits in a rough horseshoe shape on the edge of a lagoon. The study also showed the site to be much bigger than previously thought—at least 11 hectares (27 acres) and possibly larger as two boundaries have not been accurately plotted. At least 50 percent of the area was intact.
By 2007 only 2 percent of the site had been scientifically investigated. "Intact" skeletons (many minus the head) were found in four groups, with the oldest (1-7) being closer to the sea and at the western end of the site. These have been shown by DNA studies to be people who had lived in East Polynesia. The largest group of skeletons (15-43) were in an area to the east which covered an oval area 30 by 50 metres (98 by 164 ft). These people are believed to be moa hunters who lived their lives in New Zealand, based on bone and teeth DNA analysis. The main habitation area was central,about 25 to 50 metres (82 to 164 ft) from the southern lagoon edge. There were three zones of cooking and surface midden debris, all about 100 by 30 metres (328 by 98 ft) approximately. The earliest zone was alongside the lagoon and the latter on the ocean side of the island. At the time of the second occupation of the island, the second site was protected from the ocean by a long and narrow boulder bank. There are two adze-making sites—one adjacent to the early occupation zone and the second adjacent to the later burial site. The most intensely studied indicates a right handed person sitting in the porch area of a small whare. They sat in front of a flat stone on a path cobbled with small round rocks, chipping off flakes of argillite with a hammer stone of quartzite. The limited studies done so far indicate a sizeable village. It is apparent that bodies were commonly buried about 60 metres (200 ft) from the cooking and working zones.
After being used for cooking, each umu had subsequently been used as a midden. Bones from all five moa species located in the upper South Island were found. As well as the remains of numerous butchered moa,seals, porpoises, the extinct Haast's eagle, Eyles' harrier, New Zealand swan and New Zealand raven, kurī (Maori dogs), tuatara, kiore, shellfish such as pipi, paua, cockles, and marine bones from eels, skate, sunfish and sharks were found there. Anderson and Smith in their 1996 study stated that the first colonists enjoyed a sustained assault on the local megafauna. We know that - they killed off the moa eventually! A study of a turret shell artifact completed in 2011 shows a direct link between the Wairau Bar site and East Polynesia. This is only the second artifact found in New Zealand originating from East Polynesia dated to the early Polynesian colonial period.
Eventually all remains were returned for re-interment by Rangitane who looked more like Amazonian Hawaiians than Maori (which just purely on observation), and that seems really odd. Maori do not wear face paint in the manner of the Kayapo people of the Amazon. But that is just an observation.
