Sidestep: Kohika
Kohika is a swamp pa near the Tarawera River and on its flood plain. It is set back from the coast, centred on a remnant of the sand ridge left by an earlier coastline. The present-day site is near to a small lake, and the site may well have been completely surrounded by water when it was occupied. Excavation revealed that the site had been occupied for some period of time, with three succeeding house floor levels in the built-up part. The site was used for a period around the late 17th century. Use of the site seems to have ceased following a massive flood that infilled the lake at the periphery of the site.
The wooden material found at this site included bird spears (a bone point was also found), ko (digging stick), a ko footrest, a spade, weeding sticks, detachable spade blades, fernroot beaters, bowls, paddles, a steering paddle, canoe hull parts and fittings, net gages, tops, adze and chisel handles, fibre-working tools, a ladder, wedges, lashing vines, and javelins. No short or long clubs were found. The javelins are the only potential weapons in the assemblage.
Other artefacts recovered from the site include a bone tiki, cordage, woven matting, two nephrite adzes, a nephrite chisel and two nephrite pendants, a drilled human tooth, a bone toggle, fishing gear, needles, a bone awl, a bone chisel, pumice containers, and a pumice kumara god.
Then there is this.....! This was found at Kohika. Little is known about this amazing artefact, there is no available written record of it that we can find, and this is the only photo available at present. But you know us..we will find more eventually.
