Sidestep: Fiordland
Not many artefacts are on record as having come from Fiordland on the far southwest coast of New Zealand. Due to the prolific growth of plant life, much of it is hidden and in reality few Maori ventured there, let alone existed there. Of course there is the old Pa at Preservation inlet, the stone man of Cavern Head, the tale of Maru of Indian Island in Dusky Bay at the time of Captain Cook and the discoveries on Resolution Island by Richard Henry when he cleared land to build there in 1894 as Curator of the island.
If one ventured there and cleared any land, my guess is they would find artefacts as this area has been occupied much longer than the current archaeological evidence suggests. However, none of that can be proved until more is found - if ever. There is the story of a white carved bird found 15 feet under the forest floor in Westland, but there is also firm no evidence of that either.
"The whole area of Fiordand is filled with numerous inlets and island within the Fiords. The environmental factors and dense vegetation make it difficult to locate both pre-historic and pro-historic sites" one report suggests. And this is correct. The area is immense, wild, wet and mysterious.
Dusky Sound has some sites of interest. Cascade Inlet, Indian Island, the bottom end of Long Island and a similar site on Cooper Island. But these old sites held little in the way of artefacts and any portions found were consistent with habitation being from 1750-1820. An excavation revealed a hut site on Long Island. The archaeologist who was there suggested that with Dusky being so remote, the environment so harsh and the resources so unreliable he doubted occupation could be anything but seasonal. Being 1968 this was an understandable conclusion, but still very ignorant as Mr Coutts viewed what he saw only with modern European eyes.
In Chalky Inlet, north of Preservation Inlet, several sites were found and excavated. One cave gave up several artefacts and they included: A piece of pottery, an iron nail, a gun flint and portion of the handle of a patu, a whalebone patu, a whalebone patu flick, portion of a wooden comb, part of an adze, a chisel, a fish- hook point, several wooden implements,hundreds of pieces of felt, Maori textiles, feathers, human and dog dung, skin, dog and seal fur, leather, wadding for muskets, whalebone and metal buttons, a musket ball, pieces of an iron axe, European textiles, a large piece of lead, wood, clay pipes and pottery. This site then had been occupied not long before European contact, most probably with sealers and whalers.
The most fascinating find was a small carved head. below is a sketch but no other such record of it can be found as yet. It's design is unlike classical Maori designs, and more matches the Okia Flat carving or the 'missing' head from Waitore. It is only about 8cm high.
The lips are raised but unformed and would look very much like the carving below from Dunedin and Taranaki
