- IJ
120: Dig Update
This was the third dig of January and was completed with 2 helpers. It took just over four hours and achieved much. It doesn't sound like much time really, but if you would like to know what it feels like, lift up a manhole cover and go into your streets storm-water drain and sit in there while tossing a ball from hand to hand for four hours - then you'll know! We did have music playing up at the head on this dig - just to help pass the time. All that was missing was a pizza delivery...
As we do not know the origin of the skeletons yet we do know they are not Polynesian and have named them Tūārangiroa as they are not the other ancient tribes that were recorded as normal stature, such as - Patupaiarehe, Turehu, Kiri-puwhero, Maruiwi ,Ngati-Hotu, Urukehu, Maoriori, Kiritea and others. We have coined the term Tūārangiroa (ancient tall ones) for our ones and the name is based on the old language not the modern one you find on the internet that doesn't provide context.
Inside Kūwaha Tāwhetaana, there are now much larger areas in which to turn around and we can see directly to the 3rd station which is the next task. Thereafter is roughly 7 meters of fill in a straight line, but we will need a total of five people each dig by the time we get that far. Kūwaha Tāwhetaana is what we named our tube in 2016, (using the old Maori language as recent as 1950, not the one you find on the internet dictionary) - it means 'writhing door'.
Below are three photos taken during this dig. The last one shows the enlargement of the area shown in the last 2 dig updates. You can see the tube floor where it's been scraped clean of dirt. You can see a rock level in the right-hand side bank which matches up with a little scooped area on the left. That's where the last two moa bones were found. At the grey clay lump below the bucket we can see all the way up the next length and we still have a little widening to do but only while waiting for dirt being transferred back from a digger up that straight. While those pulling sleds wait for the next load they enlarge the areas they sit in, it just makes sense. In all and including further back along the tube we took out about 3/4 of a ton (750kg) of dirt and rocks for disposal elsewhere.
While digging out the left-hand side of S2, just a little further in, we found the third moa leg bone just where we expected it to be. Once again the pick broke a tiny portion off but now all we are missing to complete the right leg, are toe bones. They will likely be in the brown area to the left of the grey clay lump in photo 3 that is not yet dug out. A photo of the bone (tarsometatarsus) is below.
And the story continues...
