144: Deep Underground

The finding of Stone Implements Dozens of Feet below the Surface points back Thousands of Years.

We have presented artifacts from time to time that have no known equal anywhere, and certainly not in NZ. And these items we have presented were found; not in the top soil layer where they could have been dropped in the last 700 years, but deep underground as far back as the volcanic layers from the Taupo eruption of 1800 years ago known as the Hatepe eruption (not sure why it's given a Maori name when Maori weren't here during that eruption).

Here are some examples of pre-Polynesian artifacts or evidence found well under the upper layers of ground. Some of this comes from old newspaper articles and journals from the 1800's.

Otago:

A surer sign of great antiquity for the human occupation of New Zealand, and so of Polynesia, is the discovery of cooking ovens and stone implements far below the present level of the soil. On the Manuherika plains a Maori oven was found some fourteen feet below the surface. The slow accumulation of alluvium, wind-blown soil and humus on such high plateaus forces us to place the age of this back into the thousands of years.

Westland:

But the most careful and scientific description of the find of a stone implement deep in the soil is that given by Sir Julius von Haast of a partially finished chert adze and its sandstone sharpener, found by a party of gold-miners in Bruce Bay, in the south of Westland, a few days before he arrived on the spot in the year 1868. They were lying on a floor of pebble-studded clay, and more than fourteen feet of strata of humus, sand and shingle had to be cut through before this was reached. Totara trees four feet in diameter had to be felled before the surface could be broken; there were also huge trunks that had lain prostrate for generations, and moss-grown moulds of others that had decayed centuries before. The place was 500 feet above high-water mark, with the usual three belts of driftwood sand without vegetation, rush-and-manuka-covered sand, and low scrub. It had clearly passed through these three stages, and its foot of humus must have taken many generations, if not centuries, of herbage to form before the forest giants could root themselves in it. The various accumulations and the ancient growth of the forest belt take us back undoubtedly several thousand years, and even then we have a neolithic race that polished its weapons and had spread so far west and south towards the long uninhabited sounds.

Thus traditions, genealogies, and relics all point to human occupation long anterior to the arrival of the six canoes, if not to a time thousands of years before the beginning of our era. And New Zealand is the only corner of Polynesia that has had its surface stirred by active European colonisation. The other groups have had no cuttings for railways or roads, the usual road of the modern sort being only on the margin of the sea round each island. Nor has mining of any sort disturbed their quaternary deposits. New Zealand, therefore, is the only part that has supplied us with relics of ancient human occupation as yet.

Tauranga:

The bowl. Found about 6-8ft under the surface of a bracken covered slope. It has no equal anywhere in the world but reeks of connection to Peru, Chile or even Equador.

Tauranga:

The bow. Found embedded about 4-5' underground on a bed of sandy clay.bed of sandy clay, the surface of which was apparently undisturbed and virgin. It's style is almost identical to traditional old Melanesian bows.

Waikato:

The Korotangi. A metal tooled serpentine bird found in the roots of an upturned tree. Finally claimed by Tainui as a legendary duck that turned to stone but is not Polynesian in any shape or form but is Philippines in it's general design.

Marlborough:

The stone eggs found in Pelorus sound hidden in an old hollow tree. These were regarded, by the local Maori guide, to be tawhito and not of his people but belonging those here before they arrived. These stones are common in Melanesia.

Mauku (Auckland)

The wooden 'spear' found 16' (4.8 metres) under the surface in a small hamlet in southwest Auckland. Here's the link - http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2019/04/12/-Maukus-Ancient-Weapon

There is much more but these are sufficient for now. Just noting they were all buried or hidden where they were found. It's amazing how many artifacts are found in tree roots... not just ordinary artifacts, but unusual ones as if they were buried and then a tree planted.