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Cross section of moa hunter site; CTNN13

Cross section of moa hunter site, CTNN13
FromOwaka Museum : Wahi Kahuika the Meeting Place – a rest on your journey.
Name/Title
Cross section of moa hunter site
About this object
Les Lockerbie was the Education Officer at the Otago Museum in Dunedin from 1947-1976. During the 1950s he made the first full- scale survey of a moa hunter camp at Manuka Point in the Catlins. He put together this small cross section of the archaeological site.

Manuka Point is the only completely dated moa hunter camp site. The waters of the Catlins and Owaka Rivers and the action of the sea have now whittled away this small peninsula area.

Les Lockerbie also carried out archaeological digs in the Catlins at Papatowai, Kings Rock, Cannibal Bay, False Island, Manuka Island and Hina Hina.

Les Lockerbie was brought up at MacLennan in the Catlins and made a major contribution to our understanding of the early Maori life in the area.
Object Type
Model
Object number
CTNN13

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Results from DigitalNZ

The Waimate district of South Canterbury has in the past produced some very fine examples of Moa-hunter and Recent Maori adze types. Being in reasonably close proximity to the known Moa-hunter river mouth sites of Waitaki, Waihao and Pareora, and the recent Maori seasonal birding camp at Waimate, it is reasonable to suggest that these early peoples made inland trips in quest of food, using various routes into the hinterland. One such route must have been through the Waimate Gorge, a narrow pass four miles in length, cutting through the Hunter Hills and opening on to gently undulating country within easy access of the south-west into the Waitaki Valley, and the north-west into the Mackenzie Country. Herries Beattie makes a reference to this gorge in his book Maori Placenames of Canterbury . He says,. Prior to this paragraph he says: “Through the Waimate gorge at Arno the hills to the right are Te Aruhe (the fernroot).” 2. The implement is of rounded cross section and has been completely hammer dressed into shape from the original stone. It is long and slender with three evenly spaced ridges on the butt for lashing purposes. This lashing grip is slightly pointed—the culmination of four straight margins which run the length of the tool forming the rounded sides. These sides taper to form a slightly curved cutting edge, quite blunt, narrow, and unchipped. An interesting feature is a raised margin at the heel of the bevel. A good portion of this bevel and cutting edge shows extensive friction polish, possibly created through use as a digging implement in soft earth.
Shorter Communications: Two Similar Implements From Waimate (Journal of the Polynesian Society)
The University of Auckland Library
TYPICAL archaeological sites in New Zealand are not necessarily shallow and unstratified. Although numerous unstratified deposits of little depth exist, evidence from Otago sites fails to support a generalisation such as that of Duff (4 p. 75) who states: “Although the oldest recorded, the site (Wairau) is typical of New Zealand in the shallowness of the deposit and the absence of stratification”. It also fails to support the conclusions of Dawson and Yaldwyn (1 p. 290) who state that “nothing more can readily be derived from a study of the deposit levels exposed in a cross section of the site (Long Beach, Otago) and we would conclude this account by echoing the words of Roger Duff (1949) as he points out: ‘with a time framework of one thousand years or so an occupation layer of the first two centuries need look no older nor be bedded deeper than one dating from the two centuries immediately preceding European settlement. Stratification virtually does not exist’. This conclusion surprisingly follows an attempt to date the Long Beach burials by stratigraphical evidence 1 . That stratigraphy may present problems of interpretation is to be expected, and the excavator should not always be impatient to interpret in a matter of moments, that which may have taken a thousand years or more to accumulate. Least of all should evidence of stratigraphy be rejected as unimportant because it conflicts with present plausible explanation, or theory. However since the immediate purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the presence of depth and stratification in some Otago sites, discussion of the importance of stratigraphical record, and problems of interpretation need not be pursued further. PAPATOWAI (fig. 1). Teviotdale (7), in his report of excavations carried out on this moa-hunter camp site, records (p. 138) a stratified deposit seven feet in depth. Of the typical section illustrated, he writes (p. 137): “moa-bone occurred in all layers, including two large pelves in...
Stratification In Otago Archaeological Sites (Journal of the Polynesian Society)
The University of Auckland Library
Age of Type 3. In Murihiku the type of point represented in Figs. 35, 38, 39, 40 is found, though rarely, in moa -hunter deposits. It is exceedingly common in surface deposits. In Otago Museum about 600 perfect localized specimens are on exhibition and several times that number, mostly imperfect, are in store. In the North island it seems to be rather uncommon. No similar points from other parts of Polynesia are on record. However, points with very similar barb-ends, though with quite dissimilar bases, appear on bonito hooks in a good many Polynesian groups, and many one-piece hooks in hone and shell from widely separated points in Polynesia have very similar barbs. This is true also of Micronesia. No related forms are at present known from the Solomons. The British Museum Handbook 3 shows a composite hook from the American N.W. Coast which closely resembles Type 3 both in shank and point. It seems fair to conclude that Type 3 is as old as any type in Polynesia; that it was not common in antiquity; and that in Murihiku it boomed in recent times. Variety B, bone shanks. It is not known why stone shanks went out of fashion, but it may be conjectured that their weight made them difficult to handle. Bone was substituted, and in the North island this material was used until European times for shanks of hooks derived from this type—the interesting variety apparently limited to the East Cape area and often figured. 7 Moa -hunter sites in Murihiku have provided a number of shanks made of moa -bone, exemplified by Fig. 47. Moa -bone is never thick enough to provide a triangular cross-section, and the perforation therefore becomes dorso-ventral. It would appear that when once this shape had been established in bone it was copied in stone. Fig. 48 is an example of this variety made of inferior nephrite, and the Otago Museum has a second, closely similar, example. The shape of points used with these two varieties of shanks calls for discussion. The unbarbed point with two...
A Classification Of The Fish-hooks Of Murihiku (Journal of the Polynesian Society)
The University of Auckland Library
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