ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND EARLY MAORI PA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 12

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND EARLY MAORI PA

"The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, January 22.

An almost totally buried Maori Pa, thought to be more than 800 years old, has been discovered by two Rotorua archaeologists on the heavily-wooded and little-explored hills surrounding Lake Okataina. This is the first evidence of prefleet occupation to be found in the Rotorua district and is probably one of the oldest and biggest archaeological sites yet discovered in the North Island.

The two men, both authorities on early Maori history, discovered the pa while on a systematic search of the rugged perimeter of the lake. They spent many days travelling around the lake in a boat investigating likely spots, mainly points of land projecting into the water.

After finding the pa the men completed their search of the lake edge. They found nothing else of significance except a very old red-ochre painting of a . moa’s head on a rock a few feet above water level on the opposite side of the lake from the pa. Only two other sites of pre-fleet occupation have been found in the North Island—one at Whakatane and one.at Coromandel. The former is the pa once occupied by Toi and Whatonga. . The archaeologists believe that the Lake Okataina site, which is of quite a different style from the others, may antedate Toi’s pa. which is generally regarded as the first Maori settlement in New Zealand. Excavation work on the other site, in a remote corner of the Coromandel Peninsula, was started recently by a group from Auckland University. The Rotorua men think the Coromandel discovery may possibly be only a camp site and not a settled village. Covering of Volcanic Ash Almost completely buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and decayed vegetation, the pa is more accurately described as a village built on a steep terraced hillside. On each terrace can be found a roW of storehouses butted two or

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The men base their estimate of the age of t the village on the amount of decayed vegetable deposit and the number and age of the trees thickly overgrowing the site. Many of the storehouse roofs are entwined with the great gnarled roots of pohutukawa trees hundreds of years old. In one place,’where part of the hill has fallen away, the volcanic ash layers of the Tarawera eruption of 1886 and the great Taupo eruption of A.D. 450 can be seen distinctly. Between these two, probably in the year 1150 or earlier, lies the layer of occupation. Carbon Dating Once the men excavate and find carbon samples—most likely charcoal from cooking fires—to send to Wellington for carbon dating at Victoria University, an accurate age can be given for the village. In the near future they will begin looking for an extensive series of rock paintings marked on an early survey map of Lake Okataina. The map is thought to be held by the Maori Affairs Department in Auckland. These paintings and the one already found were probably done by the occupants of the ancient buried village.

Authorities on Maori history say the great canoe fleet arrived in New Zealand from Polynesia in 135 Q. Most of the present-day Maoris are descended from the occupants of these canoes and the term "waka," or canoe, is still used as a division of the race. *Pre-fleet settlers, most of whom arrived in the Bay of Plenty, were pushed further and further inland by the more warlike new arrivals. Captain Cook found a remnant of 'an early pre-fleet race in Dusky Sound. Today only one tribe with a majority of pre-fleet blood remains. It is the Tuhoe tribe, who live in the remote Urewera hill country. Their blood is two-pre-fleet and one-third post-