IMPORTANT EXCAVATIONS OF CAVES NEAR WAITAKI

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 16

IMPORTANT EXCAVATIONS OF CAVES NEAR WAITAKI

Exoavations of cave shelters believM to have been used by Maori travellers as temporary stops have unearthed a natural red ochre crayon deliberately shaped for art work. Dr. Roger Duff, director of the Canterbury Museum, who supervised excavations in the area at the request of the secretary of the National Historic Places Trust (Mr John Pascoe), said this yesterday when he was interviewed in Christchurch on the success of the excavations which began on Januaxy 7 and ended on January 19. “A chief result of the expedition, to record rock cave drawings before the Waitaki Gorge is flooded tor the Benmore project, was the recovery of a deliberately shaped crayon of natural red ochre which explains for the first time how the red was obtained for drawings," said Dr. Duff. “There have been many imaginative theories about this, including the mixing of red ochre powder with fish or bird oil to produce a paint which was applied with a brush made of bird feathers,” he said. When asked if he could estimate the age of the ■ brick-hard crayon found two inches below the floor of the shelter near Shepherd’s creek, Dr. Duff said: “The age of South Island rock drawings generally is still not established, but the art style appears to represent a connexion with full development of Maori art as reached in the North Island at the time of Captain Cook’s visits.” Further Exploration The need for further exploration was the outstanding impression the excavation party gained, he said. Two Auckland students, Mr F. Davis and Mr W. Ambrose, and Mr Ambrose’s wife, remained on the sites in the Waitaki Gorge throughout the excavations and carried out much of the work, said Dr. Duff. The excavations were planned to occupy several seasons. Dr. Duff said. “Mr Michael Trotter, a sheep farmer near Kartigi, took us in a truck to Shepherd’s creek, a site above the Waitaki Gorge. We were held up for a while by the flooded Ahuriri river but later moved on to the Ohau river and went 18 miles downstream to make our headquarters on the property of Mr G. McAughtrie. “Because ‘the drawings here and elsewhere have been copied by Mr Theo Schoon, the - recording was confined to a complete record in black and white and colour and full-sized tracings,” said Dr. Duff. Particularly important was a previously unrecorded composition of a stylised bird which appeared to be portrayed inside an egg. Dr. Duff said. “Like others at the Shepherd’s creek shelter this composition was produced by scratching the design with a sharp-pointed rock to produce a light coloured contrast

with the weathered brown sun. face of grey wacke rock on-whlch all the Waitakl Gorge drawings have occurred,” he said. Dr. Duff said this was a prob- , lem in connexion with the Ministry of Works agreement to take all reasonable steps to remove some of the more valuable examples for the Otago or Canterbury Museums. A test excavation of the floor of the Shepherd's creek shelter carried out by Mr Trotter and Dr. Duff had shown that as had been expected there was very little trace of human occupation. . Stopping Place t This strengthened my opinion that shelters such as these were convenient merely as. stop-over places for Maori travellers returning to the coast by rauno ‘ rafts.” said Dr. Duff. " While the party was in this region it was visited by Mr C. W. F. Hamilton, of Christchurch, who reached it by piloting a jet boat up shallow sections of the river. Mr Hamilton showed the team another shelter on the Canterbury side of the river and Mr Ambrose was taken over to this shelter where he photographed the site. The party was taken on the second phase of the programme, for which neither Dr. Duff nor Mr Trotter was a member, by Ministry of Works transport which took them to the Benmore camp site. Here they copied drawings on the roof of a shelter near the Ahuriri Junction. Many of these had been recorded earlier by Mr Schoon. A trial excavation on the floor of this shelter showed little trace of permanent - occupation. The excavators were unable to decide if numerous fragments of burnt Moa egg shells represented a Moa hunter culture or Maori cooking fires built over the remnants of a Moa nesting site.