Traces Of Earliest N.Z. Inhabitants

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30007, 17 December 1962, Page 19

Traces Of Earliest N.Z. Inhabitants

(New Zealand Press Association)

HASTINGS, December 16. Evidence that man probably lived in Hawke’s Bay before 150 A.D. has been unearthed near Lake Poukawa, 11 miles from Hastings, by Mr R. Price, of Hastings, and a small team of amateur archaeologists. The team has unearthed more than 80 moa bones, notornds beaks and swan bones in an area described by an expert from the Canterbury Museum as “potentially the most valuable find since the Pyramid Valley excavations in the early 1950’5.” Mr R. J. Scarlett, recorder of collections at the Canterbury Museum, which houses New Zealand’s largest collection of moa remains, visited the site on Friday. “I was very impressed with the amount of material that had come out of such a small area,” said Mr Scarlett. “If tile concentration is as

great around the rest of the excavation area it could be a very important site indeed —richer than Pyramid Valley.” Evidence for the early existence of man in the area—as far back as 150 A.D. —is based on the discovery of a large slab of wood which has been out in half with some I sort of adze. ’ This was found buried in ! soft peat about one foot below the layer known as ’ the “Taupo Shower”—a layer i of pumice from a volcanic eruption which has been ’ carbon-dated as having . covered the district about 150 . A.D. . Diggings over the past . week in the same layer have I revealed a portion of hewn stone which could have been [ an adze head, and sawn and [ broken pieces of moa bone. i The wood and much of the . other material unearthed will ; be carbon-dated.