Maori Rock Drawings ‘Defaced By Vandals’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 14

Maori Rock Drawings ‘Defaced By Vandals’

Maori rock drawings may be idle doodles of stormbound travellers, pictorial “karakia” connected with hunting magic, or the appeasement of hostile genii, commemorative (“Kilroy was here”), .or glyphs denoting a ceremonial site, Mr G.M. Mason, a New Zealand Archaeological Society member who has just spent' four months with other archaeologists examining rock drawings in the Mackenzie Country, told the 11th New Zealand Science Congress in Auckland. The drawings, and the floors beneath them which could give many clues to their origin, were rapidly being defaced, covered or de-

stroyed, or were disintegrating, Mr Mason said. “Perhaps the most übiquitous and major cause of destruction of rock drawings is European graffiti, mainly in the form of initials, names, and drawings. This is sheer vandalism, about which the general public seems to have no conscience.” Other causes of destruction of the drawings included natural erosion of, or deposits on, the walls; plant growth; rubbing by animals; and defacement by retouching for photographic or other recording. The floors might be destroyed by animals or by curio-hunters. Complete sites were liable to destruction through public works.