Archaeological ‘Find’ In Wairarapa

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 12

Archaeological ‘Find’ In Wairarapa

(New Zealand Press Association)

MASTERTON, August 30.

Conclusive evidence of early Maori habitation of the Wairarapa coast has been unearthed by a Wellington archaeological survey team at present working in the Cape Palliser region.

The discovery, claimed to be one of the most important historical finds in the area, was announced yesterday by a lecturer in Polynesian studies at the Wellington Teachers’ College (Mr B. Mitcalfe). “Evidence we have found so far indicates that a Maori population of between 7000 and 10,000 lived in the area,” Mr Mitcalfe said. "In an 80-mile stretch of coastline that the survey team has covered we have found well preserved moon-stone walls, Maori pas and stockades, and even sea fossils up to 500 feet above sea level,” he said.

Mr Mitcalfe is heading a

40-strong party of teachers and students who are carrying out site surveys of the coastline from Baring Head to Cape Kidnappers. The project is expected to take 12 months to complete. So far the party has scoured an area ranging between Pahaoa, Flat Point and Glenburn, and already hundreds of photographs and map sketches have been made.

Only mapping and photographing is being undertaken, but it is expected that later in the survey a South Island archaeologist, Mr 0. Wilkes, will be called in to begin excavations for further evidence of habitation in the area.