Digging up N.Z.’s past

Press, 9 September 1989, Page 23

Digging up N.Z.’s past

MZ Journal of Archaeology, volume 10, 1988. Edited by Janet Davidson. N.Z. Archaeological Association/University of Otago. 149 pp. $15.50. The collection of 11 articles in the latest issue of the New Zealand Journal of Archaeology, Volume 10, 1988, reflects to some extent the diversity of archaeological research in New Zealand today. Brenda Sewells “Fishhook Assemblage from the Cross Creek Site” on the Coromandel Peninsula is reminiscent of the valuable work in material cultural changes that was being undertaken 20 or so years ago, before it became unfashionable to study portable artefacts. It is based on scientific methodology — rather than supposition. Observable changes in principal materials used for the manufacture of fish-hooks over a period of time, as indicated by radiocarbon dated occupational layers, are documented and discussed. “Late Prehistoric Subsistence Practices at Parewanui,” by Richard Cassels and colleagues, is also largely a description of archaeological evidence with discussion and interpretation; here limited excavations were undertaken to check on supposed eel-trapping channels in the lower Rangitikei River area. Caroline Phillips describes Auckland University field school excavations at Waiwhau; Janet Davidson reviews archaeology in Micronesia since 1965; and Patrick Kirch and others discuss the provenance and significance of two sheds of pottery found on Hivaoa, one of the Southern Marquesas Islands. Other articles in this issue are based to a large extent on supposition, theories, and academic argument which might be intriguing, but not . fully understood by the average reader. The increase in writing of this sort may be a symptom of the growing pains of archaeology as a serious study in New Zealand today. — Michael M. Trotter.