'Maori Pompeii' yields treasures

Maori Pompeii' yields treasures
5:00AM Tuesday May 27, 2008
By Craig Borley
Tawhiti Rahi Island (rear) in the Poor Knights group was inhabited by
pre-European Maori. Photo / Northern Advocate

Tawhiti Rahi Island (rear) in the Poor Knights group was inhabited by
pre-European Maori. Photo / Northern Advocate

A New Zealand archaeologist has uncovered an untouched "time capsule"
of Maori life almost 200 years ago.

The remains have lain hidden beneath the impenetrable undergrowth of
the Poor Knights' northern island, Tawhiti Rahi, since December 16,
1823.

On that day, or in the few days prior, a raiding party from
Northland's Hikutu hapu landed at the island's only safe landing spot
- choosing a time when the island's Ngatiwai iwi chief and men were
off on their own raid.

The island fell, its inhabitants massacred, and was barely ever set
foot on again.

That created what is known as a "Pompeii premise" - where an
archaeological landscape is left intact.

While the Poor Knights' southern island, Aorangi, has long been known
as the home to a permanent pre-European Maori population, Tawhiti Rahi
was believed to be little more than a seasonal camp. It had until now
escaped detailed examination because of its difficult access.

But Otago University archaeologist James Robinson and his team spent
12 weeks over the past three years combing its landscape.

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He will reveal his findings at the New Zealand Archaeological Society
conference on June 4, before presenting it at the World Archaeology
Congress in Dublin on June 29.

Lying about 24km off the east coast of Northland and protected by 100m
sheer cliffs, the island is now home to tuataras and more than 700,000
birds and is surrounded by a world-famous marine reserve.

Speaking to the Herald from Dunedin, Mr Robinson said the island was
also home to one of the clearest history lessons on late-Maori
settlement ever found in New Zealand .

"Essentially, it's what Captain Cook saw when he arrived in New
Zealand. The island is covered with archaeological features. There's
very few areas that don't have something."

The limited research done to date concluded that the island was
subservient to neighbouring Aorangi, but Mr Robinson said it was now
almost certain Tawhiti Rahi was the Poor Knights' main population
base.

Despite the existence of whalers during the latter part of the
island's occupation, Mr Robinson and his team found no glass, ceramic
or metal artefacts - indicating the island's community led a very
traditional life, largely free of Pakeha involvement.

Tawhiti Rahi provided abundant amounts of muttonbird, had ample fresh
water and significant fish numbers - with the East Auckland current
that sweeps past the island providing an extremely high fish mass.

And through using the slash-and-burn gardening method common on the
mainland - combined with stone walls, stone mounds and terraces -
Tawhiti Rahi was a productive garden site.

"They had basically turned 95 per cent of appropriate garden areas
into a garden," Mr Robinson said.

"Others they were in the process of converting, but stopped." That
stop coincided with the 1823 massacre.

"They stopped building gardens overnight. It's almost a photograph of
what's going on in late modern society.

Mr Robinson believes the island was settled after 1500. It did not
have any pa sites - fortifications that began to appear throughout New
Zealand after 1500. But that did not mean it wasn't a pa.

"The island itself is essentially a pa. There's only one landing
point, with a village immediately adjacent."

ISLAND TAONGA

* Defined, untouched examples of Maori gardens.
* Villages, complete with untouched building structures.
* Stone walls, stream diversions, terraces, pits and mounds.
* Evidence of a year-round population of 100 people, peaking
seasonally at 300-400.
* Artefacts littered on the ground, including tools, utensils and
carvings.
* Bodies of the massacred tribe lying untouched since their death.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10512676
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