ABSTRACT
A small excavation was conducted by the New Zealand Historic Places
Trust in an archaeological site (R27/24) on the shore of the Pauatahanui
Inlet. The site was scheduled for destruction during road widening.
Bulk midden samples from four areas of the site were analysed at the
Archaeozoology Laboratory of the Museum of New Zealand.
The samples were mainly composed of shell, with 74% cockle (Austrovenus
stutchburyi), which is by far the dominant shore animal in today’s
Inlet ecosystem. Mud snail (Amphibola crenata) at 18.4% and blue mussel
(Mytilus galloprovincialis) at 2.8% were the next most numerous species.
Most of the shellfish species in the midden are commonly found in the
Inlet, but some prefer a rocky shore or ocean beach environment. This
suggests that the occupants of the site were also exploiting environments
outside the Inlet.
Measurement of intact cockle valves showed some variation in mean cockle
size between the areas sampled. However, these variations are very slight
compared with the difference in size between the archaeological samples
and the modern cockle populations in the Inlet. Surveys carried out
by the Oceanographic Institute in 1976 and by the Guardians of the Pauatahanui
Inlet in conjunction with NIWA in 1992, 1995 and 1998 also showed slight
variation in mean size from one study to another. However there is a
huge difference in the mean size of the archaeological and modern samples;
the majority of the archaeological shells are larger than any in the
modern surveys. A difference of this size cannot be explained by the
suggestion that Maori were gathering only larger shellfish.
The samples contained only small amounts of bone. Minimum numbers of
14 fish from 7 families, 14 birds of 8 species, 8 rats and 1 dog were
identified. The birds are predominantly forest dwelling species, with
one duck and one sea bird. The rat is the Pacific rat, Rattus exulans,
introduced to New Zealand in pre-European times.
Charcoal analysis showed that the vegetation in the vicinity of the
site during occupation consisted largely of coastal scrub dominated
by kanuka (Kunzea ericoides), suggesting regeneration after earlier
clearance of forest by fire.
Five artefacts were found. Radiocarbon dates suggest occupation during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD.
(The authors would like to note that this abstract is just part of
a draft report and the final version may be a little different)
