The Archaeology of Māori Settlement and Pā on Pōnui Island, Inner Hauraki Gulf, AD 1400–1800

Authors

  • Geoffrey Irwin The University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.129.1.29-58

Keywords:

Pōnui Island, Māori, New Zealand archaeology, pā ‘fortified sites’, settlement pattern

Abstract

This paper describes previously unreported archaeological work on Pōnui Island, New Zealand. Coastal sites date from the end of the fourteenth century AD, and one, S11/20, has evidence for surface structures, cooking, and tool manufacture and use. The harvesting of marine resources and horticulture were involved from the beginning. Earthwork defenses were built at 23 sites between AD 1500 and 1800. At least six of these fortified sites (pā) were later refortified and some were residential. In this study two sites were excavated at Motunau Bay: one was S11/20, an Archaic site previously excavated in the 1950s, and the other was S11/21, a fortified site. Radiocarbon dates are reported from five further undefended coastal sites and from the earthwork defences of 19 pā, which reveal chronological and spatial trends in their construction. On Pōnui the archaeological signature of the fifteenth century was what New Zealand archaeologists typically call early or Archaic, but in the sixteenth century it became Classic. The transition in the settlement evidence appears abrupt; however, the tempo of change more likely varied in material culture and the economy, and possible changes in land tenure and social organisation are suggested.

Author Biography

Geoffrey Irwin, The University of Auckland

Geoff Irwin is an emeritus professor in Anthropology, School of Social Science, the University of Auckland who is continuing ongoing research in retirement. Current interests and projects include the archaeological origins of the ethnographic Kula Ring, Papua New Guinea, the sailing performance of ancient Polynesian canoes and the implications for early voyaging, and the archaeological analysis and description of Te Kohika, a late waterlogged Māori lake village in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

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Published

2020-03-30