Archaeology of New Zealand facts for kids

One Tree Hill is a famous pā (fortified village) in Auckland.

Archaeology is the study of human history through digging up and analyzing old objects and sites. In New Zealand, archaeology began in the early 1800s. Back then, it was mostly done by people who weren't trained experts. But from the 1870s onwards, more careful research started. This research has helped us understand a lot about the first people who lived in New Zealand, the Māori people.

Archaeology, along with traditional stories passed down by Māori, has helped us learn about New Zealand's prehistory (the time before written records, roughly from 1300 to 1800 AD). It has also helped solve mysteries from later historical times, like what happened at old battle sites or in early towns.

New Zealand's human prehistory is often split into two main periods based on Māori culture:

• Archaic period: This was the early time, starting around 1300 AD. People were mostly hunter-gatherers and also did some gardening.
• Classic period: This came later, after about 1500 AD. During this time, Māori culture became more settled, with larger gardens and fortified villages.

We can also simply divide New Zealand's history into times before and after Europeans arrived.

Big Questions in New Zealand's Early History

Archaeology has answered many questions about New Zealand's past. For most of these, new information probably won't change what we already know. But some questions are still being discussed by experts today. They hope new discoveries or ideas will help solve them.

When Did Māori First Arrive?

For a long time, people wondered exactly when Māori first arrived in New Zealand. Early scholars in the 1800s used Māori family histories and oral traditions (stories passed down by word of mouth). Many of these stories suggested that Māori settled around 1350 AD. This led to the famous "Great Fleet" theory, which said that seven large canoes arrived around that time.

When radiocarbon dating became available in the 1950s, it seemed to support the idea of early settlement. However, the "Great Fleet" theory itself started to be questioned. Experts found that some of the old family histories used were not always consistent.

By the mid-1990s, radiocarbon dating methods got much better. Scientists realized that the very early dates they had found were not reliable. The most accurate dates pointed to a more recent first settlement, closer to 1300 AD or even later. For example, a sample from the Wairau Bar site, an important early settlement, showed a date between 1230 and 1282 AD. This site is known to be from the first settlers because the human remains and objects found there came from tropical Polynesia.

Some early studies of ancient rat bones in 1996 suggested that rats arrived much earlier, even around 10 AD. This made some people think that humans might have visited New Zealand very early but didn't stay. However, later research showed that these early rat bone results were not accurate. All other studies have found that both rats and humans arrived around the same time. By 2008, it was clear that rats came with Māori no earlier than 1280 AD.

In 2011, a big study of dates from all over the Pacific confirmed this. It showed that New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, was settled quickly in a large migration around 1290 AD or later.

Most researchers now agree on a late 13th-century date. Some are even pushing it a bit later, to around 1320 AD or after. This is based on new evidence from moa eggshells and the Mount Tarawera eruption (which happened in 1314 AD). The ash from this eruption is found below all well-dated human and rat sites. This suggests that New Zealand was settled rapidly in a big migration sometime between 1320 and 1350 AD. This means the old "Great Fleet" theory, based on family histories, might have been quite close to the truth after all!

How Did the Population Grow?

There are two main questions about the size of the Māori population:

• How many settlers first came to New Zealand?
• What was the population when Europeans first arrived?

For the second question, estimates haven't changed much from Captain Cook's first guess of 100,000 people. Some researchers think it might have been up to 150,000. If the population grew slowly, this number suggests that either a large group of people (more than 300) arrived first, or that they settled much earlier (around 600-850 AD). However, if the arrival date was around 1300 AD, it means a large number of people must have migrated from tropical Polynesia. But DNA evidence suggests a smaller number of women settlers, around 70.

The South Island's population grew very slowly in early times. This is because kumara (a type of sweet potato) was very hard to grow there, even during warmer periods. There is also evidence that a "Little Ice Age" affected New Zealand, causing the population to shrink. This cold period might have been coldest in the early 1700s. By 1886, diseases like measles, wars, and other changes had reduced the Māori population to about 40,000 in the North Island and 2,000 in the South Island.

Changes in Māori Culture Over Time

Early Māori settlements often relied on seals for food, sometimes even more than moa.

Working with Pounamu (jade) needs special skills because it's a very hard stone.

Māori culture was always changing to fit New Zealand's environment. Since the late 1950s, experts have used the terms "Archaic" and "Classic" to describe the early and later stages of Māori prehistory. The term "Archaic" replaced "moa hunter" because the hunter-gatherer way of life continued even after the megafauna (like the giant moa) became extinct.

The Archaic and Classic labels describe time periods, not strict ways of life. This means that in some places, like the southern South Island, Classic tribes might have lived in a way that seemed more "Archaic" because of the local conditions.

• Archaic culture: People were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. They had small gardens and smaller populations.
• Classic culture: People had larger gardens and lived in fortified permanent villages called pā.

Kumara was mostly grown in the North Island until the Classic period. Then, new ways of storing food and gardening allowed it to be grown further south. In many New Zealand sites, it's hard to see a clear "middle phase" between Archaic and Classic. Some experts suggest that Māori society went through cycles of growth and decline. Growing kumara would have been possible in the South Island during some warm periods, but very difficult in the northern South Island.

Travel and Communication

Early Māori objects from Wairau Bar. Notice the obsidian (top left) from the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

A Waka (boat) found in the Taieri River plains.

It's thought that the first settlers came to New Zealand in large numbers, bringing supplies for planting many types of crops. This suggests it was a planned journey to a known place. While some non-archaeological stories suggest that people continued to migrate to New Zealand during the Archaic period, there's no archaeological evidence for this. Also, there's no evidence that domestic pigs and chickens from the Pacific made it to New Zealand. This would have been expected if regular trade routes existed.

However, Māori did keep the skills for long sea voyages. They reached the Chatham Islands in the 1500s.

The oldest archaeological sites in New Zealand have tools that came from tropical Polynesia. There is also evidence that obsidian (a type of volcanic glass) was traded across New Zealand soon after people arrived. But it wasn't until the 1500s that pounamu (jade) was traded around New Zealand, using a different network than the obsidian trade. Earthquakes also caused people to change where and how they lived.

The Māori language has changed very little in the 700 years since it became separate from Cook Islands Māori.

Managing Resources in a New Land

Experts have debated how well early Māori managed their resources and if they could predict environmental problems. Natural fires were rare in New Zealand, but much of the country had dry forests. Early Māori didn't protect areas prone to fire, and there's no sign they regularly burned less fire-prone areas. Many New Zealand animal species might have been slowly dying out after Polynesian settlement. The extinction of the large moa birds seems to have happened very quickly, within 100 years of human arrival. The first settlers came from tropical Polynesia and learned to live in a cooler environment, but they still kept many of their old ways for a long time.

Historical Archaeology

Historical archaeology in New Zealand started late and grew slowly. It wasn't until the 1960s that European buildings and sites were regularly dug up and studied. This type of archaeology has helped answer some historical questions, like how Māori political prisoners in the Dunedin jail worked on Pounamu in the late 1800s. There is also interest in studying Māori sites from after Europeans arrived.

How Archaeology Developed in New Zealand

Early archaeology in New Zealand was done by anthropologists (people who study human societies) and private collectors of Māori objects. Many sites were damaged by careless digging or poorly documented research. Careful, scientific research was first done by museums in the main cities, then by university departments in Auckland and Otago. In 1955, the New Zealand Archaeological Association was created.

For a long time in New Zealand, studying Māori oral traditions was seen as more important than archaeological methods. For example, the arrival of the Māori "Great Fleet" in New Zealand was thought to be in 1350 AD based only on traditional stories. Interestingly, this date is similar to what modern carbon dating now suggests!

In the 21st century, scientists started using high-resolution satellite data to study archaeological sites. However, there was some debate about how effective some modern tools were. Today, archaeology research is done by universities like Otago, Auckland, and Canterbury. New Zealand archaeology findings are published in journals like the Journal of Pacific Archaeology and the Journal of the Polynesian Society, as well as other international publications.

Famous Early Archaeological Sites

Special archaeological sites are listed in the national register, managed by Heritage New Zealand. These sites are grouped into categories like historic places, historic areas, and spiritual sites. New Zealand has thousands of early archaeological sites, and many are recorded by the Historic Places Trust. Only a small number of these have detailed reports published. For example, there are 550 rock art sites in the South Island and 107 in the North Island. There are also 6,956 pā (fortified villages) across New Zealand.

The types of features found at early Māori sites in New Zealand include:

• Pā (fortified villages)
• Storage pits for food
• Gardens (with stone rows and banks)
• House floors
• Terraces
• Trenches
• Umu (earth ovens for cooking)
• Middens (rubbish heaps, often with shells and bones)
• Quarries (places where stone was dug up)
• Rock art
• Changes to the local plants

Date	Period	Site Name	Type	Region	Research Notes	Photo	Location
c. 1750	Classic	Huriawa Peninsula	Pā	Otago	A reserve and archaeological site known as Te Pa a Te Wera.		45°38′26″S 170°39′59″E / 45.640617°S 170.666309°E / -45.640617; 170.666309
		Kaingaroa rock art	Rock art	Taupo			38°27′S 176°43′E / 38.45°S 176.71°E / -38.45; 176.71
	Both	Motutapu Island	Pā and settlement	Auckland	Shows the change from Archaic to Classic culture, with a clear ash layer from Rangitoto.		36°46′07″S 176°42′28″E / 36.768654°S 176.707640°E / -36.768654; 176.707640
	Both	Opihi rock art	Rock art	South Canterbury	Listed as number 9784 by the Historic Places Trust.		44°11′50″S 171°01′09″E / 44.197327°S 171.019271°E / -44.197327; 171.019271
c.1206 (from 1974)	Archaic	Papatowai	Settlement	Otago	An important early site for studying Polynesian archaeology.		46°33′43″S 169°28′34″E / 46.562°S 169.476°E / -46.562; 169.476
		Rangikapiti	Pā	Northland	A fortified village from before European contact.		34°59′06″S 173°31′32″E / 34.984874°S 173.525565°E / -34.984874; 173.525565
1300s	Archaic	Shag River mouth	Settlement	Otago	Studies here show the seasonal patterns of fishing.		45°28′54″S 170°48′57″E / 45.481573°S 170.815767°E / -45.481573; 170.815767
	Classic	Te Kora	Pā	Taranaki	A large Pā complex, where early work was done by Elsdon Best.		39°07′59″S 173°59′19″E / 39.132972°S 173.988664°E / -39.132972; 173.988664
1288–1300	Archaic	Wairau Bar	Settlement	Marlborough	The most thoroughly studied Archaic settlement.		41°30′30″S 174°03′53″E / 41.508458°S 174.064800°E / -41.508458; 174.064800

See Also

In Spanish: Arqueología de Nueva Zelanda para niños