2026-03-16
Reno Nims, Caitlin Smith, Matthew Campbell
Marine paleoclimate records for the last 1,000 years are scarce in the southwest Pacific, limiting our understanding of complex environmental changes that may have affected Māori seascapes and fisheries. We seek to begin filling this knowledge gap by studying stable oxygen ( δ 18 O) and carbon ( δ 13 C) isotopes in archaeological and modern otoliths from tāmure (Australasian snapper, Chrysophrys auratus ), which provide information about water temperature, salinity, and fish diet and metabolism. Our results show that fourteenth and fifteenth century tāmure otoliths recorded environmental conditions that are comparable to twentieth century temperatures, with some evidence for anomalously warmer seas and/or higher precipitation during the fifteenth century. These findings are concordant with previous reconstructions of terrestrial climatic conditions in northern Aotearoa and of central west Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, providing additional evidence that Māori experienced a warm climatic period during their first centuries of habitation and fishing in the North Island.
2025-09-15
Daud Tanudirjo, Dylan Gaffney, Abdul Razak Macap, Tristan Russell, Benjamin Utting, Moses Dailom, Yansen Lapon, Erlin Novita Idje Djami, Zubair Mas'ud
Rock paintings around the western tip of New Guinea are extensive but poorly understood. This paper describes rock art around the northern Raja Ampat Islands, just off the coast of western New Guinea. Two main painting traditions are documented: a red pigment tradition and a white pigment tradition. Red paintings generally occur up to 10 m above the modern mean sea-level and are stylistically related to a larger painting complex around the Bomberai Peninsula of New Guinea and Misool Island. It is likely that these sites have been uplifted from their original position, and were produced during the Mid–Late Holocene when the marine high-stand was several metres above the present level. The white pigment tradition generally occurs just a few metres above present sea level and could have been produced from canoes within the past few hundred years. We suggest Raja Ampat Islanders were interconnected with a wider maritime community using red pigment in the Late Holocene, and a distinctive white painting style emerged locally within the past few hundred years. Further documentation of West New Guinea’s rock paintings is required to clarify whether coastal painting traditions strictly relate to the presence of Austronesian speaking groups (part of an Austronesian Painting Tradition) or whether the imagery reflects the interaction between multiple linguistic groups, including speakers of Austronesian and Non-Austronesian languages.
2025-08-13
Phillip R. Moore
The northern part of the North Island of New Zealand includes numerous occurrences of chert, some of which are known to have been exploited by pre-European Māori. Most of the chert is of sedimentary origin, of Late Cretaceous-Eocene age, but Miocene ‘volcanic’ chert (i.e. jasper, sinter and silicified wood) is also common in places. To facilitate a better understanding of cherts in this region, and promote further research, the geological context and visual attributes of samples from 19 locations are described. Five different chert types are formally recognised. Visual examination of >160 samples show there is considerable overlap in the colour range of cherts from different localities, indicating that attribution of artefacts to specific sources based on colour alone is likely to be unreliable. However, a distinction between sedimentary and ‘volcanic’ cherts and sinters should be possible based upon the presence/absence of bioturbation, radiolaria and plant remains.
2025-05-25
Geoffrey Irwin, Peter Sheppard, Richard Flay
Three unique sails in the British Museum provide valuable information about sailing technology and practice in the late 18th century, CE, and insights into early East Polynesian migration. The sails were collected from New Zealand, Tahiti, and the third most probably from Hawaii or the Marquesas. Tacking double canoes were used in the settlement of East Polynesia, in combination with the Oceanic spritsail, and the sails reveal different adaptations that match patterns of interaction and isolation among the island groups as indicated by the movement of industrial stone. The Māori and Hawaiian/Marquesan sails were furthest apart geographically but remained the most similar in the isolated margins of East Polynesia, and both adapted to an increase in paddling and downwind sailing. The Tahitian canoe, located in central East Polynesia, remained better adapted for ocean voyaging, and shared structural elements with West Polynesia, potentially through the Cooks Islands. The paper describes sail forms, examines selected early historical drawings to see how they were used in the late 18th century and uses methods of wind engineering to estimate their sailing performance. The paper finds evidence for adaptive variation and change between sails with shared ancestry.
2025-04-30
Phil Moore
There are about 20 known sources of artefact-quality obsidian in New Zealand, of which around half were extensively exploited by pre-European Māori. The visual attributes of the obsidians are described, and a procedure for identifying the original source of artefact material is outlined. Several case studies are presented to illustrate different aspects of the sourcing method, including its reliability. These, along with other studies, indicate that although some obsidian can be attributed to sources with >90% accuracy, the success rate is dependent upon the ability of the analyst and the particular mix of sources represented in any assemblage. Overall, the use of visual attributes combined with limited chemical analysis is considered the most effective means of sourcing larger obsidian artefact assemblages.
2025-04-08
Mark Horrocks, Marshall Weisler, Quan Hua
Introduced taro ( Colocasia esculenta ) is assumed to have been ubiquitous in pre-contact societies across Oceania. However, there are few reports of direct, botanical evidence for its presence in Micronesia during this time. Here we report starch analysis of soil/sediment samples from Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands, eastern Micronesia. Starch grains, xylem cells, and calcium oxalate crystals of cf. taro were found at three sites, in habitation layers encompassing the period 1875-1715 cal. BP to 1060-920 cal. BP (95% CI). This study represents the first direct, botanical evidence for pre-European taro in the Marshall Islands, adding another archipelago to the scant list of such Micronesian sites, thus highlighting the importance of palaeo-ethnobotany in Micronesia.
2024-11-21
Robert Brassey
The Sunde site, at Pūharakeke on Motutapu Island, is one of New Zealand’s most remarkable archaeological sites. Evidence of Māori occupation is deeply buried beneath tephra erupted from the adjacent Rangitoto volcano around 1397 CE, and fossil footprints of people and their dogs are preserved in between the ash layers. The eruption was clearly witnessed by Māori but surprisingly, no traditional account of the event appears to exist. Archaeological excavations undertaken in 1963 and 1981-2 have been interpreted as providing evidence that a kāinga (settlement) existed at the site at the time of the eruption. Claims that the occupants survived the eruption, and engaged in gardening activities between ash showers, have also been made. A review of the site from a geoarchaeological perspective reveals inconsistencies with key aspects of these existing narratives, primarily due to misidentification of geological structures and natural deposits as archaeological features. These include soft sediment deformation structures associated with dewatering of the tephra, and two marine inundation deposits. One of these is a possible tsunami washover deposit dating from the early 14th century CE; the other appears to be associated with a significant storm surge event during the mid-16th century.
2024-08-21
Phil Moore, Nick Mortimer, Kathy Prickett
Stone adzes (toki) made from greywacke are a characteristic feature of late ‘Classic Maori’ material culture in Aotearoa/New Zealand, particularly in the North Island, but despite the widespread natural distribution of this sedimentary rock type few archaeological source sites have been identified. The pre-European production of adzes from alluvial greywacke-dominated gravels in the inland Taranaki area, south-western North Island, was first reported in 1971. We present new information on the nature, extent, and composition of these gravels, on the geochemistry of the greywacke, and on adzes previously collected from the area. X-ray fluorescence analyses of greywacke cobbles indicates they originated from at least two of New Zealand’s Permian to Early Cretaceous tectonostratigraphic ‘basement’ terranes, which has implications for the future sourcing of greywacke adzes from Taranaki and elsewhere.
2024-08-21
Mark Horrocks, Andy Dodd, Simon Bickler, Bronwen Presswell, Dave Carley
The study of Māori agriculture, including almost all the numerous Māori stone garden sites recorded in both the North and South Islands, has been hindered by lack of evidence in the form of plant remains. Here we address this with pollen, phytolith, and starch analyses of 22 archaeological soil samples across a 14 km range, with an additional sample from 11 km distant, from Palliser Bay in the southern North Island. Results show evidence of premodern Māori translocations, comprising cf. Ipomoea batatas , cf. Colocasia esculenta , and cf. Cordyline fruticosa , to date the southernmost New Zealand report for the latter two. The presence of cf. I . batatas and cf. C . esculenta starch remains in relatively large amounts in almost all samples and small amounts in fewer samples, respectively, suggests that the latter was more of a minor crop in Palliser Bay. Samples also contained eggs of Dipylidium caninum and Toxocara canis , parasites of the introduced kurī dog ( Canis familiaris ), which could have adversely affected local people and their dogs. The plant evidence supports the view that the southern extent of Māori cultivation of introduced warmer climate crops in temperate New Zealand was variably, progressively limited by length of growing season requirements.