Maori occupation layers at D'Urville Island, New Zealand

Abstract

Two occupation layers are well defined at many places on the western side of D'Urville Island. The older contains broken moa bones, many flakes of “baked argillite”, and rare obsidian fragments; the younger contains abundant barracuda bones, relatively few flakes of “baked argillite”, and no moa bones. A layer of Taupo Pumice of about A.D. 200 occurs as a primary deposit in three sections. If a constant rate of subsequent accumulation is assumed, the lower occupation layer formed at about A.D. 1000 and the upper at about A.D. 1500. These tentative dates may be revised when radio-carbon samples have been processed. The people of the older occupation layer, the first to reach the island, would a!Jpear to have exterminated the moa, traded in artifacts made from baked argillite, and probably moved south to hunt the moa in the South Island mainland. It is likely that they grew kumara on D'Urville Island. The people of the younger occupation layer lived mainly on exposed headlands that provide a good view of the seaward approaches to the island. They were probably driven south from the North Island and may have been driven further south later by continuing pressure from the north. Later occupation thal extended into the historical period was mostly on the eastern and southern parts of the island, the population probably being smaller than during the two earlier periods.