Waitetoke and other wetland cultivation complexes from the northern offshore islands of Aotearoa New Zealand

Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island) is a small 16 km² island located approximately 6 km off of the Coromandel Peninsula of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Māori were drawn to the island from the early fourteenth century in part by its warmer oceanic microclimate, rich marine resources, and the relative ease with which the indigenous forest could be cleared and transformed into a productive horticultural landscape.

Here we have focused extensive excavations on Waitetoke, a swale formed between a steep hill slope and adjacent coastal dune system. Our ongoing archaeological and palaeoecological research has documented the transformation of the area from a mire with surrounding indigenous forest to a raised bed taro Colocasia esculenta complex, and later to an intensified kūmara Ipomoea batatas cultivation.

We present our initial results drawn from Waitetoke, comparing these with initial results from Moturua, Bay of Islands, another offshore island in northern Aotearoa. These islands offer unique insights into the comparable ways Māori adapted tropical Polynesian island horticulture to temperate ecosystems, but also how cultivation systems changed later in the settlement sequence, including at European contact.

Presenter

Dr Matiu Prebble
School of Earth and Environment, University of Canterbury

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