Location of Wairau Bar in Marlborough The Wairau Bar excavation site is one of the most significant archaeological digs in New Zealand due to the diversity and number of artefacts found. Wairau Bar is an 8 km long boulder bank, formed where the Wairau River meets the Pacific Ocean, east of Blenheim. The area is dry, windswept, and covered in low scrub and grasses. In 1925, a paddock on the Bar was ploughed by Albert Eyles, the leaseholder of the land, exposing numerous artefa

Location of Waipoua Forest, New Zealand Waipoua Forest is located on State Highway 12, 45 km north of Dargaville, on Northland's west coast, between Dargaville and Omapere. Today, the Waipoua Forest (130 sq km) contains an Archaeological Reserve spanning approximately 645 hectares. Numerous archaeological sites were excavated between 1973 and 1984. Importantly, large areas remain unexplored. The most significant excavation was conducted by archaeologists from the University o

2.5 Canal Networks Across New Zealand, there are significant engineering feats from past centuries, one of the most notable being the construction of canals to drain swamps for agricultural production and fish management. A few key examples of these feats are: Lower Wairau River Canal System In 1912, the Journal of the Polynesian Society  published details of a canal system discovered in the Lower Wairau River, Marlborough. This intricate network stretches around 20 km in le

The Poukawa excavation is one of the most significant in New Zealand’s history. If not included as a major feature, this section would be incomplete. Details of the Poukawa excavation have been published in previous blogs, and for ease of reference, the blog is repeated here: In 1930, Russell Price, a professional surveyor, surveyed Poukawa, 20 km south of Hastings, to build a canal outflow for Lake Poukawa, aiming to provide flood protection and reclaim land for pasture. Whi

Previous blogs have explored two categories of evidence suggesting the possibility of human habitation in New Zealand over two thousand years ago. Māori Oral History Evidence Archaeological Evidence: Artefacts and Features Two additional categories will be introduced in upcoming blog posts. Evidence from DNA Analysis Origins of the Māori Language 3.      Evidence from DNA Analysis The Māori population exhibits significant physical diversity, with variations in skin tone, hair

Origins of the Māori Language Evolution of Māori Language All languages are constantly evolving. As cultures interact and merge, languages borrow words, phrases, and grammatical structures from each other. When different languages come into contact, they can influence each other, leading to changes in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Māori is a subgroup of the family of Malayo-Polynesian languages.   T hey are spoken across a vast area, including Southeast Asia, Melane

Origins of the Māori Language Influence of Sanskrit on Māori The Aryan Maori by Edward Tregear To understand the development of the Māori language, it can be insightful to compare it with other languages. One approach is to examine the similarities between Māori and the Sanskrit language. Abraham Fornander in Hawaii and both John MacMillan Brown and Edward Tregear in New Zealand independently concluded that Polynesians, including Māori, shared an Aryan ancestry with Europeans

The Possibility of Pre-Polynesian Settlement in New Zealand The previous Blogs have explored this question. Now is the time to weigh up the strength of the evidence to reach a view on the subject: Who were New Zealand's first settlers? Introduction The prevailing academic consensus holds that New Zealand was first settled by East Polynesians around 1280 AD. However, an alternative theory proposes that New Zealand may have been inhabited by earlier peoples—possibly arriving ov