New Zealand archaeology started in the early 1800s, when it was largely conducted by amateurs with little regard for meticulous study. However, starting slowly in the 1870s, detailed research answered questions about human culture that have international relevance and wide public interest.
Archaeology has, along with oral traditions, defined New Zealand's prehistory () and protohistory () and has been a valuable aid in solving some later historical problems. Academically New Zealand's human prehistory is broadly divided into the periods of Archaic (~paleolithic then ~mesolithic after c. 1300 AD) and Classic (~neolithic) after c. 1500 AD, based on Māori culture. Eurasian labels do not fit perfectly, as some level of horticulture was always present in northern New Zealand, even existing at the same time as megafauna. More simply it can also be divided into time periods of pre and post European contact. Large poorly documented sections of New Zealand's more recent history have also been supplemented by archaeological research, such as at old battle sites or early urban centres.
History of archaeology in New Zealand Early archaeology in New Zealand was performed by anthropologists and private collectors of Māori artifacts. Many sites were destroyed by careless scavenging or poorly documented research. Systematic research was first conducted by the museums in the main cities, followed by anthropology departments in the universities of Auckland and Otago. In 1955 the New Zealand Archaeological Association was founded.
During this time in New Zealand the study of Māori oral tradition was more influential than archaeological techniques. The coming of the Māori "Great Fleet" to New Zealand was inferred to be in 1350 AD solely from traditional evidence (similar to modern estimates from carbon dating).
In the 21st century high resolution Landsat data was being used to interpret archaeological sites, although there was some doubt about the effectiveness of some modern tools. Archaeology departments conduct research from the university of Otago, Auckland and Canterbury. New Zealand archaeology is published in the Journal of Pacific Archaeology, the Journal of the Polynesian Society and other international journals.
Historical archaeology Historical archaeology in New Zealand has until recently largely been the archaeology of organised European and Chinese settlement after 1840. Cook's landing in 1769 has been used in the past to demarcate prehistoric and historic archaeology in New Zealand, but Māori have a strong record of their own history extending centuries before this date, and Māori oral tradition has been used to inform archaeological excavations—for example, settlement patterns in the western Bay of Plenty, or the site of Opita on the Hauraki Plains. At one point the study of post-contact Māori sites was referred to as the "ignored component" of New Zealand archaeology, but more recent studies are examining Māori and settler interaction, and the increasing incorporation of European culture into Māori society from 1769 well into the 19th century. There have been calls for New Zealand's archaeology to be seen as a continuum, stretching from the arrival of Māori to the arrival of Pākehā and continuing on through recent historical archaeology.
The New Zealand Historic Places Act defines an archaeological site as pre-1900, though this can be extended by application for particular sites such as the Clark brickworks. Consequently 20th century archaeology is uncommon, with a few exceptions—for example, Petchey's study of the Horahora Power Station (built 1910–1913).
As a discipline, historical archaeology in New Zealand started late and grew slowly; it was only by the 1960s that European structures were being systematically excavated. Although descriptions of fortification sites, both Māori and Pākehā, were published in the 1920s, the first historical excavations took place in the 1950s: the early historical Māori occupation of Orongo Bay near Young Nick's Head, Gisborne, and a 19th century British barracks at Paremata. Historical archaeology came of age, both in New Zealand and overseas, in the 1960s, with multiple studies of post-1769 Māori sites. After the New Zealand Archaeological Association changed its site recording scheme in 1966 to encompass historical excavations, more work began on non-Māori sites.
In 1975 the Historic Places Amendment Act was passed, which defined an archaeological site as one formed more that 100 years ago; this was redefined as a pre-1900 site in 1993 by the Historic Places Act. Before any such site could be damaged or modified permission was needed from the Historic Places Trust (renamed in 2014 Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga). An influential early study was the 1970s excavation of the Taranaki fortifications Omata Stockade and Warea Redoubt by Nigel Prickett.Prickett, Nigel. (1994). Archaeological excavations at the Omata Stockade and Warea Redoubt, Taranaki. Monograph 20, New Zealand Archaeological Association. Prickett went on to excavate other Pākehā and Māori sites from the 19th century New Zealand Wars like Queen's Redoubt, but also studied early shore whaling sites. Another significant historial archaeology research programme was the Clutha Valley Project, led by Neville Ritchie. This work on the early Otago gold fields examined changing mining practices and especially the lives of Chinese gold miners.
In the 1980s historical archaeological work expanded along with an increase in construction and the rise of commercial achaeology consultants. This mostly took the form of unpublished reports, while the proportion taking the form of published research in academic journals declined. The increase in reports accelerated after 2004, when the Historic Places Trust began appliing the definition of the Historic Places Act to buildings, not just ruins, which meant any building constructed before 1900 became in effect an archaeological site. This led to the development of building archaeology in New Zealand, with dendrochronology used to refine construction dates, and studies examining how identity was reflected in buildings.
All reports produced by an archaeological authority began being made available in a digital library hosted by Heritage New Zealand. Two notable publications in New Zealand historical archaeology were the 2013 New Zealand Archaeological Association monograph Finding our Recent Past, and Ian Smith's 2019 book Pākehā Settlements in a Māori World. Since the retirement of Smith in 2017, there has been no historical archaeology research programme at either Otago University or the University of Auckland.
List of notable archaeological sites
Exceptional archaeological sites are included in the national register (administered by Heritage New Zealand) in five groups: historic places (Category 1 and 2), historic areas, Wāhi Tūpuna (practical sites), Wāhi Tapu (spiritual sites) and Wahi Tapu areas. New Zealand has thousands of pre-contact sites, many of which are documented by the Historic Places Trust. Only a small fraction of these have detailed published archaeological reports. For example, in the South Island there are 550 rock art sites and 107 in the North Island and 6956 Pā in all New Zealand. The types of features present in New Zealand pre European archaeology are pā, storage pits, gardens (stone rows and banks), house floors, terraces, trenches, umu (earth ovens), middens, quarries, rock art and changes to the local flora.
DatePeriodSite nameTypeRegionResearchPhotoGrid referencec. 1750ClassicHuriawa PeninsulaPāOtagoTe Pā a Te Wera, reserve, and archaeological sitesKaingaroa rock artRock artTaupoBothMotutapu IslandPā and settlementAucklandTransition from Archaic to Classic, with well dated ash layer from Rangitoto (left in image).BothOpihi rock artRock artSouth CanterburyList number 9784 Historic Places Trust. ArchaicPapatowaiSettlementOtagoImportant early site for the study of Polynesian archaeology.RangikapitiPāNorthlandPre-European contact fortified village1300s ArchaicShag River mouthSettlementOtagoSeasonality of fishing ClassicTe KoraPāTaranakiLarge Pā complex, site of early work by Elsdon Best.1288–1300ArchaicWairau BarSettlementMarlboroughMost thoroughly studied Archaic settlement.1440–1470Chatham IslandsWakaChatham IslandsParts of an ocean-going canoe (waka) - discovered in 2024
Debated questions in New Zealand's pre-contact archaeology Many questions about pre-contact New Zealand have been answered by archaeology and for most it is unlikely that new information will radically change our understanding. However some questions are still debated in the recent academic press in the hope that a new argument or data may bring resolution.
Developing ideas and changing dates for the Māori arrival and settlement First attempts to date the arrival of Māori in New Zealand, by 19th-century scholars such as S. Percy Smith, were based on genealogies and oral histories, many of which – when assigned an average generation length of 25 years – converged on a settlement date around 1350 AD, while others appeared to go back much further. This resulted in the classic theory, which all schoolchildren were once taught, that New Zealand had been discovered around 750 AD, then settled by later migrations, culminating in the "Great Fleet" of seven canoes around 1350 AD.
When radiocarbon dating started to be used in the 1950s, it appeared to support the idea of early settlement, though the "Great Fleet" itself fell out of favour when scholars showed that there were inconsistencies in the genealogies on which Smith had based his theory. This was replaced by the idea of gradual settlement over many centuries, but this in turn has proved to be mistaken. In 1989, for example, changes in the New Zealand biota, dated to about 1000 AD, were assumed to be linked to human settlement. However, by the mid-1990s, as radiocarbon dating methods were improved and sources of error better understood, it was realised that the early dates were not reliable and that the most reliable radiocarbon dates all pointed to a more recent first settlement, closer to 1300 AD or even later. In 1999, a sample from the Wairau Bar site gave a "late" age of 1230–1282 AD, which roughly coincided with charcoal and pollen evidence of forest fires that may or may not have been human-lit. The Wairau Bar settlement is known to be a first settler site because both its human remains and its artefacts came from tropical Polynesia.
Against this emerging evidence for late settlement was some seemingly contradictory evidence from the first radiocarbon dating of ancient rat bones in 1996, which gave unusually early dates – as early as 10 AD – and led its author to suggest that rats had been brought here by early human voyagers who did not stay. Some scholars saw the early rat bone dates as confirmation of their theory that humans had settled in New Zealand even earlier than the classic theory had suggested, living in small numbers for a thousand years or so without leaving artefacts or skeletal remains. However, further investigation found that those early rat bone results had been flawed, all coming from one laboratory during a limited time period, while all subsequent dating has found recent arrival times for both rats and humans. By 2008, there was little doubt that rats came to New Zealand with Māori no earlier than 1280 AD. This was confirmed in 2011 by a meta-analysis of dates from throughout the Pacific, which showed a sudden pulse of migration leading to all of New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) being settled no earlier than c. 1290 AD.