Quick Dips

A Load of Old Rubbish

Fish and shellfish remains and bird bones collected from near Foxton more than 30 years ago are yielding important clues about early Maori occupants, their diet and the environment in which they lived.

"The remains go back more than 500 years," says Dr Janet Davidson, an archaeologist at Te Papa, Museum of New Zealand, who with Foss Leach, the museum's curator of archaeozoology, is analysing the remains as part of a research project about Cook Strait titled "Bridge and Barrier".

"Foxton is a very important site because it was undisturbed until it was accidentally discovered by the landowner in 1963," Davidson says. "It was excavated between 1964 and 1971, and all the animal and bird bones and large samples of the shells were kept for later study."

This means analyses can be done now that weren't possible then. New research questions are being asked today and new methodologies have been developed to answer them.

"Thirty years ago we didn't even know how to identify fish bones systematically, let alone reconstruct size frequency characteristics of the catch of the particular species," Davidson says. "And we can reconstruct the inhabitants' diet and their environment. The site's setting was puzzling. It is more than two kilometres from the sea and from the Manawatu River."

But the people who lived there brought large quantities of fish and shellfish back to their home. They hunted moa and other birds -- even tuatara remains are present in the site.

"The bird bones reflect a forested environment, very different from the farmland of today."

A large proportion of fish caught were snapper.

"This is unusual for this region, but supports previous findings from other archeological sites in the Cook Strait, particular on Mana Island. These suggested that snapper in the strait area had declined in abundance over time. Sites in Northland had hinted at a decline in snapper too. Changing temperatures on the sea surface might have been the cause," says Davidson.

Surprisingly, few toheroa shells had been found at the Foxton site.

"The main species in the ancient rubbish dump are tuatua, cockles and mudsnails."

Davidson says the archaeological results might help scientists to understand natural changes in fish and shellfish stocks, as well as throwing light on human history in the region.