A multi‐scalar analysis of Māori land use on Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island), New Zealand

Abstract

The duration and mode of occupation of pre‐European Māori living in northern New Zealand was influenced by their subsistence strategies. Our analysis of the surface archaeological remains on Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island, Coromandel) examines how communities practiced horticulture and interacted with their local ecological and social environments through mobility, storage and competition. Focusing on a 300 ha study area in the northern quarter of the island, we use a multi‐scalar land‐unit (LU) approach to categorize the landscape as a continuously varying phenomenon with multiple characteristics. Our results suggest that the largest concentrations of horticultural features were located in areas with high sunlight exposure (insolation), good soils, low slopes and stream access. This patterning indicates that specific areas were probably being targeted for horticultural production, although differential feature preservation and visibility must also be considered. The spatial organisation of storage pits, residential features and fortified locations suggests year‐round occupation of the island, not just summer planting. The heterogeneous characteristics of the landscape influenced the settlement of three particular zones on the island. We suggest that the economic defensibility of these areas would have facilitated territoriality within a socio‐historical context of population fluidity and mobility.

Māori settlement of New Zealand: The Anthropocene as a process

“…Sediment erosion and deposition results in features and artefacts that are exposed, buried or, when observed in the context of associated features, visibly mobilised. Terraces and pits, for example, are visible on hill slopes and ridges where erosion rather than deposition is the dominant process (McIvor & Ladefoged ). Excavation of terraces cut into slopes shows deposition on the upslope edge of the cut forming the terrace and erosion on the downslope edge.…”

“…The spatial analysis of these features indicates that with the exception of Tamewhera pā, pits and terraces lacking evidence of horticulture (e.g. stone mounds and lines) were correlated spatially only in certain locations (McIvor & Ladefoged ).…”

“…In addition, there are stone arrangements in a number of places on the island, such as that at T10/356, consistent with other examples of Māori gardening activity (Furey ), most notably in the Tamewhera area, in the north‐west of the island. This area contains stone alignments and terraces, indicating both occupation and horticultural activity (McIvor & Ladefoged ). Results of intensive surveying indicate the concentration of archaeological features on locations with andesitic‐ and basaltic‐derived soils.…”

“…It is hypothesised that these more fertile soils, in contrast to soils derived from rhyolitic pyroclastic and tuff deposits, were selected for horticultural practices and therefore influenced settlement locations. The evidence from Ahuahu suggests a clustered rather than more homogeneous land‐use pattern found, for example, on Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf (McIvor & Ladefoged ). On Ahuahu, the combination of soil types with different underlying fertility, and a regrowth clearance system involving burning to maintain ground fertility, may have resulted in a settlement system involving multiple short‐term episodes of feature construction at different times within relatively constrained spatial areas (McIvor & Ladefoged ).…”

“…Most recently, work has begun on a collaborative project with the University of Auckland, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Ngāti Hei – who have manawhenua (tribal authority over land) for Ahuahu – and owners the Fay and Richwhite families, to investigate the archaeology of Ahuahu from which the data discussed here is drawn (Davis & Ladefoged ; Furey et al . , ; McIvor ; McIvor & Ladefoged ; Phillipps et al . ; Prebble et al .…”