Early Maori village unearthed

ROBERT CHARLES/Taranaki Daily News

Looking back at the past: Archaeologist Ivan Bruce examines a cooking fire site found among remnants of a pre-European Maori village found near Port Taranaki.

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The buried remains of a pre-European Maori village have been unearthed near Port Taranaki.

Workers building Port Taranaki's new three-storey office building overlooking Ngamotu Beach uncovered the settlement while doing earthmoving around the site before Christmas.

A local archaeologist, Ivan Bruce, was called in to investigate the discovery and said the age of the items found showed the settlement was most likely pre-European.

The discovery included hangi stones, food pits, cooking sites, the remnants of fish bones and obsidian flakes.

Mr Bruce said it was a traditional Maori village, closely associated with the nearby Otaka Pa.

Over the years as development began around the area, the site was covered over as streams were reclaimed and hills bulldozed away.

Unfortunately, Mr Bruce said much of the site was probably removed during excavations for the office building before it was discovered.

"I expect there was a much larger site here before the building went in," he said.

"A large part of the jigsaw puzzle has been chucked away.

"There's just little remnants around the edges but they are so interesting."

Mr Bruce said the items found at the site had been mapped using a theodolite (surveyors' tool), and stratigraphic drawings were made.

A special karakia was held on Thursday and yesterday local Ngati Te Whiti woman Julie Johns was preparing to remove the artefacts from the site so work on the office building could continue.

She said the hapu would meet to decide what to do with the artefacts.

"It's really awesome, we're really pleased with this find.

"It's something we can hang on to. Our tipuna have been here.

"It's important to our hapu because it's all we've got left."

Mr Bruce said the whole area around Port Taranaki was a treasure trove of potential historical sites.

"This is the area where the first white people who came to New Plymouth lived.

"New Plymouth was one of the first five cities in New Zealand so there's relationships of this site with early European contact. It's an early contact site and there aren't a lot left around New Zealand.

"Taranaki is one of the better areas for archaeology it has such a rich history."

While the site has now been recorded, analysed, studied and removed, Mr Bruce says he expects there will be further evidence of settlement found in the land behind the new office block if it is ever developed.

- © Fairfax NZ News