Ian Barber

Sea, land and fish: spatial relationships and the archaeology of South Island Maori fishing

Customary Maori uses of the sea recognized ritual restrictions enforced by supernatural penalties and jurisdictions. In contrast, archaeological interpretations of Maori fishing behaviour emphasize extractive opportunism and, more recently, foraging theory. Archaeological fish catch data are considered from early and later period middens of Te Tau Ihu (northern South Island) to evaluate these seemingly contrastive views. The archaeological sequence is characterized by a highly focused inshore fishing strategy changing only in the identification of the dominant species. Over time the catch pattern shifts to target predictable, fast-growing cool-water species. This change can be interpreted to support explanations of ritually restrictive or low-risk extractive behaviour. These explanations are not mutually exclusive of necessity. Cultural restrictions and boundaries associated with the customary seascape ensured a sustainable and low-risk fish catch, while reinforcing the efficacy of ritual behaviour.

Growing images: generating 3D digital models to investigate archaeological Moriori carvings on live trees

Three-dimensional (3D) digital models have been used globally to investigate archaeological carvings on natural surfaces. However, the associated capital costs and technical requirements can discourage the uptake of digital modelling for primary field analysis. One solution is to employ lightweight handheld laser scanners to generate basic 3D models of selected object areas for visual examination and immediate feedback. This targeted approach is illustrated in the investigation of a novel, threatened type of archaeological art form: carvings indented into live trees by Moriori people of the southern Polynesian Chatham Islands. In this investigation, variously lighted and rotated 3D models and paired photographs of Moriori tree carvings are examined to address research questions and assist in conservation planning.

Diffusion or innovation? Explaining lithic agronomy on the southern Polynesian margins

Abstract Distant but cognate, pre-contact southern Polynesians created extensive rocky cultivation sediments and soils. This early agronomy is evaluated as evidence of innovation or diffusion associated with South American sweet potato (kumara) introductions. For South Island Maori, soil temperatures and drainage were improved in kumara cultivation under and within transported gravel and sand deposits. On Rapa Nui/Easter Island, rocky sediment was spread over cultivation fields to conserve soil and moisture against desiccating winds. While there is overlap in lithic sediment, anthrosol thickness and size classes from both distant islands, the evidence of discrete physical properties and environments is more consistent with innovation. On Rapa Nui, low-elevation lithic cultivation has continued to the present. Extensive northern South Island lithic fields were abandoned before the nineteenth century ad, perhaps because of social disruption or climate change.

Gardens of Rongo: Applying Cross-Field Anthropology to Explain Contact Violence in New Zealand

The scholarship of early-contact violence involving European voyagers and the first peoples of the Americas and Oceania is notable for divergent interpretations and debates around the methods and ethics of historical ethnography, as in the celebrated controversy over Captain James Cook’s 1779 Hawaiian death. Scholars agree that this divergence is exacerbated by reliance on fragmentary or tendentious documentary sources. New research on the “first contact” in 1642 between a Dutch expedition and South Island New Zealand Māori suggests the potential value of a cross-field anthropology to elucidate encounter violence. Archaeological, ethnobotanical, and anthropology of religion research results are reported so as to inform a cultural-landscape interpretation for the contact events of December 18 and 19, 1642. This provides for a new reading of the encounter around local perceptions of Dutch interests in kūmara (sweet potato) fields under tapu (a restricted, spiritually dangerous state) and the ritual care of the deity Rongo. Cross-field anthropology may yet encourage new collaborations in contact studies and prove useful in generating testable explanations of violent historical encounters where traditional accounts are sparse.

Archaeological art debates and Polynesian images in place

Abstract This essay addresses debates over the study of archaeological art objects. I review and recognise value in Gells ideas about the social agency of art, Scotts challenge to consider local significance in evaluating ancient artistic expressions, and Meskell, Gosden et al. on notions of biography or life history as applied to cultural objects. In the last regard, it is recognised that many indigenous communities continue to care for and recreate ancestral images as culturally active productions at historical and more recent sites of significance. Taking this lead, I argue that the analysis of cultural historical space is critical to achieve a meaningful social understanding of archaeological images in place. I illustrate the point with reference to Polynesian studies involving historical and contemporary interpretations of erect archaeological images, including biologically and culturally live Moriori tree carvings on Rēkohu (Chatham Island).

The Difficult Place of Deserted Coasts in Archaeology: New Archaeological Research on Cooks Beach (Pukaki), Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Sites which have been occupied semi-continuously in the past present some inherent difficulties for archaeology. Here we present new research from a coastal site on the North Island of New Zealand at Cooks Beach where anthropogenic vegetation changes are seen using microfossil analysis of obsidian tools, sediments and pit fill. The results indicate the initial presence of people in AD 1300–1400 followed by subsequent periods of disuse or abandonment and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation. Around the time of initial settlement, obsidian from this location is found at sites across the country. After AD 1400 the area appears to be deserted for a century or more, after which we see evidence for the cultivation of sweet potato in AD 1500 as evidenced by extensive soil modification and numerous storage pits. There is no evidence of a permanent settlement at the site. The geographic distribution of Cooks Beach obsidian was constricted while the site was used for sweet potato cultivation, a pattern often attributed to increased warfare. It appears cultivation was abandoned after AD 1650 marking a second secession of use, a fact confirmed in AD 1769 when Captain Cook visited the area. We consider the possible drivers for the late abandonment of cultivation at Cooks Beach.