The Wairau Moa-Hunter Camp

This is indeed the most interesting Archaic site in New Zealand and the one with which the general public is most familiar. The grave offering found with burials of chiefly rank comprise some of the finest known Archaic artifacts. A great deal has been written about this site and I am sure that many of you will be familiar with Dr. Duff's book, "The Moa-hunter Period of Maori Culture." The site is a very large one, extending over 20 to 30 acres and it is the opinion of one authority that in Moa-hunter times the site was considerably larger, extending Northwards into the area now cut into by the Wairau River.

Resultant work from the excavations of 1963 and 1964 has been concerned mainly with the analysis of waste stone flakes and shell midden analysis. It is hoped that from the shell sampling it will be possible to obtain some idea of the total protein consumed on the site and perhaps an indication of population figures. An estimate has been made from the fragments of moa-egg shell found, that some 2,380 moa eggs were consumed. This would be a minimum figure, based on the average surface area of an egg as 140 square inches. From the waste flakes collected and examined, an estimated 30 tons of waste argillite litter the site. Wellman considers that in the manufacture of an average sized adze weighing 1½lbs., six pounds of waste flakes would result. This implies that some 3,000 adzes were manufactured at Wairau. These figures must not be taken too literally, but they do give some idea of the extent of the site.