![]() ![]() Three models to explain this pattern of settlement are evaluated and the one that is selected as the best fit is a resource network model in which Foveaux Strait may never have been permanently settled in prehistory but was always peripheral to wider economic imperatives. The results confirmed the initial impression of an all but invisible archaeological presence in the Foveaux Strait area for a period of up to two centuries until about the contact period. To investigate these features a radiocarbon dating programme was carried out alongside a study of specific aspects of material culture and site distribution. Furthermore, there was a bias towards relatively small sites except where stone procurement or working were the major focus of activity. ![]() Although there was clear evidence for widespread settlement early in the prehistoric sequence and again early in the period of sustained European contact, there was a marked absence of evidence for settlement during much of the intervening period. This paper documents the significance of Colyers Island as an important adze production complex in New Zealand.Ī recent archaeological survey of the south coast of the South Island of New Zealand highlighted some unusual features of the occupation of this part of the country. Adze blanks on Colyers Island were made from large flakes, tabular blocks and cobbles, using imported hammer stones. The initial stages of adze manufacture were undertaken at the quarry, and then preforms were taken to multipurpose camp sites around the harbour for finishing. The quarried boulders, outcrops and artefact distributions at these sites indicated that the raw material was exploited by highly organised and skilled craft specialists. The sites on Colyers Island were surveyed as the first part of an archaeological investigation of quarrying and adze production in Bluff Harbour. The most extensive sources of Bluff argillite are on Colyers Island, where there is evidence of quarrying and preform production along much of the coast. Argillite from the Bluff and Riverton sources was a major attractor during the earliest period of human occupation and Bluff argillite adzes were distributed widely throughout the lower South Island. Here, an industry developed during the colonisation phase based on the exploitation of numerous sources of argillite – a fine‐grained, homogeneous rock with conchoidal fracture properties. Both localities are considered in relation to current models for settlement in the Foveaux Strait area, with specific detail to the importance of Bluff argillite as an early stone resource driving activity in the region.īluff Harbour, in southern New Zealand (Murihiku), is the southernmost location of Polynesian adze production. 3D models of adzes, adze fragments, blanks and preforms from the Tiwai Point excavation were created and analysed to study strategies of raw material procurement in the harbour and adze manufacturing technology at the site. Tiwai Point was a multipurpose hunting and stone working site excavated in the late 1960s prior to the construction of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter. The current condition of the major sites on the island were recorded, and the largest quarrying area mapped. Colyers Island is the largest source of Bluff argillite, with archaeological material exposed throughout much of the intertidal zone. This paper explores quarrying and adze production activities in the harbour focusing on two key locations – Colyers Island and Tiwai Point. Bluff Argillite was used as the main raw material for a major operation of adze production in the Bluff Harbour area, and the resulting tools were distributed over much of the of the South Island. Several locations throughout the Bluff Harbour area exhibit extensive outcrops of Bluff Argillite, an indurated metasediment used to produce adzes in the first few centuries of the Polynesian settlement of New Zealand. ![]()
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