New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Index  >  Vol 25 Gumbley

 

NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY ISSN 0110~540X ABSTRACT

 

Prehistoric Horticultural Adaptation

of Soils in the Middle Waikato Basin:

Review and Evidence from S14/201

and S14/185, Hamilton

 

W. Gumbley1

T.F.G. Higham2

D.J. Low3

 

ABSTRACT

The middle Waikato basin contains extensive evidence, reviewed here, for the

modification of soils for horticulture (gardening) by pre-European Maori. We

investigated an area of Maori gardens at archaeological sites S14/201 and S14/185 in

Hamilton City. Two groups of multiple, near-circular hollows, each about 0.3 m in

diameter and infilled with gravelly sand, were exposed during the site excavations.

The hollows, extending through modified A horizon materials into upper B horizon

materials, are interpreted as representing the lower part of small truncated mounds

(puke) that had been built up by early Maori for growing ku¯mara (Ipomoea batatas).

The hollows were grouped in a distinctive quincunx-like pattern in which four

hollows formed the corners of a square with one hollow in the centre. The

characteristics and layout of the hollows match historical descriptions of mounds used

by Maori gardeners. We also used particle-size analysis to quantify the extent to

which upper horizons of the antecedent soils had been modified by the addition of

gravel and sand excavated from borrow pits in adjacent volcanogenic alluvium

(Hinuera Formation). A radiocarbon date obtained from charcoal found in a fireplace

under the modified A horizon and near the hollows suggests that the site was

occupied in the late fifteenth century. Identification to species level of charcoal

fragments found in the modified soil suggests that site S14/201 may have been

cleared of large podocarp trees not long before gardening activities began. This

conclusion is supported by similar evidence from another site on the same stretch of

the Waikato River. If so, such late (localised) deforestation contrasts with evidence

from other palaeoenvironmental studies that shows regional deforestation began

considerably earlier (about AD 1300) in the Waikato region.

 

Keywords: MAORI GARDENS, PLAGGEN SOILS, ANTHROPIC SOILS,

PREHISTORIC HORTICULTURE, KU¯MARA, PUKE, BORROW PITS, WAIKATO,

HAMILTON, TAMAHERE SOILS.

 

1 7 Plunket Terrace, Hamilton, New Zealand

2 Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford

OX1 3QJ, United Kingdom

3  Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

 

Ó Copyright New Zealand Archaeological Association.

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