Artifact Studies

By 1926 H. D. Skinner was able to write to Frederick V. Knapp that he thought he had a representative collection of Nelson area artifacts. Knapp had provided most of these. Both Knapp and Skinner were educated at Nelson College. Knapp remained in Nelson to teach for 40 years. He died in 1945. Knapp was more then a curio collector. At a meeting of the Scientific Branch of the Nelson Institute on July 13, 1921 he reported the essence of Skinner's "Culture Areas" paper which Skinner had read at the New Zealand Institute Science Congress at Palmerston North in January, 1920. Knapp attempted to extend Skinner's description of the Whakatu Area by discussing settlement pattern, lithic resource usage and economy. The idea of culture area remained important to him and gave his research meaning and direction – "The end I had in view was to ultimatley hand my collection over to the museum, preferably in Nelson, as the centre of the Tasman Bay culture area." Knapp's interest in the prehistoric Maori was wide ranging, as later sections of this paper will show, but his published works (1924, 1928, 1929, 1938, 1941) give the impression that he was interested only in the unpolished stone implements used in working timber.

Between 1933 and 1942 David Teviotdale hunted for artifacts for Skinner on various occasions in the Tasman Bay area (McIlwraith, n.d.: l-8). This fossicker was concerned only with the retrieval of artifacts, though their context was sometimes recorded. He visited D'Urville Island and Rabbit page 41Island and possibly other sites during this period. H. M. Leach (1972) notes that Teviotdale's methods were common (he used a modified rabbiter's adze) and that he really believed he was "contributing to the understanding of man's culture history in New Zealand."

W. Orchiston (1974: Vol. 2) has noted various artifact forms present in the Tasman Bay area as part of his research on South Island Maori material culture. Walls (1976) has also contributed to our knowledge of Tasman Bay artefacts. More recently A. Challis (1976, 1978) has provided an analysis of the known material culture of the Motueka Maori. D. Millar (1971) has published the results of an analysis of the artefactual material from the early sites at Tahunanui.