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Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs

Glossary

page 276

Glossary

Adze. A wood-cutting implement like an axe with the blade oriented at 90° to the user. Used for reducing and dressing large wooden surfaces.

Archaic. The earliest period in pre-European times, when artefacts were of a distinctly East Polynesian type. Period: approximately A.D. 1100-1400 (or 850-450 years B.P.). Compare with Classic.

Aruhe. Rhizome of the fern, Pteridium esculentum. See also fern root.

B.P., years B.P. Years before present day (i.e., 1950), the technical form in which radiocarbon ages are reported.

Bastion. A projecting part of a defensive perimeter, designed to enable defenders to fire into the flank of any attackers close to the walls or in the ditch; usually a feature of fortifications with straight perimeter lengths greater than about 50 m.

Beam engine. A simple, early form of steam engine in which the expansion and contraction of the steam cylinder is transmitted by an overhead beam (as opposed to push/pull rods) to the drive or pump. Cornish beam engine: used for pumping water from mine shafts.

Blowing-down. An early form of ground-sluicing, common in the Cromwell (Central Otago) area.

Border-dike. A form of irrigation where the water is controlled by banks regularly spaced along the contour of a field. Borrow-pit. A pit or depression from which gravel or sand has been taken, usually to add as a mulch or surface cover on garden soils.

Breastwork. A bank created for fortification, usually forward of a trench, against which a defender lay or kneeled to fire.

Cabbage tree. Cordyline australis; a tree with a distinctive head of broad strap-leaves and bare trunk. See also tī.

Classic. The later period in pre-European times. Period: approximately A.D. 1500 to 1800 (or 350-150 years B.P.). The cultural practices described by Cook and Banks in 1769 are essentially Classic. Compare with Archaic.

Colluvial soils. Soils formed in sediments washed down and deposited at the toe of hill slopes—much used in pre-European coastal gardening.

Counter-scarp. The scarp of the outer edge on a trench, see also scarp.

Crop mark. A pattern in grass or a field crop, which shows the presence of more or less fertile, or more or less well-drained, soils; infilled trenches; or foundations beneath the topsoil. Ditch and bank fence. A stock-proof fence consisting of a low bank often surmounted by a fence or hedge with a ditch on one or both sides.

Drive. A more or less horizontal tunnel into a hill slope, as opposed to a vertical 'shaft'.

Enfilade. Fire directed along the line of a rifle trench rather than from in front.

Fern root. The rhizome of fern, Pteridium esculentum. See also aruhe.

Fill. Layers of soil added to level a terrace or fill in pits. Fighting stage. A stage erected at a height of 6-10 m immediately inside the defensive perimeter of a pā and on which the defenders stood to throw darts or stones.

Flanking angle. A bastion on the corner of a square or rectangular fortification to allow enfilading fire on attackers gathered in the perimeter trench.

Gallery (mining). Wider tunnels in a coalmine, in which the roof is supported by buttresses.

Ground-sluicing. Running water over the surface of the ground, working up the ground surface by pick at the same time; the debris was channelled into sluice boxes for gold to settle.

Hapū. Sub-tribe, or group of extended families with closely related ancestors.

Head race. A race or trench used to bring water from a stream or dam to the site.

Herring-bone tailings. See tailings.

Infra-red film. A film sensitive to infra-red light, the main advantage of which is sensitivity to light reflected from leaves—as a result, the film can reveal when crops are beginning to wilt and will show up crop marks. See also thermal infra-red.

Inner, outer. With reference to defences, the inner side is the side nearest the defenders.

Iwi. Tribe; Māori people in general.

Kāmahi. Weinmannia racemosa; a forest tree, typical of intermediate to late forest successions.

Kanuka. Kunzea ericoides; a medium-sized tree, typically present in early and intermediate forest successions.

Kauri. Agathis australis; a large conifer tree once dominant in far northern forests.

Kingite. Supporter of the Māori King Movement. The first Māori King was Te Wherowhero who became Potatau I.

Kūmara. Sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas.

Kūpapa. Paid Māori troops deployed with the Armed Constabulary.

Lahar mound. A large hummock or small hill in the debris spilling from crater lakes in volcanic landscapes.

Landform. The general form of the surface of the land. See also terrace landform.

Lands. A feature of areas of ground ploughed in a particular technique. From each furrow, the sod was turned towards the centre of the strip, with the plough working in the opposite direction on the other side of the centre. Lands are the long shallow depressions formed between the strips where the sod has been turned away by plough from both sides. Compare ridge and furrow.

Lateral ditch and bank. A defensive ditch and bank constructed on the sides of a ridge as part of the defensive perimeter of a pā; such features are often simply a long lateral scarp and narrow terrace.

Mana whenua. Prestige or power derived from the holding of land.

Manuka. Leptospermum scoparium; a small shrub, an immediate coloniser of bare soil.

Marae. The formal Māori settlement complex or centre, consisting of the meeting house (wharenui) and open space in front, plus ancillary buildings; or simply the space in front of the wharenui.

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Midden. Food refuse such as bone, shells and oven debris.

Oblique photograph, aerial oblique. A view from an angle less than directly vertical.

Pā, pā maioro. Earthwork fortification. The defences may be natural, steep slopes, deliberately steepened scarps, or ditches and banks.

Palisade. Defensive fence of tall posts constructed at the perimeter of pā, with lighter timbers between tall posts. See also stockade.

Papakainga. Ancient settlement, or a Māori settlement occupied in modern times but close to sites of ancient settlement.

Parallel, demi-parallel. A trench constructed at right angles to the line of a sap, to enable a fuller field of fire against the defenders or to take outlying positions which threaten the sap.

Pātere. A general term for songs which recite ancestral travels.

Perimeter, defended perimeter. The outer defensive line of a pā or other fortification.

Photogrammetry. The technique of using aerial photographs to produce maps.

Plan, plan view. The view of an archaeological site seen or drawn from directly above; the view in the horizontal plane. See also section.

Platform. Open level spaces standing at the top of a slope, usually in a pā. Tihi: the highest, most prominent platform.

Queenite. Māori supporter of the government or Queen Victoria.

Raised-rim pit. A semi-subterranean pit, rectangular in plan, with a raised rim and often a perimeter drain. In use, the pit had a roof, perhaps of earth, with a central ridge pole and support.

Redoubt. A European fortification, typically square or rectangular in plan, with a perimeter ditch and bank.

Return. Deliberately constructed turns in the line or plan of a rifle trench to prevent enfilading fire.

Rewarewa. Knightia excelsa; a forest tree prominent on dry ridges, predominantly in the North Island, and a typical forest cover of abandoned pā.

Ridge and furrow. A series of broad ridges in horse-ploughed fields, created by repeated ploughing in lands—the effect can be very long-lasting.

Ring-ditch, ring-ditch pā. A defensive ditch enclosing most of a site in a more or less continuous line.

Rohe. Tribal boundary.

Rua. Kūmara storage pit; in the archaeologist's sense, a fully subterranean pit, usually bell-shaped in section with a narrow opening at the ground surface.

Sap. A trench dug to shelter attacking troops and bring them up to a defended position.

Scarp. The artificially steepened slope forming the downhill or uphill slope of a terrace or a ditch and bank. See also counterscarp.

Scow. Flat-bottomed sailing boat of simple but robust construction detail, used for moving cargo.

Section. The view of a vertical cut through an archaeological site; the view in the vertical plane. See also plan.

Sluice-monitor. A large cast-iron nozzle and universal joint used to direct water-flow on to a sluice face.

Soil mark. A pattern in an exposed soil surface, such as a ploughed field, in which an archaeological site is marked by a darker or lighter-coloured soil.

Stereo-glasses, stereoscopic glasses. A pair of small magnifying glasses held in a frame at a constant height from a pair of stereo-photographs.

Stereoscopic photograph. A pair of photographs taken from slightly separated viewpoints which mimic the spacing of the eyes. When seen through stereo-glasses, an exaggerated three-dimensional image of a landscape can be seen.

Stockade. A defensive perimeter made of solid upright timbers and with loopholes for firing through. See also palisade.

Stratigraphy. The layers of an archaeological site. Vertical stratigraphy shows the sequence in which the site was laid down; horizontal stratigraphy shows the pattern of activities on a surface, for example, a house floor.

Supply race. A trench or race bringing water from a holding pond or head race to the sluice-face.

Tail race. A race or trench used to rid a site of used water.

Tailings. Stones and gravel left after ground has been sluiced; stone tailings were often stacked in a definite pattern, such as a 'herring-bone' pattern.

Talus. Debris from a shaft or drive, generally in a characteristic cone-shaped heap, spilling down a slope. Tauranga waka. Canoe (waka) landing place.

Taua. War party.

Tawa. Beilschmiedia tawa; a forest tree typical of forest cover on lowland North Island hill slopes.

Terrace landform. Level or near-level flat land surfaces, often dissected and uplifted and with steep sides cut by river or wave-action.

Terrace risers. The uphill or downhill scarp of a terrace.

Terrace tread. The flat part of a terrace.

Ti. Tree of genus Cordyline, see also cabbage tree.

Tihi. See platform.

Transverse ditch and bank. A defensive ditch and bank constructed across a ridgeline.

Tree fern. Genus: Cyathea, Dicksonia.

Thermal infra-red. Part of the infra-red wavelength that is sensitive to heat; the wavelength is detected through electronic sensors and the image is of low resolution.

Umu. Earth oven; shows in archaeological sites as a lens of blackened earth with charcoal and burnt and split stones.

Urupā. Cemetery.

Venturi-siphoning. A method of passing water down to a sluice face below groundwater level, and using the venturi-effect to bring the water and gravel up to a level from where the gold could be extracted and the waste water drained away. Waka. Canoe; also a metaphor for iwi.

Water-meadow. An English technique to stimulate pasture growth in winter where, in freezing weather, water is brought to the field, raising the temperature significantly enough for grass to grow.

Whānau. An extended family; in pre-European period, the typical unit of settlement for gardening and other subsistence activities.

Whare. House.

Wild-flooding. A form of irrigation whereby water is released on natural field surfaces, see also border-dike.