Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs
Coromandel region
Coromandel region
The Coromandel Peninsula comprises a range of hills of ancient, partly volcanic origin. Some of the rocks have substantial mineral values. 3 The soils are poor even where they are not excessively hilly and the streams are not navigable, so pre-European Māori settlement was largely confined to a narrow coastal margin. The peninsula has nevertheless been very important in the history of New Zealand archaeology. 4 In the 1950s it was the location of Jack Golson's excavations at Sarah's Gully, from which he described an example of early North Island Polynesian horticulturalists. 5 Prior to this time, only the earliest South Island archaeological sites had been described, and there was no horticultural evidence. These early sites, occupying sheltered coves on the northeastern tip of the Kuaotunu Peninsula, are not visually impressive from the air, with few surface archaeological features. Views of the peninsula and Sarah's Gully featured in a discussion of vertical and oblique aerial photographs in chapter 1.
A prominent feature of the peninsula landscape is Mt Tahanga, one of the most important sources of stone for making adzes in pre-European New Zealand. Adzes made in this stone are often of the earlier types, not dissimilar to the patterns of adze made at Wairau Bar and in East Polynesia at the same time. The stone was used from the earliest periods and traded throughout the northern and eastern North Island in large quantities. 6
Mt Tahanga, a volcanic dome and site of early Maori quarrying for adze stone
Stone at the summit has been quarried, with floors of flaked stone in many places around it, although they do not show in this photograph because of the scrub cover. The summit may have been a pā since it appears to have been defended by a low stone wall or stone-faced scarp, visible in this photograph taken from the north-west.