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

Horticulture

Horticulture

Storage pits can be seen everywhere in vast numbers on the East Coast, particularly along the coastal ridges and around rivers. As many as 80 pits can be seen together in a single group, sometimes within the defensive perimeter of a single pā. An example is illustrated here of a pā near Tūpāroa in the Waiapu district. Pits are common on ridge ends near alluvial soils, where they indicate the use of these soils for gardening. Pits are also found in smaller numbers in isolated clusters, away from the main areas of settlement and pā. Occasionally an isolated pā will have a small number of pits in its vicinity, probably used at the same time as the pā. It is difficult to illustrate this pattern because of its extensive nature. 19

On the East Coast, soils are usually quite fine and silty with little stone. Any gardening structures such as the mounds or rows seen from the Endeavour by Banks and Monkhouse in 1769 would quickly erode. Opportunities to detect gardening forms of the type seen in the volcanic areas of the far north or the stony coastal strip of the Wairarapa are therefore lacking. However, in the Cape Runaway vicinity is an area of stony soils, unique in the region because of their volcanic origin. Stone rows were created running for 100 to 200 m from the foot of the very steep hill slopes to the rocky shore. The soils between these rows, deep and full of small stones, warm very rapidly in spring, while the rows themselves dry out. Occasionally, the spacing between the rows at the top of a fan is closer than that known elsewhere in New Zealand, for example Palliser Bay, suggesting a function both in the gardening itself (such as support for vines) and clearance of stones from the soil. A more normal spacing is about 12 m. Photographs taken in spring show the pattern of the rows very clearly 20 because the stone rows have dead yellow grass on them while the garden fields between are still green. The setting of such gardens, just behind the shoreline at the foot of very steep slopes, is obvious in the early drawings from the Endeavour of Anaura Bay to the south. 21