Extending the trench to determine the eastern extent of the site.
8
a.m. in the morning - low tide at Cook's Cove, with the rocky point
on the north entrance in view.
Sunday was a slow start as many of the crew are staring to feel weary
after two weeks working straight through. The sunny weather coupled with
a front-page article in the Gisborne Herald encouraged a lot of
visitors to make the trek over the hill to the site.
Taking Layer 5 down in 5cm spits is very time- consuming, especially
as we are wet-sieving all the material that comes out of the site, but
this process does lead to the recovery of lots of shell and bone. Among
some of the species of bird identified are blue penguin, kaka and tui,
and there are tarakihi and spotties in the fish bone.
The
relationship of Andy's trench to the remainder of the excavation.
Andy continued working on the 1 x 10m trench for most of the day, as
we endeavour to determine how far east the site extends. There is a large
quantity of slump material that has come down from the hill face and covered
the area to the east of the fenceline.
On Sunday night the whole crew decided to camp over at the site. Tents
were erected, a large bonfire was lit on the beach, and a fishing net
was strung out across the cove. The three directors remained at the marae
to do their update presentation to the local community, before they returned
to the site. These updates are proving very popular, and are an excellent
means of engaging the Hauiti people in the excavation, especially as so
many of them are taking the opportunity to visit us on site.
Left:
Karen and Rick excavating Layer 5 Spit 5 in O12 (refer to site map).
Right: Detail of the base of Layer 5 Spit 4 in O11 west (refer to
site map).
On Monday, refreshed by the successful "catch" in the fishing
net, work continued in Layer 5 across the site. In O11 east (refer to
the site map), a number of intercutting ovens are slowly being half-sectioned
and recorded. In the base of O12 Layer 5, there are a number of moa bones
starting to appear, and by the end of the day, we may have found the pelvis
and vertebral column from a discarded moa carcass.
Andy's trench meanwhile is now over 2m deep at the uphill end and possible
areas of cultural material (midden and hangi stones) have started to appear.
Tomorrow we'll extend the trench under the fenceline and connect it to
O11 east, to get a better picture of how the cultural layers pan out.
