The
team in front of the wharenui, Ruakapanga, at Hauiti Marae
The last day of the excavation was the hottest day yet, and a lot remained
to be done. Areas O12 and O11 West were finished, that is, all of the
cultural material had been removed to reveal the buried natural beach
front. Drawings of the stratigraphy of these areas were completed.
Andy
in the finished eastern trench.
Meanwhile, other dedicated team members toiled relentlessly in the broiling
sun to shovel mountains of soil back into Andy's trench. Fortunately,
the other excavated areas were accessible by tractor so did not need to
be backfilled by hand.
In O11 East, we continued to excavate through the remaining archaeological
deposits. Ovens were mapped, and removed so that the lowermost layers
could be uncovered. Already, there was plenty of evidence that the area
was used for cooking.
On the final day of excavation, artefacts were recovered from the lowest
levels suggesting that stone-tool working also took place in the vicinity.
Several stone files, that were probably used to polish and grind bone
tools in the final stages of their production, were present. Hammer-stones,
used for stone-flaking, were also recovered, as were large obsidian flakes
and cores (from which flakes had been struck). Moa bones (including another
tarsometatarsus) were present; these were concentrated in the southern
end of the area.
The
site prior to backfilling, the early village layer is the dark soil
towards the bases of the excavated areas.
In O11 east the team have been struggling down through the ovens - more
than nine in total, one with a large posthole cut through it. To try and
speed up the process we resorted to using hoes and spades to carefully,
but slightly more quickly, remove the cultural material.
Features cut into the natural subsoil - like postholes and drains - often
stand out very clearly once the bottom of the site is reached. This was
the case in area O11 East: the very dark contents of several postholes
and a possible drain contrasted markedly against the yellow natural beach
gravel. This structural evidence was mapped, the features were half-sectioned,
and the excavation was complete at last. The team went for a swim.
Left:
Backfilling the trench
Right: Backfilling O11 west.
