Surveying and mapping continues, recovering midden material
from Layer 5.
Visitors
from the local community joining the archaeological team for morning tea on Saturday.
On Saturday, the excavation continued through Layer 5 in Area 012 (refer
to the site excavation map). Layer 5, at the Cooks Cove site, is a dark charcoal-stained
soil with shell and some fish and bird bone. All of the midden from this layer
is being recovered by way of wet-sieving. The excavated material is placed in
large sieves with a 4 mm mesh and, taken to the edge of the sea, and shaken in
the shallow water. All that remains in the sieve after this process is dried,
bagged and retained for analysis.
Richard
Walter using Leica theodolite
In Area O11-west,
Layer 4 was removed to expose the top of Layer 5. The extent of Layer 5 in this
area is not yet clear; there appears to be a lense of pale coloured sand directly
beneath Layer 4 in some parts of this area.
Meanwhile, Area O11-east was
excavated a further 5 cm. Layer 5 was revealed in the southern end of the area
but was seen to be sloping toward the northern end of the excavation unit and
is approximately 10 cm lower than at this end of the area.
Chris
Jacomb wet-sieving material.
The team worked for
half a day on Sunday. Heavy rain had fallen during the night which made the areas
slightly muddy and only a minimal amount of excavation was carried out. This involved
levelling the surface in Area O11-east and wet sieving and bagging the material
recovered. Several other activities were carried out during the course of the
day. A small group went foraging around the rocks about 100 m from the site and
found a variety of marine foods which have all been discovered during the course
of excavation.
Recording
a terrace using a hand-held GPS unit.
A detailed
map of the archaeological and natural landscape surrounding the Cooks Cove site
is being produced with the theodolite and with GPS technology. The theodolite
has been used to record the excavation areas, features within these areas and
landforms around the site. The shoreline was recorded today as well as caves,
springs and fence lines.
Some
of the terraces on the pa site looking south.
The headland to the west of the site is a large pa, with many terraces
and storage pits clearly visible. In the image opposite, the ridges in
the middle ground and foreground of the photograph are terraced. Mapping
of these features using GPS began today; this involved climbing the hillside,
and tracing the terraces and pits with a hand held GPS device. About 40
separate features were mapped this way on Sunday, with many more yet to
be recorded. Pa are characteristic of the later "Classic Maori"
phase of New Zealand prehistory. The pa is therefore not contemporaneous
with the earlier Cooks Cove site that is being excavated.
