I frequented the Auckland Museum on the days I had cancer treatment at Auckland Hospital in 2021, looking for early and pre-Maori exhibits. Here are some notable items I read about in the Journal of the Polynesian Society while researching the Waitaha.
To me, the figure-head of this ancient canoe prow looks like a Griffin. The canoe prow and stern were found at Doubtless Bay.
The object was discovered during swamp draining operations at a depth of 5ft. Papers Past: DISCOVERY AT MANGONUI. MYSTERY AS TO ORIGIN. GIFT MADE- TO THE MUSEUM.
Doubtless Bay canoe Prow and stern, Auckland Museum.
The canoe prow is shown on item h of the Journal of the Polynesian Society plate:
Items b and f are Waitaha artifacts from the coastal region between Taranaki and Wellington.
Specifically, Item b was found in the Rangitikei River Mouth near my hometown of Wanganui.
These are described as twin-lobed pendants,
Item f was found at Okehu (Maxwell), on the other side of Wanganui. The only other one of its kind was found on the Isle of Wight in the UK, the other side of the world! This raises more questions than answers. Note, I did not see item f in Auckland Museum.
South Taranaki Artifacts
This wooden head was dug up from the Waitore Swamp near Patea, South Taranaki. It’s among the oldest wooden artifacts found in NZ.
I cannot find it in any museum.
Wellington Museum visit, 20th August 2024
Four years later and in much better health, I visited the Wellington Museum. This museum actually attributes some of the artifacts to the Waitaha people.
Click here for more artifacts from the collections at Te Papa.
This is supplementary to the page on The Waitaha.
Links
The wooden head from Waitore swamp: Source: NZ Archaeological Association, Early prehistoric wooden artefacts from the Waitore Site near Patea, Taranaki
Waitore site
There is a number of well known moa-hunter sites at mouths of rivers along this stretch of coast. It is not clear whether this distribution is real or is an artifact of site destruction elsewhere along the Taranaki Coast (Anderson 1989).
There is a narrow strip of sand country along part of this coast with few recorded sites. It is not clear whether this is an actual absence of sites, a reflection of the lack of recording, or a lack of visibility of sites. The Waitore site, located between the Patea and Whenuakura Rivers, is currently the earliest dated assemblage of wooden artefacts in New Zealand. The site was buried under metres of sand and only uncovered by a stream cutting into the dune. Source: DOC, Archaeology of the Taranaki-Wanganui region
NZShortWalks 