Internet Archaeol. 16. Phillips. Example from Aotearoa

2.0 An example from Aotearoa/New Zealand

Aotearoa/New Zealand provides the location of this test case. The study area is approximately 25km long and 5km wide, bordering the lower Waihou River, Hauraki, in the northern North Island (Fig. 3). This was an untypical location for Māori settlement, yet at the time of European contact (AD 1769) it was one of the most powerful regions in the northern half of the North Island, and the population may have fluctuated around 2000 people (Phillips 2000a; but Furey (1996) and Monin (2001) suggest that there may have been three times that number). One of the settlements in particular, Oruarangi, has yielded the greatest number of portable artefacts found in a Māori site (unfortunately all fossicked), and more recently archaeology and other studies have described a complex history of settlement along the river (Phillips 2000a; Furey 1996; Monin 2001).