Maori occupation sites in back beach deposits around Tasman Bay.

Abstract

The study of New Zealand's prehistory is beset by a number of problems. Chief among them are the lack of confident indicators of cultural change, and the lack of sufficient detail about sites over a wide area. Insufficient evidence of the general framework of successive occupation in New Zealand is available to the research worker. The archaeologist is faced with constructing a framework of occupation by extrapolation between excavated sites over a wide area. The variation in opinion evident in literature on New Zealand is prehistory bears witness to the dangers of this. On the other hand, site surveys cover a wide area, but in insufficient detail to allow much interpretation of the results. The value of this study, therefore, lies in its intermediacy. A wide area can be, and was, covered in sufficient detail to suggest a framework of successive Maori occupation, and to indicate some relationships: between the Maori and his environment, as portrayed in a site.