NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Moa bones and adze head find may date to 1400s

NZPA
7 Apr, 2010 08:17 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Moa bones and a Maori adze head are discovered on an historic building site on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / NZPA
Moa bones and a Maori adze head are discovered on an historic building site on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / NZPA

Moa bones and a Maori adze head are discovered on an historic building site on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / NZPA

A highly significant archaeological find including Moa bones and a Maori adze head has been discovered on an historic building site on Auckland's North Shore.

The bones and adze head were uncovered at Torpedo Bay, Devonport, where a new navy museum is being developed and due to open in August.

On a scale of one to 10 the find rated as a 10 for its historic value, an archaeologist with Opus International Consultants Limited, the principal design consultants for the museum project Mica Plowman told NZPA.

The find was thought to be more than 500 years old, possibly dating back to the 1400s.

The adze head and bones of the large, flightless and now extinct moa were found in a large fire pit.

The bones were part of a bird which was killed, cooked and eaten by Maori, Ms Plowman said.

The find was hugely significant because "first-settlement sites" were very rare and few had been excavated in Auckland.

Where the bones were found in the cooking pit indicated they had been discarded, indicating those who had eaten the bird had not been worried about running out of moa bones, highly useful for carving and working into items for everyday life.

Moa were believed to have become extinct in New Zealand about 500 years ago. They grew to about four metres tall and were heavily hunted by Maori, leading to their eventual extinction.

The site was found during work to renovate old defence buildings in Torpedo Bay, an historic part of Devonport and the site of a navy base since 1866.

Torpedo Bay was used in the late 1800s as a submarine mining station to defend Auckland against a possible invasion from the Imperial Russian Fleet. The mines spanned the harbour entrance and could be detonated from the shore if an enemy ship came up the harbour to attack.

It was also the base for the spar torpedo boats which were fitted with a long spar with an attached warhead and used to ram enemy ships. The boats were never used in conflict in New Zealand. They were highly unstable and considered to be more dangerous for the crew than for enemy ships.

Ms Plowman said the historic site was about 50 metre back from the harbour but when Maori used it, the site would have been on the water's edge.

It was a rare, exciting and very significant find, she said.

Early settlement sites were rare because they were often beach front sites which did not survive.

"Moa bones were a very valuable commodity in early Maori society. It was a robust large bone which enabled them to make large fish hooks and things out of it."

Historians say Torpedo Bay had many layers of history from the early days of Maori settlement in Auckland.

Kupe, the great Maori navigator, was thought to have landed his canoe in the bay about 900AD and named it Te Hau Kapua (cloud bank carried along by the wind).

Later one of the great `seven canoe' fleet commanded by Chief Hoturoa landed the Tainui people who were thought to have named a spring in the area `Takapuna', which later came to refer to the surrounding area.

In 1917, during World War 1, German Captain Felix Graf von Luckner was held prisoner at Torpedo Bay before being transferred to the island prison at Motuihe in the Hauraki Gulf.

The cell in the cliff where von Luckner was held still existed and would be part of the new navy museum's outside exhibits.

- NZPA

Discover more

Opinion

Helen Laurenson: Museum's Centennial Street must be saved

04 Oct 09:50 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Upper Hutt house fire claims one life overnight

09 Jun 05:51 PM
New ZealandUpdated

Fog delays flights at Auckland Airport, thunderstorms forecast

09 Jun 05:50 PM
New Zealand

She was meant to be in Europe. Instead, she paid $36k for a cancer drug

09 Jun 05:03 PM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
She was meant to be in Europe. Instead, she paid $36k for a cancer drug
Bay of Plenty Times

She was meant to be in Europe. Instead, she paid $36k for a cancer drug

09 Jun 05:03 PM
News in brief: SPCA seeks cutest pets for annual calendar competition
Northern Advocate

News in brief: SPCA seeks cutest pets for annual calendar competition

09 Jun 05:00 PM
Morning quiz: Where was New Zealand's first McDonald's?
New Zealand

Morning quiz: Where was New Zealand's first McDonald's?

09 Jun 05:00 PM
‘It’s all backwards’: Father admitted to bar thanks to his daughter
Whanganui Chronicle

‘It’s all backwards’: Father admitted to bar thanks to his daughter

09 Jun 05:00 PM
'No excuse': High fines fail to deter misuse of mobility parking
Northern Advocate

'No excuse': High fines fail to deter misuse of mobility parking

09 Jun 05:00 PM

Latest from New Zealand

Hawke’s Bay’s new rescue chopper: Hangar upgrades, equipment could cost over $1m

Hawke’s Bay’s new rescue chopper: Hangar upgrades, equipment could cost over $1m

09 Jun 06:00 PM

Hawke’s Bay’s brand new rescue helicopter is set for arrival in September 2026.

On the Up: An ode to the crews keeping the lights on through our worst weather

On the Up: An ode to the crews keeping the lights on through our worst weather

09 Jun 06:00 PM
Morning quiz: Doublethink is a concept from which famous book?

Morning quiz: Doublethink is a concept from which famous book?

09 Jun 06:00 PM
Upper Hutt house fire claims one life overnight

Upper Hutt house fire claims one life overnight

09 Jun 05:51 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search