Archaeology dig reveals centuries of life at Kerikeri pā site

Objects found in the dig include an obsidian cutting flake and pre-1880s forged nails.

A Ngapuhi god of war has watched over an archaeological dig at the Kororipo pā of the notoriously blood-thirsty rangatira Hongi Hika.

Under the mauri, or life force, of a carving of the god Uepoto, the earth gave up a picture of its hidden past at the site of a large kainga called Te Kiri Kokai.

Up to 2000 people lived at the kainga which stretched from the pā to where Hone Heke Rd, in Kerikeri, now stands.

Over several weeks, kaitiaki Kipa Munro of Ngati Rehia, Department of Conservation historic ranger Andrew Blanshard and archaeologist Hans Bader have meticulously read the human history written in the ground above Kerikeri Basin.

Proof of hundreds of years of human inhabitation was revealed in stratum inside a grave-sized wedge, carefully dug in a scientifically calculated and culturally divined corner of the land.

Only a tiny area could be turned over to prevent the study being invasive and destructive, but this small excavation revealed gold.

Near the top, the team found evidence of the coming of Europeans in forged, not machined, lead nails and a small, unused musket ball.

''The early contact phase,'' Blanshard said.

At the very base of the excavation was a hāngī pit. With hāngī stones and signs of fire still in place, the pit was pierced by well preserved, deep holes in which were once embedded huge poles supporting a palisade.

That cooking pit was there long before the fortifications were built, possibly in the time of Hongi Hika's great-great-great-grandfather or even earlier, Munro said, naming those tupuna.

Diagonally across a shelf in the excavation was gravel, remnants of a path that once skirted the kainga walls.

Nearer the top were two clear layers of midden with 15cm of earth between each of them, and between the top midden and the surface, signifying generations of cooking and food preparation.

Obsidian flakes, ''kitchen utensils'', were also found in the sifted dirt taken from the hole.

Spiritually important as the Uepoto talisman was to the dig, vital were modern powers such as an aerial topographical survey and a geophysical survey using a geomagnetic imaging machine.

Combine those with historical documents, oral history, old photos, archaeological expertise in reading the lie of the land, and a picture emerged of perhaps 400 years of social living, Blanshard said.

But factor in, too, damage by bulldozing in the 1970s for a subdivision that never went ahead, the felling of gums, removal of stumps and other heavy impacts on the land.

''We've been mainly ascertaining if the ground has been disturbed by modern machinery or human habitation,'' Blanshard said.

They found both, through an exercise he described as ''archaeological key hole surgery''.

Bader's work was concerned with interpreting almost imperceptible shadows on the surface and correlating them with geomagnetic and aerial imaging.

On screen, the experts could see under the surface and identify hāngī pits, flat areas where whare had been, holes where stilts supported food storage platforms, paths, the palisaded perimeter and more. The site was less compromised than first feared.

Bader, who headed the study, said wherever a hole is dug or backfilled, the magnetic layers are disturbed.

''What causes the changes? I look at the pattern. I know what was caused by a DA [bulldozer] and what is two guys digging with sticks.''

The work finished on Friday. Its findings will now add to the story of the pā and kainga, and inform future work or development, Munro said.