SKULL ON THE BEACH Where did it come from? And is that hole from a bullet?

A human skull unearthed in a small Northland township and pierced by what looks like a bullet hole had police fearing a murder.
The discovery was made by 24-year-old Jolene Leaf near Opononi, Hokianga. She spotted a pair of dogs playing on a walkway with what she thought was a ball.
When she drove past again three hours later, she realised the "ball" was in fact a human skull.
It was only when she took a closer look that she became excited and took it to a Rawene policeman's home.
"When I saw the bullet hole I wondered what had happened," she said.
Police searched the Snake Gully area and immediately sent the skull for forensic testing.
Kaikohe police Detective Sergeant Rhys Johnston said he was relieved to find out the skull, found last Thursday, dated back to the pre-European era and not some recent sinister event.
"We had to take it seriously as it could have been a homicide. The skull had a round hole in the side of it which looked like a bullet hole. Not that I've seen very many bullet holes in skulls," Mr Johnston admitted.
Police have been liaising with the local hapu, and John Klaricich of Ngati Korokoro said they were waiting to find out the age and gender of the deceased before the skull was handed back in an official ceremony.
"It is obviously part of a full skeleton and our next responsibility will be to locate the full remains and lay them to rest. It's very unusual for remains to be found in this area, so we'll be able to learn more about the history from this discovery," he said.
Mr Klaricich said, from his experience of dealing with historic remains, the skull did not look Maori.
"There are usually lots of Maori characteristics, such as the jaw bone and how it is hinged. I wish they could reconstruct the skull so we could see what the person would have looked like," he said.
Mr Klaricich was unsure whether the skull had been dislodged during recent erosion of the bank below the roadside or had been washed in from the harbour.
There is no known burial ground nearby, but the area saw conflict in the 19th century.
The skull is being examined by Auckland Hospital forensic pathologist Jane Vuletic, who also gave evidence in the recent trial of Chris Kahui, whose twin sons received fatal head injuries.
Dr Vuletic said the worn teeth and fused bones meant the skull was definitely that of an adult, 30 to 40 years old, and probably male.
The wear patterns on the teeth indicate a pre-European diet high in vegetable matter. As for the damage to the skull, it occurred many years after death.
"I can imagine it could be mistaken for a bullet hole, but it's definitely not. If the damage had happened when the person was still alive the bone would have fractured in a different way," she said.