Suspected human bones on doorstep a surprise for Russell Museum staff

Suspected human remains have been found at three locations around Russell in recent weeks - including Elliot Bay, pictured - which an archaeologist put down to storm surges causing coastal erosion. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Northlanders who find possible human bones exposed during the current stormy weather are urged to leave them where they are and alert the authorities rather than trying to gather them up.

Staff at Russell Museum were surprised to arrive at work on Saturday morning to find what appeared to be human bones piled up on the doorstep.

It is thought the bones were left there by someone who found them on a nearby beach.

If that's the case, it is the third time in a fortnight that suspected human remains have been found in the Russell area.

Heritage NZ archaeologist James Robinson said the best thing to do if anyone found possible human remains was, if possible, to leave them where they were but make a note of the location and cover them, with sand for example.

The finder should then notify police, who were well versed in the protocols around human remains.

Police would notify Heritage NZ or the local marae.

The first step was to determine whether the remains were animal or human. If human, the next question was around their age.

If they were recent it was a matter for police; if the were old, family or iwi were asked what they wanted done with the kōiwi (remains).

If it was not possible to leave the bones where they were — if they risked being washed out to sea on the tide — then they could be moved up on to the shore and then covered.

Robinson said he was increasingly called out to identify bones, which he put down to climate change and rising sea levels speeding up coastal erosion.

Senior constable Mike Gorrie of Russell Police, said a week earlier bones had been found on Russell Beach near the town hall after part of the shore along the Strand was eroded.

Those turned out, however to be dog bones.

Around the same time human bones, with some kind of stone implement, were found on Elliot Beach south of Russell. That find was still being looked into.

Russell Museum curator Fiona Mohr said she found the bones ''dumped unceremoniously'' on the doorstep on Saturday as she arrived at work.

There was nothing with the remains to indicate who had left them or where they had been found.

An initial examination of the bones suggested they were human but that, and their age, had yet o be verified.

In the meantime, they were being stored in a space at the museum which had been designed for that purpose.

Bones and historical items were found regularly on Russell's main beach, and two months earlier a fully intact skeleton was found on Long Beach before being reburied.

Mohr also advised anyone who found possible human remains to call police in the first instance.

Any taonga or artefact should be left where found unless it needed safekeeping. In that case it could be brought to the museum but staff needed to know exactly where it was found.

Museum staff would then notify the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

The deliberate fossicking for taonga and artefacts is illegal under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.