Old skull European, DNA tests confirm

The mystery of the Ruamahunga River Skull - which arguably rewrites New Zealand history - has resurfaced in a new book on Kiwi shipwrecks.
Auckland author Lynton Diggle said yesterday his book, Shipwrecks of New Zealand, was launched this month.
The book is a companion volume to the 8th edition of New Zealand Shipwrecks he also helped write that today stands as "the bible" on the subject, he said.
Mr Diggle said the inclusion in the book of material on the skull came after he attended a maritime seminar in Wellington four month ago and heard New Zealand's only practising forensic anthropologist Dr Robin Watt speak on its discovery in October 2004 by then Featherston teenager Sam Tobin.
Dr Watt accepted an invitation to contribute a chapter that now opens the book - A Pre-Tasman Shipwreck?
The skull was consequently subjected to a round of DNA and aging tests that unequivocally confirmed the remains to be from a European woman aged from 40 to 45 years old who was "well and truly alive in New Zealand's prehistoric period from about 1619 to 1689".
Dr Watt said yesterday the skull represents the first tangible evidence of a European living here before the arrival of Captain James Cook, who first circumnavigated New Zealand in 1769, and "very probably, we're not talking possibly" before explorer Abel Tasman, who first sighted the northwest coast of South Island in 1642.
He discounted as "quite unlikely" a possibility the skull was a medical specimen that early European settlers brought here "because it is a very old skull found far from a city and miles out in the countryside", which bore no discernable catalogue marks or codes.
"It is agreed the skull has no archaeological provenance. But does that mean it should be ignored? One cannot doubt the hard scientific evidence," Dr Watt proposes in the book.
"It's the first time anything like this has been scientifically recognised - hard science - somebody of European origin was living in New Zealand before Tasman and Cook. Maybe this woman was even born here."
Dr Watt said the latest DNA testing was conducted by Dr Leon Huynen at Massey University but "is not sensitive enough" to discover whether the remains were Maori to any genetic degree or to what geographical location in Europe the woman originated.
In his latest paper, Dr Watt said the Ruamahanga skull is to date the only tangible evidence that "had come to light" about any European voyage to New Zealand prior to Tasman and Cook.
"Instead, for proof there were other non-Polynesian voyages many authors (formerly) cited artefacts such as the so-called Tamil bell, the mis-named Spanish helmet and the stone bird known as korotangi," he said.
"One cannot dismiss the Ruamahanga skull out of hand. If it represents an unknown 17th century European vessel that reached our shores we need to know about it.
"The obvious question is have there been other finds of European skeletal remains, of similar date, which have gone unnoticed? Certainly, what the skull tells us is not to be surprised if, one day, a pre-Tasman vessel is found in New Zealand."
The skull is now in deep storage at Aratoi Museum in Masterton. Museum director Marcus Boroughs told the Times-Age in March the case should be closed and the remains would not be displayed. He has also declined media requests to photograph the skull.
To order a copy of Shipwrecks of New Zealand call author Lynton Diggle at 09 817 9001.