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The Context of Field Archaeology
13.2 Evidence from Early European Descriptions of Maori Pa
To give some idea of the scale of Maori pa and of their impact on the landscape, we
present some of the early European descriptions of pa collected by Elsdon Best in
his book The Pa Maori [1]. This book has been described by Janet Davidson as “a
monolithic foundation to New Zealand field archaeology” [2].
Many early Europeans describing pa comment on the evidence for much higher
earlier Maori populations implicit in the size and population capacity of pa and
implicit in the abandonment of associated horticultural land. Some Europeans had
had their opinion of substantial population loss confirmed in discussion with Maori.
Janet Davidson [3] suggests that pa-building was the greatest focus for labour
expenditure in prehistoric New Zealand of any activity, including canoe building.
Early European descriptions of Maori pa confirm this. Best, for example, quotes
Colonel McDonnell’s account of a pa known as Ka-rewa-ki-runga, situated on the
left bank of the Hokianga, about 20 miles from the Heads:
A high hill, the summit of which had, after great labour and skill, been fashioned by many
hundreds of pairs of hands into a formidable pa, hewn out of solid earth. It was the principal
stronghold of the settlement. . .It would probably have taken five hundred navvies, working
with pick, shovel and barrow, twelve months hard work to cut down and form this work; but
when one knows that all the tools with which this work was undertaken, and accomplished,
were only bits of hard wood, pointed and burnt hard in a fire, and the only means of carrying
away the thousand tons of earth, stones and gravel, were small buckets made of flax, one is
forced to admire the courage and perseverance of the Maori of those days (p. 168).
The enormous labour involved in constructing a large pa and the numbers needed
to defend it imply very significant populations in the areas where they were built.
Many early European observers commented on the numbers of pa often crowded
into one area. Best, for example, quotes F.H. Bodle:
In writing of the Hauraki Gulf, Mr F. H. Bodle has remarked that the shores of the lower
part of the gulf show the remains of a great number of old pa: – “At one time this gulf
shore must have supported an enormous aboriginal population. Every hilltop, every point
of advantage, is carved and terraced into forts and watch-towers, not only along the coast,
but for miles inland. Not only this, but every foot of valley land was dug and drained, and
the stones carefully removed and piled in heaps” (p. 3).
Modern prehistorians have talked about the surprising density of pa in some
areas. In 1970 L.M. Groube [4] claimed there was an overall density of one to every
4–6 square miles below the 1,000-ft contour and more than one per square mile in
favoured areas.
To give the reader some idea of the numbers of pa and the “great size of some of
them” Best quotes from Maning’s Old New Zealand:
The natives are unanimous in affirming that they were much more numerous in former times
than they are now, and I am convinced that such was the case, for the following reasons. The
old hill forts are many of them so large that an amount of labour must have been expended
in trenching, terracing, and fencing them, and all without iron tools, which increased the
difficulty a hundred fold, which must have required a vastly greater population to accomplish than can be found now in the surrounding districts. These forts are also of such an
extent that, taking into consideration the system of attack and defence used necessarily in
The Context of Field Archaeology
13.2 Evidence from Early European Descriptions of Maori Pa
To give some idea of the scale of Maori pa and of their impact on the landscape, we
present some of the early European descriptions of pa collected by Elsdon Best in
his book The Pa Maori [1]. This book has been described by Janet Davidson as “a
monolithic foundation to New Zealand field archaeology” [2].
Many early Europeans describing pa comment on the evidence for much higher
earlier Maori populations implicit in the size and population capacity of pa and
implicit in the abandonment of associated horticultural land. Some Europeans had
had their opinion of substantial population loss confirmed in discussion with Maori.
Janet Davidson [3] suggests that pa-building was the greatest focus for labour
expenditure in prehistoric New Zealand of any activity, including canoe building.
Early European descriptions of Maori pa confirm this. Best, for example, quotes
Colonel McDonnell’s account of a pa known as Ka-rewa-ki-runga, situated on the
left bank of the Hokianga, about 20 miles from the Heads:
A high hill, the summit of which had, after great labour and skill, been fashioned by many
hundreds of pairs of hands into a formidable pa, hewn out of solid earth. It was the principal
stronghold of the settlement. . .It would probably have taken five hundred navvies, working
with pick, shovel and barrow, twelve months hard work to cut down and form this work; but
when one knows that all the tools with which this work was undertaken, and accomplished,
were only bits of hard wood, pointed and burnt hard in a fire, and the only means of carrying
away the thousand tons of earth, stones and gravel, were small buckets made of flax, one is
forced to admire the courage and perseverance of the Maori of those days (p. 168).
The enormous labour involved in constructing a large pa and the numbers needed
to defend it imply very significant populations in the areas where they were built.
Many early European observers commented on the numbers of pa often crowded
into one area. Best, for example, quotes F.H. Bodle:
In writing of the Hauraki Gulf, Mr F. H. Bodle has remarked that the shores of the lower
part of the gulf show the remains of a great number of old pa: – “At one time this gulf
shore must have supported an enormous aboriginal population. Every hilltop, every point
of advantage, is carved and terraced into forts and watch-towers, not only along the coast,
but for miles inland. Not only this, but every foot of valley land was dug and drained, and
the stones carefully removed and piled in heaps” (p. 3).
Modern prehistorians have talked about the surprising density of pa in some
areas. In 1970 L.M. Groube [4] claimed there was an overall density of one to every
4–6 square miles below the 1,000-ft contour and more than one per square mile in
favoured areas.
To give the reader some idea of the numbers of pa and the “great size of some of
them” Best quotes from Maning’s Old New Zealand:
The natives are unanimous in affirming that they were much more numerous in former times
than they are now, and I am convinced that such was the case, for the following reasons. The
old hill forts are many of them so large that an amount of labour must have been expended
in trenching, terracing, and fencing them, and all without iron tools, which increased the
difficulty a hundred fold, which must have required a vastly greater population to accomplish than can be found now in the surrounding districts. These forts are also of such an
extent that, taking into consideration the system of attack and defence used necessarily in