16.12 Evidence of a Vestigial Clay Tradition in New Zealand
279
the Lapita colonies of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga as well as in New Zealand [29].
Indeed, Elsdon Best finds evidence of pa in other Lapita colonies: in Micronesia
(at Ponape, Caroline Group), in the Solomons, at Taumako near Santa Cruz and
in New Caledonia (pp. 430–434) as well as in Hawaii and the Marquesas. This
suggests a possible early Lapita-age provenance for the building of New Zealand
pa. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to find a cultural correspondence between
New Zealand and Fiji in their use of human sacrifice to give strength to a building. Best quotes an account by a European who witnessed the sacrifice of men in
Fiji buried alive to give strength to the post holes of a chief’s house (pp. 144–145).
In New Zealand there is archaeological evidence for the same practice being used
to strengthen the posts of the palisade of the Tawhitirahi pa at Opotiki, a pa Best
believed to have been of “great antiquity”. He describes the pa becoming “the property of a gentleman who proceeded to level the ramparts; along the line post holes
were found, time had removed the wood, but in each hole there was a human skeleton” (pp. 142–143). Best sees the practice of human sacrifice to give strength to a
fort as having a wide distribution, occurring also in ancient forts in France, Ireland,
Northumberland, India and Columbia. But the practice at Opotiki and in Fiji may
well have their roots in remembered practices from the Spice Island region from
Lapita times.
16.12 Evidence of a Vestigial Clay Tradition in New Zealand
Pottery is primarily associated with an agricultural mode of life, with the storage
and preservation of crop foods, and the trading of agricultural goods. Irrelevant in
a non-agricultural isolated New Zealand, the pottery-making skills of their Lapita
ancestors would have been quickly lost. The chance of Lapita pots ever being found
in New Zealand is therefore infinitesimal. However, a recent article by Colleen
Urlich shows that, although Maori did not have a ceramic tradition, they did retain
knowledge of clay-firing techniques used in the production from iron-rich clays
of kokowai. Baked clay balls were ground and mixed with oil “to form a very
durable paint, used for application to canoes, carvings, ritually prepared bones of
the dead and to paint the superior house rafters in the well-known scrolling patterns
of kowhaiwhai” [30]. Urlich comments that “The preparation and use of kokowai,
associated as it is with concepts of the blood shed by the Primal Parents as they were
ripped apart by their son Tane, was an act that signified tapu or specialness.” Urlich
points out, however, that
the whole question of a prehistoric lack of clay knowledge by Maori, let alone a practice of working with and firing clay, has been called into question by the work of
Louise Furey. Furey’s excavations in Auckland in 1989, just prior to a gas pipeline
being installed, resulted in the recovery of several engraved, finely worked and fired clay
objects of indeterminate use and small, plain and engraved, fired clay balls. . .These recoveries – some of which were not formed from local Auckland clays but possibly from
clay from the Waikato region – combined with the evidence of clay-lined fire pits inside
dwellings, and possible fired clay sanitation pits. . .[indicated] that some Maori worked and
279
the Lapita colonies of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga as well as in New Zealand [29].
Indeed, Elsdon Best finds evidence of pa in other Lapita colonies: in Micronesia
(at Ponape, Caroline Group), in the Solomons, at Taumako near Santa Cruz and
in New Caledonia (pp. 430–434) as well as in Hawaii and the Marquesas. This
suggests a possible early Lapita-age provenance for the building of New Zealand
pa. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to find a cultural correspondence between
New Zealand and Fiji in their use of human sacrifice to give strength to a building. Best quotes an account by a European who witnessed the sacrifice of men in
Fiji buried alive to give strength to the post holes of a chief’s house (pp. 144–145).
In New Zealand there is archaeological evidence for the same practice being used
to strengthen the posts of the palisade of the Tawhitirahi pa at Opotiki, a pa Best
believed to have been of “great antiquity”. He describes the pa becoming “the property of a gentleman who proceeded to level the ramparts; along the line post holes
were found, time had removed the wood, but in each hole there was a human skeleton” (pp. 142–143). Best sees the practice of human sacrifice to give strength to a
fort as having a wide distribution, occurring also in ancient forts in France, Ireland,
Northumberland, India and Columbia. But the practice at Opotiki and in Fiji may
well have their roots in remembered practices from the Spice Island region from
Lapita times.
16.12 Evidence of a Vestigial Clay Tradition in New Zealand
Pottery is primarily associated with an agricultural mode of life, with the storage
and preservation of crop foods, and the trading of agricultural goods. Irrelevant in
a non-agricultural isolated New Zealand, the pottery-making skills of their Lapita
ancestors would have been quickly lost. The chance of Lapita pots ever being found
in New Zealand is therefore infinitesimal. However, a recent article by Colleen
Urlich shows that, although Maori did not have a ceramic tradition, they did retain
knowledge of clay-firing techniques used in the production from iron-rich clays
of kokowai. Baked clay balls were ground and mixed with oil “to form a very
durable paint, used for application to canoes, carvings, ritually prepared bones of
the dead and to paint the superior house rafters in the well-known scrolling patterns
of kowhaiwhai” [30]. Urlich comments that “The preparation and use of kokowai,
associated as it is with concepts of the blood shed by the Primal Parents as they were
ripped apart by their son Tane, was an act that signified tapu or specialness.” Urlich
points out, however, that
the whole question of a prehistoric lack of clay knowledge by Maori, let alone a practice of working with and firing clay, has been called into question by the work of
Louise Furey. Furey’s excavations in Auckland in 1989, just prior to a gas pipeline
being installed, resulted in the recovery of several engraved, finely worked and fired clay
objects of indeterminate use and small, plain and engraved, fired clay balls. . .These recoveries – some of which were not formed from local Auckland clays but possibly from
clay from the Waikato region – combined with the evidence of clay-lined fire pits inside
dwellings, and possible fired clay sanitation pits. . .[indicated] that some Maori worked and