BURNT-OUT PA DATED 1636

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28263, 29 April 1957, Page 10

BURNT-OUT PA DATED 1636

Excavations At Claverley

The burning-out of a Maori pa at Claverley has been dated by analysis at 1636. only 14 years earlier than Ngati-mamoe tradition suggested. Excavations under the director of the Canterbury Museum (Dr. Roger Duff) have brought forth a puzzling feature. The Pari Whakatu pa, very important though it was in Maori tradition, has an almost complete absence of finished artifacts.

An explanation why so few clubs and stone adzes , have been found since excavations began at Easter, 1956, is that the Ngatimamoe tribe felt insecure in this stronghold because of growing pressure of Ngai-tahu who later occupied the South Island. The pa established in the early 1600’s was the last foothold of the Ngatimamoe on the Kaikoura coast. In support of this theory, Dr. Duff said that the buildings had tree fern supports, an inferior material. The people of the Claverley pa wouldf be careful not to accumulate valuable possessions such as greenstone under the circumstances. A second explanation for the few artifacts found comes from tradition of the surviving Ngatimamoe in Southland who claimed that their tribe withdrew with all their possessions before the Ngai-tahu burnt the pa. Old Canoe Found The butt of a dugout canoe which was probably cut in half and used as an upright for a house ridge pole has been the biggest find yet. Working outward in steps from two intersecting pits the excavating party hopes soon to establish the east wall line of a house 12 feet by 24* feet. The principal reason for opening the second pit at Claverley was to check the unusual pattern of floor posts in the meeting house with a family house. The unusual layout of the meeting house supports was four parallel rows of seven supports occupying the floor together with four corner supports and two spaced at intervals along each wall. A special feature of the pa is that houses were built in pits down to three feet apparently for protection from the weather. Using the Carbon 14 method of analysis which compares the radioactivity of charcoal remains and living trees the Dominion Physical Laboratory at Wellington placed the date of the fire at 1636. Two members of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Messrs T. A. Rafter and J. G. Ferguson did the analysis.