BEACH OCCUPIED 900 YEARS AGO

Press, Volume C, Issue 29515, 17 May 1961, Page 11

BEACH OCCUPIED 900 YEARS AGO

Archaeologists Set ■ Date

'■ "The Press" Special Service t DUNEDIN, May 16. Lonely Kaikai’s Beach , near the northern heads of “• Otago Harbour, named after 8 a Maori chief who lived * there in a cave and later in e a where when the European ’ settlers arrived, has become s the oldest known occupied land in New Zealand. 8 Two Dunedin archaeoloo gists. Mr L. Lockerbie and e Mr E. Munro, said recently e that samples of charcoal dug s from part of the beach at a depth of 6 feet to 7 feet •. have been dated by the Instif tute of Nuclear Sciences of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as tracing back to AD. 1055. with a possible error of 50 years. This means that when William the Conqueror invaded f England, in all probability * feet were already treading on j the now desolate little beach. ‘ s The excavation at the a beach was carried out some s time ago by the arehaeolo- | gists, and was in a small j undisturbed and stratified . piece of ground. Almost all of the rest of I the beach has been ‘‘mutij lated” archaeologically by the a digging of early fossickers. 0 who recovered a large nums ber of greenstone ornaments s and weapons from the area e and neighbouring beaches. The Kaikai’s Beach date is

the earliest reported archaeological date determined by the D.S.I.R.