Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway: archaeological desktop study report to The New Zealand Transport Agency and The New Zealand Historic Places Trust Matthew Campbell Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway: archaeological desktop study report to The New Zealand Transport Agency and The New Zealand Historic Places Trust Prepared by: Matthew Campbell Reviewed by: Date: 15 June 2012 Louise Furey Reference: 2011/96 © CFG Heritage Ltd. 2012 CFG Heritage Ltd. P.O. Box 10 015 Dominion Road Auckland 1024 ph. (09) 309 2426 [email protected] Th is report is provided electronically Plesae consider the environment before printing Hard copy distribution New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Tauranga New Zealand Transport Agency, Auckland New Zealand Transport Agency, Hamilton OPUS International Consultants, Tauranga CFG Heritage Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Ngāti Haua New Zealand Archaeological Association Central File University of Auckland Library University of Otago Anthropology Department Library Auckland Museum Library iii Contents The study area Pre-European Mori horticulture Soils Pre-European Mori site distribution Excavated sites in the Waikato Basin Aerial photography LINZ maps and plans Assessment of the data Soils and horticulture The archaeological landscape Assessment and recommendations Conclusion Acknowledgements References iv Figures Cover photo. Excavation of garden soils, sand-fi lled hollows and borrow pits. 1. Th e study area. 4 2. A large, mostly undisturbed borrow pit at site S15/27. 8 3. Large-scale landscape features of the Waikato basin. 10 4. Schematic diagram of main landscape units and associated soils series. 11 5. DSIR (1954) soil series within the study area. 13 6. McLeod (1984) soil series within the study area. 14 7. Pre-European Māori archaeological sites recorded within the Waikato basin. 19 8. Distribution of recorded sites within the study area, labelled by site number. 23 9. Record type and accuracy for sites within the study area. 27 10. Location and extents of sites within the Cambridge Plan Change 66 area. 28 11. Recorded location of S15/372 and adjacent sites. 30 12. Pre-European Māori hash fi le sites recorded within the study area. 32 13. Sites mentioned in the text. 35 14. Sand-fi lled hollows exposed in plan and partly excavated at S14/198 near Taupiri. 39 15. Borrow pit excavated in cross-section at S14/198 near Taupiri. 40 16. Extent of aerial photo coverage for SN266/833–835 within the study area. 42 17. Detail from SN266/834/57 showing sites S15/25–27 and S15/372–373. 43 18. Tape and compass map of S15/25 made by Edson for the 1976 site record. 44 19. Detail from SN266/834/53 showing pā S15/19 and S15/65 with associated pits. 45 20. Borrow pits and possible borrow pit and pit clusters mapped against soil type. 47 22. Detail of DP 127 showing areas under manuka scrub in 1880. 49 21. Detail of SO 97 3 showing the “Native Cultivation” east of Swayne Road. 49 Tables Table 1. Comparison with LRI and McLeod’s soil classifi cations. 15 Table 2. Numbers of sites in the study area and the Waikato basin. 18 Table 3. Summary of pre-European Māori sites recorded in the study area. 24 Table 4. Distribution of sites in the study area by DSIR soils type. 29 Table 5. Distribution of sites in the study area by McLeod soils types. 29 Table 6. Pre-European Māori hash fi le sites recorded within the study area. 31 Table 7. Borrow pits recorded from aerial photos located on DSIR soils. 46 Table 8. Borrow pits recorded from aerial photos located on McLeod’s soils. 46 Table 9. LINZ plans containing information of relevance. 48 Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway: archaeological desktop study In partial mitigation of the eff ects of the Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway on his- toric heritage, following the Decision of the Commissioners in the Resource Consents Hearing and in consultation with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (HPT), the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has commissioned a desktop study of the pre-European Māori archaeology of that part of the Waikato Basin within 3 km of the expressway designation. Th is study area lies partly in Waikato District and partly in Waipa District (Figure 1). Th e relevant condition in the Decision is: 12.3 Prior to the construction the NZTA shall commission a suitably qualifi ed archaeologist to undertake a desktop study to review the archaeological values of the Middle Waikato Basin (comprising an area between the Waikato River and a line 3kms north of the designated alignment of the Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway). Th e desktop study area shall include, but not be limited to, study of pre-European Maori garden sites characterized by the presence of Tamahere loam and borrow pits. Th e purpose of the study is to: 1) Identify sites with potential high archaeological and heritage landscape values. 2) Make recommendations for the management of the remaining sites, with particular emphasis on sites with high values. Th e study shall be conducted under the direction of the NZTA in consultation with the NZHPT and Waikato Tainui. Th is study centres around made garden soils, a specifi c site type that is common in, but not exclusive to, the Waikato Basin, and extends to all pre-European Māori sites. It does not include European sites except within or close to the bypass designation, data which will further inform the project archaeological assessment to be lodged as part of the Historic Places Act 1993 authority application process. Th is study is limited to a desktop appraisal only – it is not a full archaeological assessment, it cannot be used to support applications for archaeological authorities and would not be accepted by HPT for this purpose. Projected outcomes Th e research has two primary objectives: fi rstly, to identify sites with potential high archaeo- logical and heritage landscape values within the study area and secondly, to provide recommen- dations for the management of these sites. In addition, this research will inform future inves- tigations associated with this project as well as providing a baseline for future research in the Waikato Basin. In order to provide a wider context, and because of the paucity of archaeological research (in quantity, though not necessarily in quality) in the Waikato generally, consideration is given to the archaeology of the Waikato Basin as a whole. Th e research will treat the study area as an archaeological landscape, assessing the relation- ships between individual sites and the nature of pre-European Māori settlement in the area. As it is a desktop study it cannot be expected to make any defi nitive statements but will instead provide models that can be tested through archaeological fi eld work. Criteria for assessment are limited because this study lacks a fi eldwork component. Both indi- vidual sites and the wider archaeological landscape of the study area must be assessed. Relevant criteria, condensed from the Waikato Regional Policy Statement and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Guidelines for Writing Archaeological Assessments, can be summarised as: 2 Cambridge Section of the Waikato Expressway: archaeological desktop study a. the importance of garden soil sites in the pre-European Māori settlement of the Waikato Basin, including their status as locally early sites; b. the potential of the site or archaeological landscape “through investigation by archaeolog- ical methods to provide evidence relating to the history of New Zealand” (Historic Places Act 1993, the wording is unchanged in the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill); c. the potential of the site or archaeological landscape to provide a public amenity through interpretation, education or the dissemination of knowledge through research. Th e primary data sources used here are soil types, the recorded archaeology of the study area and the Waikato Basin and various map sources including aerial photographs. Various written records that will be relevant to the archaeology of the Waikato Basin have not been accessed, particularly local histories, traditional Māori histories and the records of the Land Courts, all of which will contain very specifi c information about pre-European Māori occupation. A potentially important source of archaeological data that has not been accessed is the records of the Waikato Archaeology Group and the Waikato Museum. Any future research should take these records into account. Matthew Campbell 3 CFG Heritage Ltd. The study area Th e study area extends 3 km from the Cambridge Section designation and was determined by buff ering the designation by 3 km in MapInfo (Figure 1). Th e southern boundary is the Waikato River and the eastern boundary was extended to Lake Karapiro and the Karapiro Dam. Most of the area is entirely within the alluvial plain of the Waikato Basin but to the east takes in a part of the Mangakawa Hills that separate the Waikato from the Hauraki Basin (McCraw 2011: 7). Other than the Waikato River there are two main watercourses in the study area: the Karapiro Stream rising in the hills north of Lake Karapiro and fl owing west to join the Waikato River at Cambridge; and the Mangaone Stream that drains the plain north of Cambridge and runs north west along a palaeochannel of the Waikato River (McCraw 2011: 33) to join the river at Hamilton. Th e Waikato has cut a channel in places over 20 m deep, often paralleled by a series of river terraces. Th e plain is relatively fl at with low hills on older soils, rising quite steeply at its eastern margin to the surrounding hills. Most of the plain is productive agricultural land with dairying the predominant industry.