The Torpedo Bay excavations: Volume 1, the pre-European Maori site (HPA authority 2009/275) report to Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and The New Zealand Defence Force Matthew Campbell, Mica Plowman, Emma Brooks, Arden Cruickshank, Louise Furey, Mark Horrocks, Marianne Turner, Rod Wallace and Richard Walter The Torpedo Bay excavations: Volume 1, the pre-European Maori site (HPA authority 2009/275) report to Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and The New Zealand Defence Force Prepared by: Matthew Campbell Reviewed by: Date: 10 December 2018 Louise Furey Reference: 17-0773 This report is made available by CFG Heritage Ltd under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. CFG Heritage Ltd. 132 Symonds St Eden Terrace Auckland 1010 ph. (09) 309 2426 [email protected] Hard copy distribution Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Auckland New Zealand Archaeological Association (file copy) CFG Heritage Ltd (file copy) New Zealand Defense Force Marutuahu Collective Ngai Tai ki Tamaki Ngati Paoa Ngati Whatua o Orakei Te Kawerau a Maki Auckland War Memorial Museum Auckland Coucnil Cultural Heritage Inventory University of Auckland General Library University of Otago Anthropology Department This report is provided electronically Please consider the environment before printing Contents Summary ....................................................................... v 1 Introduction . 1 2 Background . 3 A Maori history of Tamaki . 3 The archaeology of Aotearoa / New Zealand . 8 The archaeology of Tamaki . 21 Acknowledgements . 27 3 Archaeology . 29 Methodology . 29 Stratigraphy . 31 Chronology . 43 Summary: site formation processes . 47 4 Material Culture . 49 Formal tools . 49 Flaked stone . 51 Discussion . 56 5 Faunal Analysis . 59 Methods . 59 Bird . 60 Reptile . 62 Mammal . 62 Fish . 63 Shellfish . 66 Interpretation . 68 Conclusion . 71 6 Environment . 73 Charcoal . 73 Microfossils . 75 Discussion . 76 7 Discussion and Conclusion . 81 The early archaeology of the upper North Island . 81 Torpedo Bay . 101 References . .. 103 iv Torpedo Bay Torpedo Bay v Summary • In 2009 site R11/1945, the Torpedo Bay Submarine Mining Base was excavated under archaeological authority 2009/275 . • An undisturbed pre-European Maori midden was discovered beneath the base office on an old beach terrace – an area of 5 5. x 4 7. m was excavated . • This midden had two main Phases of occupation: Layer 5 (Phase 1), containing extinct bird including moa, sea mammal and a diverse faunal assemblage; and Layers 3 and 2 (Phase 2), containing mostly shell with some fish and occasional dog . • These two layers were separated by Layers 4 (also Phase 1) and 3A, both of which appeared to be slopewash events and may be related to gardening on the slopes of Maungauika / North Head, just above the site . • Phase 1 dates to the 14th century AD; Phase 2 dates to the late 15th to mid-17th centuries AD . • At the time of excavation, this was the only 14th century site known from the Tamaki mainland and was considered highly significant; • Material culture was sparse but included: • three shell fishhook points from Phase 1; • a fragment of wooden tapa beater from Phase 1, preserved as charcoal; • an adze and a sinker from Phase 2; • and 73 flakes of obsidian, mostly form Tuhua / Mayor Island and mostly from Phase 1 . • Juvenile fur seal in Phase 1 indicated a summer occupation . • Spotted shag was the most common bird species, probably indicating a nearby rookery . • Snapper was the most common fish species, and the proportions of vertebrae to head bones indicated that snapper bodies had been preserved and transported off site in Phase 1 but in Phase 2 fish had been consumed on site . • Shellfish exploitation in Phase 1 centred on rocky shore species, while in Phase 2 soft shore species predominated . • The site is interpreted in relation to other 14th century upper North Island sites and with respect to recent archaeological thinking about the period AD 1300–1450 . 1 Introduction In 2009 the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) began redeveloping their facilities at the Torpedo Bay Boat Yard in Devonport, Auckland, as the new site of the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum . The Torpedo Bay Boat Yard is recorded as archaeological site R11/1945 in the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) Site Recording Scheme (SRS) . This includes both mid-19th century ship building (the Beddoes and Holmes Shipyard) and the subsequent military activities of the Torpedo Bay Submarine Mining Base which began construction in 1886 in response to the perceived threat of a Russian invasion . The site was originally recorded in 1996 by Tony Packington-Hall and related only to the historic mining base . Pre-European Maori sites are also recorded in Torpedo Bay: R11/1819, a working floor / find spot at the west- ern end of the bay; and R11/2169, a find spot of flakes and an adze at the eastern end, close to the mining base . A historic kainga, Haukapua, is recorded as site R11/2401 half way along the bay . The Torpedo Bay Submarine Mining Base began operations in 1886 and, following two periods of reclamation and building, was completed in 1899 . The site represents the last intact 19th century submarine mining base in New Zealand and forms part of a much larger com- plex relating to the coastal defence of Auckland in the late 19th century . Extant archaeological remains relating to the formation and occupation of the mining base are regionally and nation- ally significant . An archaeological assessment of the effects of the museum project on the archaeology of the site was prepared in 2009 by Opus International Consultants Limited (Opus) (Plowman 2009) . The report primarily assessed the effects of the project in the 19th century mining base but it did acknowledge the remote possibility that pre-European or historic Maori mate- rial might be also be present . NZDF then applied to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) for an archaeological authority to modify, damage or destroy site R11/1945 under section 14 of the Historic Places Act 1993 . Authority 2009/275 was granted on 11 August 2009 . Excavation was undertaken in November 2009 under the direction of Mica Plowman from Opus . Numerous structural features associated with the submarine mining base were exca- vated, recorded in detail and sampled as appropriate . Recording included photography, detailed sections and plans of all identified internal and external subsurface structural features tied into an overall theodolite site plan . Following excavation, archaeological monitoring of stormwater trenching in the north west corner of the site revealed a pre-European Maori site consisting of several layers of midden, located on what would have been the original beach terrace that formed the eastern extent of Torpedo Bay prior to the military reclamations that have substantially altered the original shore- line and cliff face . Further excavations of the pre-European Maori site were undertaken under the direction of Mica Plowman between 24 March and 5 April 2010 . Preliminary reports on the excavations were prepared by Mica Plowman as a require- ment of Condition 19 of authority 2009/275 but she subsequently left her employment at Opus and the final reports, as required under Condition 20 of the authority, were never completed . In April 2013 NZHPT granted an extension to the deadline for reporting and agreed that the pre-European Maori site and the historic mining base could be reported separately, with measured drawings of the buildings supplied as an appendix to the latter . A draft report for the mining base was completed by Ken Phillips but no final report was prepared . In 2017 NZDF approached Matthew Campbell of CFG Heritage Ltd and requested that he prepare the final reports . This volume presents the results of the pre-European Maori excavations; Volume 2 will present the results of the 19th century historic excavations . 2 Background The historical and archaeological background to the Torpedo Bay excavation are provided here in two parts . Firstly, an account of Maori tradition is taken from public documents, includ- ing published works and unpublished reports, which between them present a complex and often contradictory and confusing story . This account has been condensed into a short, relatively com- prehensible account – mana whenua may have other traditions and other views that do not agree with parts of this account . A general Maori history of Tamaki is given before a more specific Maori history of Devonport . Secondly, the basis of the archaeology of Torpedo Bay is outlined from a number of perspectives: the nature of early archaeology in New Zealand (the lower layers of the excavated site date to this period); the general sequence of pre-European Maori archaeol- ogy; the archaeology of Tamaki; and the archaeology of Devonport . No concerted attempt is made to align the traditional and archaeological histories – while both deal with the same past and can inform each other, they are different kinds of knowledge about the past and any statements about archaeological processes and events made on the basis of traditional history must be made with great care . A Maori history of Tamaki Auckland was known to Maori as Tamaki Makau Rau, Tamaki of the hundred lovers 1. Fertile, well drained volcanic soils and a mild climate were perfectly suited to Maori horticul- ture; the volcanic cones were ideal places to establish pa as statements of political power and places of refuge in times of trouble; the Waitemata and Manukau harbours provided abun- dant fish and shellfish; and the narrow isthmus meant that portages between the two harbours allowed canoes to move between the east and west coasts without going the long way around Northland . Among the first occupants of Tamaki were a people known as Turehu, or ‘the people from the earth’ (Murdoch 1990: 13) .