Victorian Era European exploitation of Pounamu in Dunedin, New Zealand

Authors

  • Justin J Maxwell Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.
  • Angela Middleton Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.
  • Philip Latham Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.

Keywords:

Pounamu, greenstone, lapidary, European, Māori, New Zealand.

Abstract

European greenstone lapidaries in Dunedin, New Zealand enjoyed a short boom as raw material became available from the gold mining industry and Europeans developed a taste for both traditional Māori and Victorian designs. In the process of recent earthworks two discrete assemblages of pounamu were recovered from a central Dunedin site. The manufacturing techniques employed by the European lapidaries and the markets they were servicing are investigated here. The assemblages were most likely cached and may have been a part of a grey market of ‘fake’ Māori artefacts.

Author Biographies

Justin J Maxwell, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.

PhD candidate. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago. Current research interests in historical archaeology, ethnobotany, archaeobotany and precontact Maori and Moriori archaeology.

Angela Middleton, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.

Honorary fellow. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago. Research interests, Historical archaeology; Gender; Mission archaeology; Culture contact / engagement studies; Archaeological landscapes

Philip Latham, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.

Laboratory manager, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Otago.

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Published

22-02-2015

How to Cite

Maxwell, J. J., Middleton, A. and Latham, P. (2015) “Victorian Era European exploitation of Pounamu in Dunedin, New Zealand”, Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 6(1), pp. 58–69. Available at: https://pacificarchaeology.org/index.php/journal/article/view/136 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).

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Articles