Connections with Hawaiki: the Evidence of a Shell Tool from Wairau Bar, Marlborough, New Zealand

Authors

  • Janet Davidson Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Amy Findlater
  • Roger Fyfe The Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8013.
  • Judith MacDonald
  • Bruce Marshall

Keywords:

Wairau Bar, Hawaiki, shell tool, Terebridae, Acus crenulatus, East Polynesian Archaic.

Abstract

A tool from the archaeological site at Wairau Bar, New Zealand, is identified as an import from the tropical Pacific. The tool was made by working a cutting edge on the apex of a spiral gastropod shell, identified as Acus crenulatus (formerly Terebra crenulata) (family Terebridae). Similar tools have been found in a number of sites in tropical East Polynesia, dating to the same general time period as Wairau Bar. The tool supports the view that the Wairau Bar site was a pioneering settlement close in time to the initial Polynesian arrival in New Zealand.

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How to Cite

Davidson, J., Findlater, A., Fyfe, R., MacDonald, J. and Marshall, B. (2011) “Connections with Hawaiki: the Evidence of a Shell Tool from Wairau Bar, Marlborough, New Zealand”, Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 2(2), pp. 93–102. Available at: https://pacificarchaeology.org/index.php/journal/article/view/54 (Accessed: 13 September 2024).

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2011)

Section

Research Reports

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