The Context of Field Archaeology: The Maori Pa

Abstract

Evidence is gathered from early European accounts and from modern field archaeology to illustrate the numbers, density and population capacity of Maori pa (hill-forts). This evidence reveals the scale of pa-building in horticultural areas, the density of pa in the landscape, the very considerable population capacity of both large pa and of pa large enough to be described as citadels and the importance of pa in defending horticultural land, stored harvests and access to harbours and rivers and so to marine and estuarine resources. Both early European and Maori accounts report pa capacity greatly in excess of Maori populations at the time of European contact and link this to population decline. The material presented in this chapter provides a necessary and enriching background to the archaeological and demographic evidence we consider in the following chapters. That evidence and its interpretation are central to our demographic argument for a very early first settlement of New Zealand.