Archaeologists probe city's past

Merania Karauria | 29th September 2009

Archaeologists have begun their task of revealing whatever secrets might be buried in a prehistoric midden in a section of the Whanganui riverbank along Putiki Dr.

The midden, a word used by archaeologists to describe refuse from human occupation, was exposed last week by contractors working on the New Zealand Transport Agency’s $3 million riverbank stabilisation project.

The find has halted work on that section at least for the meantime.

Archaeologists were on site yesterday clearing down a section of land that was occupied by Maori before the 1850s. It is understood to be the first excavation of an urban site in Wanganui in recent times.

New Plymouth-based Archaeology North Ltd’s Michael Taylor said the site was blessed yesterday morning by Hone Tamehana for the clearing to go ahead, and local iwi representative Chris Shenton from Putiki will monitor the clearing.

Archaeologists Ivan Bruce and Annetta Sutton were helping Mr Taylor.

Under New Zealand’s Historic Places Act all pre-1900 archaeological sites are protected.

Mr Taylor was able to point out different layers of the prehistoric midden at the bottom, and to a post and an old wooden kerb in an upper layer where the first road was constructed in the 1850s.

Early colonials had probably taken fill from the Putiki Dr area and covered over the midden, where early Whanganui Maori had lived and cooked their food, Mr Taylor said.

“A lot of the day-to-day things have taken place here,” he said.

That part of the riverbank was also a ferry landing.

Mr Shenton said the Kaiate Pa once stood on Hipango Tce, above the excavation site.

The archaeologists will look for fireplaces, food remnants and china and hope to be finished by the end of the week.