The circa 3 hectare Shag Mouth Moa Hunter Site, in coastal North Otago dating from the fourteenth century, provides special insight into early Polynesian settlement in the South Island that was a coastal village that formed the centre of socio-economic systems this period.

Araiteuru tradition records that the colonising canoe Araiteuru was wrecked at Matakaea (Shag Point) at the northern entrance to the estuary – the wreck forming the nearby reef. Place names in the Shag valley and throughout the eastern South Island recall the crew of the Araiteuru and their exploration. The first Polynesian settlers of Otago probably settled close to food resources such as moa and seals along the coast. Shag Mouth is one of several ‘major base camps that stood at the apices of more extensive settlement systems.’ Occupied at a high point in the settlement density of southern New Zealand, Shag Mouth was occupied for a period of some 50 years in the fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, contemporary with sites like Papatowai, Pounawea, Warrington and possibly Little Papanui.

Shag River Mouth was located in country suited to exploiting moa and seals. It was also close to the route to the interior through Shag Valley, providing access to stone resources, and links to nephrite further afield. It was one of the ‘last of the early base settlements based upon big game hunting in southern New Zealand, and ‘may represent the apogee of this settlement system and therefore a level of community size and settlement permanence that was not otherwise attained.’ The systematic archaeological investigations of the late 1980s indicate that some 100-200 people arrived during the 14th century, with middens and ovens, containing the remains of more than 6000 moa and countless other birds, mammals and fish, showing that as the numbers of ‘megafauna’, the favoured moa and fur seal, declined, the villagers probably shifted to an unexploited site. Archaeologists Atholl Anderson and Ian Smith write that Shag Mouth ‘stands out as distinctive in its evidence of a large number of dwellings and in this respect has the strongest claim to be regarded as a former village.’

Shag River is an important site to the discipline of archaeology, with abundant artefacts and faunal remains, with the assemblage providing a significant study collection. The site was identified at a time of debate about moa hunting in the late 1869s and early 1870s with geologist Julius Haast (later von Haast) visiting the site in mid-1874. He identified moa hunter and Maori kitchen middens scattered over the site, the stratigraphy providing information about the occupation of the site. Debates about the chronology followed. David Teviotdale, farmer, fossicker and amateur archaeologist excavated the site from the 1920s, depositing a collection of artefacts at the Otago Museum. Director H.S. Skinner described Shag Mouth at that time as ‘incomparably the richest site of any kind yet worked in New Zealand.’

Shag River Mouth is distinctive in its evidence of a large number of dwellings, and has the ‘strongest claim’ to being a former village, with the associated collection providing important insights into Polynesian settlement in New Zealand. In 2018, it is a historic reserve.