The Kaupokonui Archaic camp is a nationally significant archaeological site, comprising one of the few recorded archaic Polynesian sites in Taranaki that still contains retrievable archaeological material. Kaupokonui is best known as moa butchery site and a find spot for a variety of archaic Māori artefacts. However food storage pits indicative of permanent settlement have also been excavated at this location and it is likely that the site was occupied throughout pre-European times. The site has twice been the focus of formal archaeological investigations and archaic material is continually reported eroding from the coastal sand dunes. The site is also known to contain human remains. As such the site represents a complex and important archaeological site of a type now rare throughout New Zealand, potentially still capable of providing great insight into the earliest settlement of Taranaki and the transformation of early Polynesian culture into modern Māori.
Archaeologists generally agree that the Kaupokonui site was occupied by the mid fourteenth century, following dating of moa bone recovered from the lowest levels of the archaeological site. The spectacular recovery of a moa skeleton (Pachyornis mappini), lying where it had been thrown, with a twisted neck and legs removed, indicates that moa were killed and butchered in- situ. As moa became extinct relatively quickly following human arrival, this site represents evidence of the earliest phase of Polynesian settlement in Taranaki.
The site is most famous for the recovery of large amount of moa bone, with an estimated 50 individual moa represented. The archaeological excavations also recovered faunal remains from a variety of birds and mammals, including 55 species of birds, sea lions, elephant seals, dogs, rats, tuatara, fish and shellfish remains. Twelve of the bird species recovered are now extinct or extinct to the region including extinct swan, huia, little grey kiwi, goshawk, giant rail, crow, takahe and North Island kokako. The range of species provides an indication of the variety and naivety of the marine and terrestrial species exploited by the first Polynesian arrivals.
The excavation of the archaic site appears to have occurred on the areas exposed by shifting dunes adjacent the river mouth. However the archaeology of the Kaupokonui site is complicated by the recording of a kainga or village site on the high ground above and northwest of the archaic site. This kainga (NZAA site P21/20) is associated with storage pit features and may indicate a later phase of Māori settlement, or possibly a continuum of prehistoric Māori settlement at Kaupokonui. More recently human remains have been recovered eroding from the upper levels of the sand dunes along the river bank that may relate to this later phase of occupation.
Due to the recording practices of their era, compounded by the shifting nature of the dunes, the precise location of the previous archaeological excavations is difficult to determine today. The dunes appear to have shifted significantly since the site was first investigated in the early 1960s and the degrading coastline appears to have eroded the sand cover of the foreshore dunes that formerly protected much of the site along the coastal edge. However areas of riverbank dune appear intact and archaeological material continues to be recovered from this area.
The archaeological excavations to date have been localised in one area and there has been no documented attempt to define the true extent of the site, but archaeological remains are considered highly likely to exist throughout the Otamare Block. This same block contains another distinct archaeological site: a small pā site (P21/2), listed as No. 5975 (Category 2) on the New Zealand Heritage List. This pā comprises a small platform protected by a defensive ditch overlooking the left bank of the Otakeho Stream. The association, if any, of this pā with the Kaupokonui archaic site is unclear.
Archaeologists generally agree that the Kaupokonui site was occupied by the mid fourteenth century, following dating of moa bone recovered from the lowest levels of the archaeological site. The spectacular recovery of a moa skeleton (Pachyornis mappini), lying where it had been thrown, with a twisted neck and legs removed, indicates that moa were killed and butchered in- situ. As moa became extinct relatively quickly following human arrival, this site represents evidence of the earliest phase of Polynesian settlement in Taranaki.
The site is most famous for the recovery of large amount of moa bone, with an estimated 50 individual moa represented. The archaeological excavations also recovered faunal remains from a variety of birds and mammals, including 55 species of birds, sea lions, elephant seals, dogs, rats, tuatara, fish and shellfish remains. Twelve of the bird species recovered are now extinct or extinct to the region including extinct swan, huia, little grey kiwi, goshawk, giant rail, crow, takahe and North Island kokako. The range of species provides an indication of the variety and naivety of the marine and terrestrial species exploited by the first Polynesian arrivals.
The excavation of the archaic site appears to have occurred on the areas exposed by shifting dunes adjacent the river mouth. However the archaeology of the Kaupokonui site is complicated by the recording of a kainga or village site on the high ground above and northwest of the archaic site. This kainga (NZAA site P21/20) is associated with storage pit features and may indicate a later phase of Māori settlement, or possibly a continuum of prehistoric Māori settlement at Kaupokonui. More recently human remains have been recovered eroding from the upper levels of the sand dunes along the river bank that may relate to this later phase of occupation.
Due to the recording practices of their era, compounded by the shifting nature of the dunes, the precise location of the previous archaeological excavations is difficult to determine today. The dunes appear to have shifted significantly since the site was first investigated in the early 1960s and the degrading coastline appears to have eroded the sand cover of the foreshore dunes that formerly protected much of the site along the coastal edge. However areas of riverbank dune appear intact and archaeological material continues to be recovered from this area.
The archaeological excavations to date have been localised in one area and there has been no documented attempt to define the true extent of the site, but archaeological remains are considered highly likely to exist throughout the Otamare Block. This same block contains another distinct archaeological site: a small pā site (P21/2), listed as No. 5975 (Category 2) on the New Zealand Heritage List. This pā comprises a small platform protected by a defensive ditch overlooking the left bank of the Otakeho Stream. The association, if any, of this pā with the Kaupokonui archaic site is unclear.
