New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Record Number Y17/265 is a pit site that forms part of the dense archaeological landscape of the Tolaga Bay (Uawa) area. It is located on Mangaheia Station, to the west of the Tolaga Bay township.

Pit sites and the many other recorded archaeological sites including pa, midden, gardens and urupa reflect the intensive Maori occupation of the Tolaga Bay from the time of initial Polynesian settlement approximately 700 years ago. Access to abundant food resources from the sea, rivers, inland forests and horticultural production (kumara) meant that a large population could be sustained. It has been estimated that the early Maori population of Tolaga Bay totalled approximately 1200; and the main iwi was Te Aitanga a Hauiti.

Pit and pit/ terrace sites are very common in Tolaga Bay, and demonstrate the importance of horticulture to Tolaga Bay's earliest inhabitants. The Bay's fertile soils and temperate climate were well suited to kumara gardening, and the pits were used for storing harvested kumara over the winter months. Rectangular storage pits (which were once roofed with a layer of earth), are more prevalent than the underground storage pits found elsewhere in New Zealand, a pattern attributed to the harder substrate of the soil in this area. They are in fact the most common archaeological site type in Tolaga Bay, and are found along the river banks and on the rolling hills to the south of the Bay. They are generally located in clusters on knolls or terraces, as is the case with this site - Y17/265, or on ridge crests, in lines from end to end.

Pit site Y17/265 is located on a knoll on the southern side of the Waitahota Stream, west of the Mangaheia Station farm buildings at the end of Mangaheia Road. Gullies run to the east and west of the knoll and there is a concentration of native grasses to the south. Several other pit and pit/terraces sites are located in the surrounding area, notably pit and pit/ terrace sites Y17/268, Y17/269 and Y17/270 to the southeast. Two pa are located on the ridgeline directly to the south (Y17/145 and Y17/146).

This site was first recorded by R. Sheppard for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1982, presumably as part of the archaeological survey work undertaken by archaeologist Kevin Jones in the Whangara, Tolaga Bay and Uawa Catchment areas in 1982-1983. This survey work was undertaken to gain information about the nature of prehistoric settlement in this locality, and also to evaluate specific sites for registration under the Historic Places Act 1980. Sheppard recorded two raised rim pits on the grassy knoll, approximately eight metres apart. Pit 'a' to the west measured 2 metres x 1 metre x 0.3 metres (depth) whilst pit 'b' to the east measured 2 metres x 1.5 metres x 0.4 metres (depth).

Archaeologist Bridget Mosley was not able to relocate pit site Y17/265 during fieldwork for the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme Upgrade Project in 2000, and it was not relocated with certainty during a New Zealand Historic Places Trust site visit in November 2007. A site with two pits was located very close to the southern edge of the Waitahota Stream, between two gullies, but could not be confidently identified as Y17/265. The site resembled Y17/265 in terms of its approximate location and layout, but the two pits were only about three metres apart, rather than eight metres as recorded for Y17/265.

Y17/265 is one of numerous pit and pit/terrace sites recorded in the Tolaga Bay area. It is part of a dense archaeological and cultural landscape that is of considerable significance to Te Aitanga a Hauiti, reflecting the intensive Maori occupation and settlement of the Tolaga Bay area since the 14th - 15th centuries AD, and the important role that horticulture played in this.