Moncks Cave, located at the junction of Main Road and Cave Terrace, Redcliffs, Christchurch, is part of the significant Māori cultural heritage landscape of the Raekura (Redcliffs) and Te Ihutai (Avon-Heathcote Estuary) area. It is a former occupation site strongly associated with the coastal and estuarine environment which has served as a traditionally important, longstanding and major māhinga kai resource for successive generations of Māori.
The general area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua Te Ngāi Tuahuriri Runanga, Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke and wider Ngāi Tahu Whānui, being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu for over 600 years.
Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the important collection of taonga Māori discovered there in 1889 by workmen building a road to Sumner. The collection includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu. Taonga have a living connection, relevance and significance to the descendants of their original owners. As such, Moncks Cave has cultural significance as the original repository of these taonga.
Manawhenua consider the site wāhi taonga (treasured place) and have expressed the importance of bringing recognition, honour and protection to the place on account of its association with tīpuna.
From an archaeological perspective, the Moncks Cave collection is considered one of the most remarkable archaeological assemblages ever found in New Zealand. The cave contained a wide range of taonga including a carved and painted canoe paddle, an outrigger canoe float, a carved wooden bailer, a carved wooden dog, and several decorated wooden combs along with more than 30 bone bird-spear points.
Also found were various fibre artefacts such as pieces of fishing net and cordage, several fragments of moa bone and a large amount of shell midden. Some of the material found suggested an occupation age during the first centuries of human settlement in New Zealand and later radiocarbon dating has confirmed this.
The artefacts found at the site in 1889 have great potential to add to our very restricted understanding of the origins and early development of Māori art. Unfortunately, this has been limited by our knowledge of the chronology of occupation of the site and by the inadequate excavation and recording techniques of 1889.
The site is also important because of the evidence that it was occupied near the end of time when moa were still being hunted. Although some moa bones were found in the site, all were 'industrial', or fragments that were broken up to make implements. The stone and bone artefacts found at the site also suggested that some time had passed since iconic 'moa-hunter' sites such as Wairau Bar, Rakaia River Mouth and nearby Redcliffs Flat had been occupied.
Following modern excavations at the site by Canterbury Museum, extensive radiocarbon dating has now provided an age estimate in the late fourteenth to early 15th centuries. As well as helping to date the artefacts, these results provided important support for a revised chronology of moa extinction. This suggests that moa survived for only between 50 and 150 years after the arrival of Māori about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Moncks Cave includes archaeological deposits inside the cave as well as extensive deposits outside the entrance. Both the interior and exterior deposits have been largely destroyed; the interior through archaeological investigations in 1889. The exterior has been modified by excavations for the construction of Council buildings including a public rest room on the northern margins of the land (now removed), and the excavation of several trenches for telephone lines and other services.
The general area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua Te Ngāi Tuahuriri Runanga, Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke and wider Ngāi Tahu Whānui, being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu for over 600 years.
Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the important collection of taonga Māori discovered there in 1889 by workmen building a road to Sumner. The collection includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu. Taonga have a living connection, relevance and significance to the descendants of their original owners. As such, Moncks Cave has cultural significance as the original repository of these taonga.
Manawhenua consider the site wāhi taonga (treasured place) and have expressed the importance of bringing recognition, honour and protection to the place on account of its association with tīpuna.
From an archaeological perspective, the Moncks Cave collection is considered one of the most remarkable archaeological assemblages ever found in New Zealand. The cave contained a wide range of taonga including a carved and painted canoe paddle, an outrigger canoe float, a carved wooden bailer, a carved wooden dog, and several decorated wooden combs along with more than 30 bone bird-spear points.
Also found were various fibre artefacts such as pieces of fishing net and cordage, several fragments of moa bone and a large amount of shell midden. Some of the material found suggested an occupation age during the first centuries of human settlement in New Zealand and later radiocarbon dating has confirmed this.
The artefacts found at the site in 1889 have great potential to add to our very restricted understanding of the origins and early development of Māori art. Unfortunately, this has been limited by our knowledge of the chronology of occupation of the site and by the inadequate excavation and recording techniques of 1889.
The site is also important because of the evidence that it was occupied near the end of time when moa were still being hunted. Although some moa bones were found in the site, all were 'industrial', or fragments that were broken up to make implements. The stone and bone artefacts found at the site also suggested that some time had passed since iconic 'moa-hunter' sites such as Wairau Bar, Rakaia River Mouth and nearby Redcliffs Flat had been occupied.
Following modern excavations at the site by Canterbury Museum, extensive radiocarbon dating has now provided an age estimate in the late fourteenth to early 15th centuries. As well as helping to date the artefacts, these results provided important support for a revised chronology of moa extinction. This suggests that moa survived for only between 50 and 150 years after the arrival of Māori about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Moncks Cave includes archaeological deposits inside the cave as well as extensive deposits outside the entrance. Both the interior and exterior deposits have been largely destroyed; the interior through archaeological investigations in 1889. The exterior has been modified by excavations for the construction of Council buildings including a public rest room on the northern margins of the land (now removed), and the excavation of several trenches for telephone lines and other services.
