The first rays of the soon to be scorching sun cast their glow across the rugged landscape we would be traversing. We were a part of a fellowship. A fellowship with one aim: to survey the entire northern landscape of the island and note the presence of archaeological features upon it. Our leader and ranger Zac was armed with the tools we needed to complete (or attempt to) our task. These included, but were not limited to, a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit equipped with ArcPad software and an unsteady foot. Accompanying our leader was a wizard of immense knowledge, brandishing both a glorious staff and ginger beard, going only by the name of Joe. Then there was us, an idiotic hobbit (Alex Bes) and an exasperated elf maiden (Sarah), both up to the task but unaware of its perils.
Figure 1: Because no-one took any photos of the Fellowship in action, here is an artist’s impression of the day.
Our journey began on the slopes of another hill north of, and running perpendicular to Tamawhera where those unworthy to be part of our fellowship toiled away, excavating under the sun. In order to achieve the momentous aim we had, we would divide the lands of the men into 25×25 metre grids. Following our leader, we of the fellowship trudged behind noting any features on the landscape. The first hill on which we traversed had many indicators of previous inhabitants. Prehistoric terraces dominated the landscape along with a number of stone alignments and earthwork features such as banks and terraces. We continued north of Tamawhera to the edge of the island. Thanks to a malfunction of the GPS unit we almost had to go all the way there, and back again ;). The fellowship was tested by the topographically shifting landscape of ridge, swamps and valleys, suffering only sore feet as a result.
Terrible analogies aside, our walking survey was most enjoyable and served a very important purpose. Previous large scale surveys of the island were conducted at a site-based level. By surveying at a feature-based level we were aiding Zac in creating a higher resolution map of the archaeological landscape. We were primarily interested in whether there was archaeology in the area or not as our main variable; this would help Zac further in his research when he plans to map out the GPS co-ordinates of the features we identified.
Signed on the thirtieth day, of the first month, of the two thousand and fourteenth year,
Bes and Sarah.