Clearing thistles
We arrived on the island yesterday, taking a boat from Whitianga. Today, we woke up early. The sun had only just risen, Venus and the moon still visible in the sky. We had breakfast quickly and went up to Tamawhera Pa.
But before we could start excavating, we had to clear up the area. Clearing thistles under the hot sun was hard but rewarding work. The terraces on the hillside looked a lot clearer, and this also allowed more accurate digital recording of the larger site area.
Then the fun began! I was in a group excavating a possible house site on a terrace a few metres below the summit. A house site found on an excavated terrace in a previous excavation indicated that we might find something similar further up the hill. We set up the excavation squares and removed the turf, and then began to slowly excavate the topsoil.
Excavation begins
It wasn’t long before we found some interesting things, like stone cores and flakes of obsidian and chert. There’s nothing quite like brushing away soil and uncovering the oily black surface of an obsidian flake, or a pearly shard of chert. Most of the work was removing soil carefully, with small trowels and brushes, and sieving the soil to check of small or overlooked artefacts.
Terraces at Tamawhera are distinctive because they are faced with stones, and the view from the top of the hill down at tear-drop shaped terraces one below the other is intriguing. I could imagine people living there in the past, surrounded by beautiful scenery.
At the end of the day we returned to the shearing quarters, hot, sweaty and very dirty. And then, we walked over the hill for a dip in the sea. The water is clear and calm, an impossible turquoise next to the white sand. The sun’s just set, and soon it’ll be time to go to sleep, so we can wake once more with the sun, ready for another exciting day.
I’m really enjoying this fieldtrip, and I’m looking forward to what the next two weeks will bring.
– Jenny Loader