Abstract
The Hawke’s Bay region in Aotearoa New Zealand has had little archaeological excavation and research carried out to date. Due to the lack of investigation into a range of sites from different periods, little is known about early patterns of settlement, subsistence and mobility or how the Hawke’s Bay fits within the wider New Zealand context. To address these regional and chronological knowledge gaps, one part of this thesis compares faunal data from W21/10 (Te Kauwae-a-Māui, Cape Kidnappers) to the only two other pre-1500 AD sites that have had systematic faunal analysis undertaken: Y19/82 (Te Hoe, Māhia Peninsula) and V23/21 (near Blackhead, Pōrangahau). The three sites are situated on different parts of the Hawke’s Bay coastline and their comparison provides insight into early regional lifeways in this part of eastern New Zealand. Most archaeological sites in Aotearoa New Zealand, including W21/10, are situated along the coastline and are consequently under threat due to climate change effects such as increased coastal erosion and natural events, and rising sea levels. While this is leading to a significant loss of archaeological and cultural heritage sites across the country, there is currently no real understanding of what information is actually being lost, or if eroded faunal assemblages are of archaeological value. The second part of this thesis focuses on this issue by investigating if surface collected faunal samples could be useful for archaeological interpretation. This is done by comparing excavated fauna sieved through 3.2 mm screens and surface collected material recovered from Cape Kidnappers, using traditional archaeozoological techniques and diversity indices.