Abstract
•Polynesian adaptation to new stone resource during earliest New Zealand settlement.•Activity in Bluff Harbour driven by stone extraction and adze production.•Comparison of adze blanks connects quarry to secondary production site.•Adzes produced at Bluff Harbour supplied early communities throughout South Island.
Bluff Harbour, Murihiku (Southland) was the location of a stone tool production system during the earliest period of New Zealand settlement by Polynesians. The system focused on the production of adzes from Bluff argillite, a tough metasedimentary rock obtained primarily from Coylers Island in the north of the harbour. To better understand quarrying and reduction strategies on Colyers Island, we undertook investigations there which included the surface collection of 148 adze blanks and test excavations. We created 3D models of these blanks to analyse raw material properties and reduction strategies. The results established there was a single manufacturing sequence that began at the Colyers Island quarry and finished at the nearby settlement site of Tiwai Point, as the same blank selection strategies and manufacturing techniques were observed at both locations. Importantly, a marked distinction was made between the early-stage blanks from Colyers Island, and the later stages of reduction of Tiwai Point blanks and preforms. The connection between these two locales indicates a distinct system of adze manufacture that was established to supply adzes to communities up to 500 km distant.