One Flake at a Time: a study of adze production at Wairau Bar through debitage analysis

Abstract

This thesis explores the adze industry of the early period of Māori history. The research focuses on the production of adzes at the site of Wairau Bar which dates to the earliest phase of New Zealand settlement. It aims to establish the role of this site in a wider system of adze production though the analysis of a debitage assemblage excavated from the site in the 2009 field season. The debitage assemblage consists of the waste material produced through adze manufacture and the analysis is structured to target what stages of manufacture the material represents, thereby determining the production practices being undertaken at the site. The results of the analysis are then tested against a proposed model of the adze industry, from raw material procurement to distribution, and conclusions are drawn about both the structure of the industry and the role Wairau Bar and its people would have played.