Prehistoric horticultural adaptation of soils in the middle Waikato Basin : review and evidence from S14/201 and S14/185, Hamilton

The middle Waikato Basin contains extensive evidence, reviewed here, for the modification of soils for horticulture (gardening) by pre-European Maori. We investigated an area of Maori gardens at archaeological sites S14/201 and S14/185 in Hamilton City. Two groups of multiple, near-circular hollows, each about 0.3 m in diameter and infilled with gravelly sand, were exposed during the site excavations. The hollows, extending through modified A horizon materials into upper B horizon materials, are interpreted as representing the lower part of small truncated mounds (puke) that had been built up by early Maori for growing kumara (Ipomoea batatas). The hollows were grouped in a distinctive quincunx-like pattern in which four hollows formed the corners of a square with one hollow in the centre. The characteristics and layout of the hollows match historical descriptions of mounds used by Maori gardeners. We also used particle-sized analysis to quantify the extent to which upper horizons of the antedecent soils had been modified by the addition of gravel and sand excavated from borrow pits in adjacent volcanogenic alluvium (Hinuera Formation). A radiocarbon date obtained from charcoal found in a fireplace under the modified A horizon and near the hollows suggests that the site was occupied in the late fifteenth century. Identification to species level of charcoal fragments found in the modified soil suggests that site S14/201 may have been cleared of large podocarp trees not long before gardening activities began. This conclusion is supported by similar evidence from another site on the same stretch of the Waikato River. If so, such late (localised) deforestation contrasts with evidence from other palaeoenvironmental studies that shows regional deforestation began considerably earlier (about AD 1300) in the Waikato region. (author). 63 refs., 9 figs., 7 tabs