Hostile Shores. Catastrophic Events in Prehistoric New Zealand and their Impact on Maori Coastal Communities

Abstract

Archaeological sites are the traces left behind in the landscape by people going about their everyday business. They are the main source of physical evidence about prehistoric communities, about how those communities lived, and about how catastrophic events affected them. Other sources of evidence used by archaeologists include: plant pollen extracted from mud and peat in estuaries, lakes and swamps; animal bones that have accumulated in natural deposits such as sinkholes and swamps; and geological deposits. These other sources provide insights into the types of environment that people were occupying, and the effects that catastrophic events had on those environments. But to find out how people actually responded to catastrophic events, archaeological sites are a key source of information. This chapter focuses on the physical evidence of archaeological sites and its meaning.