The Waikato Horticultural Complex: An archaeological reconstruction of a Polynesian horticultural system

Abstract

This thesis considers the transfer and adaptation of Polynesian horticulture to New Zealand through examination of the archaeology of the Waikato Horticultural Complex, an inland horticultural system relying on intensive soil adaptation within a swidden process. The successful transfer and adaptation of Polynesian horticulture, a system developed in the tropics and based on tropical plants, to the temperate climate of New Zealand has long been considered enigmatic with a number of attempts to understand how this was effected. The Waikato Horticultural Complex is characterised by the quarrying and transport of course lithic material to garden sites, often glossed as Maori-made soils, that are recognised as distinct soil types by soil scientists. The Waikato Horticultural Complex presents archaeologically in two similar but distinct aspects indicating two parallel agronomic processes. A multi-disciplinary approach has been followed in examining the Waikato Horticultural Complex. The examination of the Waikato Horticultural Complex occurs at two scales. The first places the horticultural system within the wider regional landscape through understanding its scale and its interaction with that landscape, primarily the soils, geology and vegetation. Secondly the Waikato Horticultural Complex is contextualised with a review of the archaeology of Polynesian horticulture as understood in Eastern Polynesia, along with an examination of the literature describing the 'made soils' phenomena in New Zealand, where it appears to be a strategy distinct within Polynesia. Specifically the nature of the Waikato Horticultural Complex is described and characterised. The data relating to the Waikato Horticultural Complex drawn on for this thesis has been derived from a mass of reporting generated through the Cultural Heritage Management process. Most of this reporting has been created by the author of this thesis. This data describes the collective attributes or features of the Waikato Horticultural Complex, which relate to forest clearance, garden development including the quarrying of course lithic material and the features and context in which it is found following transport to the gardens, crop storage structures along with elements reflecting domestic activities. Data relating to the palaeo-environment, along with plant microfossil data relating to cultigens is reviewed. Questions of depositional processes and function of the transported material within the associated archaeological contexts are central to understanding potential motives for the application of the labour intensive process. As well as 'standard' archaeological techniques two additional approaches have been applied. At the micro-scale, soil micromorphological techniques have been applied to the examination of both manifestations of the made soil phenomenon, which have resolved questions about depositional and post-depositional processes and the presence or absence of relict features from now-destroyed components of the gardens. To further test the role of actual and potential elements of the agronomy employed in relation to the transported material the results from experimental garden plots have also been considered.