Greater Cascade -
Cockpit
Greater Cascade -
Cockpit
NOTE: This very short work was written in 1995 as part of a talk I was preparing for the Australasian Society for Archaeology. Since that time two anthropological excavations have taken place at Emily Bay with further confirmations of settlement. I recently reviewed my excavation across the old township of Sydney (Pier Area, Kingston) and feel confident that some of the lenses of charred Polynesian Rat bones and birdbones mixed in with pumice and indigenous snail shells may also have Polynesian origins. Sorry to say, the above photographs are of a natural feature taken at just the right angle above the waterfall at Cockpit.
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Unambiguous evidence of pre-European settlement has been found at Kingston for many years. But caution should be used when material is found out of stratigraphic context. Stone tools have been found all over the Island but these were all surface finds (a summary of these, including Melanesian tools, has been compiled by anthropologist Dr Jim Specht of the Australian Museum). There will always be an element of uncertainty about these finds because:
(1) Items may have belonged to early settlers as curios and subsequently lost. All the stone tools were found in areas cleared or used in some way since 1788. (None found in the Mt Pitt/ National Park area).
(2) Items originating from the early Maori captive visitors who stayed with Lieut. Governor Philip Gidley King.
(3) Items may have belonged to students and staff of the Melanesian Mission (1860s-1919). It is known that native artefacts were used or collected by members of the Mission. Dr Specht lists several items of Melanesian origin. These may be confused with Polynesian items.
(4) The Pitcairn Islanders arrived in 1856 with artefacts originating from Tahiti. However, these were items practical to their needs (or former needs) and are readily identifiable: stone food pounders, dense timber or bone bark pounders and stone slab graters (the latter mostly originating from Pitcairn Island).
However
That Polynesian stone tools were found which could not have been the result of European settlement (as of 1788) is attested by the finds recorded by Philip Gidley King and others. These tools were found during the first couple of years of European settlement when clearing took place at Kingston and adjacent Arthur's Vale. Some of these were shown to King's Maori visitors causing great excitement because the tools seemed familiar to them. Incidently, I found half of a stone tool in the foundation of the hallway of the 1792 Government House (burned down and abandoned in 1814 but may have been deposited as early as the construction period).
Stone tools and flakes have been found at Kingston for many years, particularly along Slaughter Bay, and to a lesser extent along Cemetery Bay. Merval Hoare found most of the items originating from there. One of the best tools was found by R G (Bob) Tofts, half embedded in the massive calcarenite at Slaughter Bay Beach (top layer). I have seen (probably local) basalt flakes on the surface of these rocks also. Considering the large number of items found and the early documentation of finds in the area, it is certain that there was a focus of Polynesian settlement at Kingston at least.
A number of items found during the 1980s leaves no doubt as to their pre- European Settlement origin because they were found in contexts which could not have been contaminated:
Cemetery Bay
--Large adze of whale bone (see below) found in a fossiliferous layer carbon dated to about 800 to 1000 years before the present at the sand quarry at Cemetery Bay.
Whale bone adze
(mid) compared with several convict-period and later adzes and chisels.
--Handle flange of a stone tool found in the same deposit.
--Burned bird bones and many bivalves showing forceful opening in the same deposit. Evidence of repeated burning in a fairly pristine environment (great range of endemic snail species shells, bird bones etc).
Slaughter Bay:
--A small beautifully flaked stone tool (and various stone flakes) set in fairly young calcarenite stone (around 1000 years old). Narrow tool with comparatively large serrated edges.
The presence of Polynesian activity has largely been ignored and so receives some attention here. Unfortunately sand mining continues as a blight on an otherwise fairly good Norfolk Island heritage reputation,
7th May 1995
R V J V