N EW Z EALAN D ARCH AEOLOGI CAL ASSOCI AT I ON N EWSLET T ER This document is made available by The New Zealand Archaeological Association under the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc‐sa/3.0/. - 191 - SOME PETROGLYPH SITES IN THE NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND R. Garry Law This is the first of a short series of notes on some recently surveyed sites . Readers are invited to contribute. WlllRITOA NORTH CAVE, COROMANIEL PENINSULA This site consists of a sea-cut cleft in the rock, cutting into a small headland about one mile north of Whiritoa Beach. The beach abutting the headland is named Waimana Bay. The headland is a pa of average size, and several other pit and terrace sites occur in the illlmediate vicinity. The cave i s cut in Tertiary Minden rhyolites, and in plan the cave is 51 feet long, tapering from 9f feet wide at the entrance. Its roof is about 15' above the floor, which is washed in hi.g h tides. Its walls are extensively covered with g;ra.U'iti . but in three areas, clear petroglyphs reaain llhich have been recorded. A fourth area has an interesting remnant of a ·glyph. The other areas indicated in Figure 1 probably all held petroglyphs formerly, but these are no longer sufficiently intact for aqy sense to be made from them. The Carvings Apart from one crudely -incised double spiral, the recognisable motifs in the cave consist of at least 21 faces and figures. The faces emphasize the eyes, although the other features of ··the face are _present on mos t of the examples. The figures emphasize the genitals, and some t ake the form of the well-known Tiki figure, the most common portable stone rendering of a human figure. The figures in the cave have poorly detailed faces. Several methods of rendering the faces , and in particular the eyes, occur in the cave. The half-moon rendering of the eyebrows occurs incised, and in the negative relief. In this method the eyes themselves are not shown. The most coD1Don rendering of the eyes, i s pairs of slanted hollows, sometimes curved, some of the hollows being asymetric in cross-section so as to form a distinct eyebrow. In S091e glyphs, the eyes are rendered by incised circles, but generally on the figures, boles are used. The figures are for the most part crude, and some doubt 11USt be entertained as to the authenticity of the three large figures at the left-hand side of the centre of group 1. The remnant of a glyph No. 4 is interesting in that it is close in form to the renderings of the mouths and tails of whales in the South Island shelter ｰ｡ｩｮｴｾｳ Ｎ＠ However, in its highly destroyed state, a definite - 192 - / /· . BEACH . · .· ·. " (« ( ( (\((I,.:: -.:- .. . I: + - TO WHllt lTOA S£A PLAN OF PA A FT£• SKETCH C . NOllTHCllOF T ,, ... ..... . G"OU P 1 \ \ E N O OF ROOF BEAC H '*" • G lt OU P 3 ＰＲ FLOOR PLA N OF C AV E r 91 --ｾＦｓ ＱＰ＠ 20 30 F EET TAP£0 l'l..AH II G . LAW Figure 1 PETROGLYPH SITE ,WHIRITOA NORTH - 193 - "»c 0 ,, ... ·•·. ,-t._"f_·= • •• ... 0 ｾ＠ ·.· .::... ｾ＠ :...· ' .{ : · - - ' ., .:.· Figure 2 -- - 194 - Plate 1 Plate 2 - 195 interpretation is not possible. The treatment of the mouth in the faces in group 4 is reminiscent of the petroglyph of a face recorded at Whitianga by the author (N 44/60, Law, 1966, p. 502) . Dating The Coromandel Coast has good evidence of archaic occupation (Green 1963; 49). At Whiritoa Beach (N 53-54/4), recent excavations on several occasions have produced archaic artefacts (Foreman and Jolly 1965; 149), (Crosby 1963; 46), (Green 1963; 55), and in the thirties, Mr IAlffy now of Mount Maunganui, obtained a large amount of archaic material which i s in his collection. With an apparently large and early population centre near the cave in question, it would be unlikely that it was not used occasionally as a shelter. It would not be surpri.zing if some of the carvings dated frau the archaic, but this is of course impossible to prove. However, the proxjiaity of the pa and other pit and terrace sites Which are presumably classic, •akes a late date for the carvings equally likely. There appears to be some diversity of style in the carvings, but little evidence for over-carving. While this diversity may be entirely cont•porary and the lack of over-carving may indicate a short period, style change in a time scale as long as New Zealand's prehistory, cannot be ruled out, and this site is as .likely as any to reflect it. The cave and the pa are filed as Site No. N 53-54/47, Auckland file. A complete coverage of photos is included in the site records. To the south of Mount Maunganu:i proper on the seaward side of the tcabolo, extending to the Mount, there is a small rocky projection known locally as •The Blowhole". It is a volcanic remnant of Qu.artenary acidic rock. The landward end of this small peninsula is taken over by a marine zoo, which has destroyed part of a pa which once occupied the site (N 58/1, Rotorua, Ba;y of Plenty file). About halfway to the end in a grassy area .a few 1ov outcrops of the rock occur. (See Figure J) On the surface of one of these rocks there is an incised petroglyph of a double spiral, shown in the figure . Its diameter is approximately inches. The spiral is now very indistinct, as it has been badly worn by foot traffic. On the surface of this ｾｮ､＠ the adjacent rocks, several artificially ground hollows occur , one of which is shown in the figure. These are probably stones used for grinding or sharpening stone tools (hoanga). Several similar grinding sites are 7t - 196 - known for the Bay of Plenty and in the Waikato (Delph and Archey 1930: 68). Figure 3 @;j .. :- . ﾷＮＭ ｾﾷ＠ ｾ＠ ... ,-.. . ·. , ' . :: 5 ｾ］Ｍ ﾷ＠ 0 , ｾ＠ MILES LOOK IN G WEST AFTER PHO TO, MISS K. FL ETCHElt TAU/!ANGA Mokau, North Taranaki A short distance south of t h e bridge over the Mokau River , near the coast on the r oad to New Plymouth, the r oad skirts around the base of a sea- cut cliff cut into Tertiary siltstones . At the base of this cliff some sea- cut notches occur . On the north wall of one of these notches , which is only l arge enough for one person to move fr eely, are some petroglyphs . These are partly covered by the floor , which slopes down s teeply from the entrance . It is possible more glyphs occur on the wall The accompan,ying drawi ng of the glyphs was done in below this floor . poor light, making any accurate copying difficult . The positions and relative sizes of the glyphs are , therefore , probably inaccurate. However , this i naccuracy does not seriously detract from the value of this record as the nature of the glyphs doe s not demand any gr eat precision. The entrance to the cave has been cl osed by a recent slip. 2 - 197 - •• •• •• ()--ｾ＠ () () o-- - 198 - TtlE CARVINGS The glyphs ｣ｯｮｾｩｳｴ＠ entirely of incised motifs . As at the nearby sites of Mohakatino (N. 100/22) and Tongapurutu (N . 100/7) , (Delph 1939, p. 116) , feet predominate in the carvings . The only other clear glyph is of a flatfish. Judging from the shape of the tail , it is probably a f l ounder (Rhombosolea sp . ) . Flatfish are readily netted or speared in the Mokau estuary . Remarkably common stone sinkers recovered from around Motutawa Pa on an island in the estuary (N. 91/9) suggest that netted flounder may have been a valuable local resource . The proper interpretation of the other lines on the wall is not clear. ACKNGILEDGMENTS I should like to thank Mr G. Cooper of Tongapurutu for showing a small party to this and the Tongapurutu site . REFERENCES Crosby E. 1963 Preliminary Report on Whiritoa . _NZM. Newsletter, vol . 6 , No. 1, p . 46. Delph , L . W. and Archy, G. 1930 The Piranui Pa at Matawhana, Waikato . Auckland Museum , vol . No . 1, p . 57 . Delph, L. W. Rec . 1939. "Cave Drawings near Tongapurutu, Taranaki", J . P. S., Vol . 48 , No . 2, p. 116. Foreman , J . M. and Jolly, R. G. W. Report on Whiritoa Beach Site , Coromandel . NZAA Newsletter , vol . 8 , No. 4, p . 149. Green , R. C. 1963 A Review of the Prehistoric Sequence of the Auckland Province . NZAA Monograph, No. 2. Law , R. G. 1966 A Maori Ritual Site . p . 502 . J . P. S. vol. 75, No. 4 ,