The Archaeological Ecodynamics of Māori Fisheries: Climate Change, Harvest Effects, and Mass Capture Strategies in Northern Aotearoa

Abstract

This thesis explores the long-term human ecodynamics of Māori peoples’ fisheries in northern Aotearoa, from the earliest Polynesian arrivals to the start of the nineteenth century. Out of recognition that fisheries are structured by complex interactions between people, animals, and environmental processes, I examine these socioenvironmental systems by integrating paleoclimate records, fisheries biology, archaeological landscape histories, and archaeological assemblages of fish remains. I propose three working hypotheses that fisheries changed over time due to (H1) decreasing sea surface temperatures during the Little Ice Age and (H2) human harvest pressures on fish stocks, and/or because (H3) Māori fishing methods and technologies changed. I test these hypotheses by comparing zooarchaeological data from 17 fishbone assemblages that I analysed for this thesis, and 66 previously published fishbone assemblages deposited between about 1250–1850 cal CE in the regions of Northland, Auckland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty. Because archaeological data are themselves inherently complex products of human behaviour, post-depositional processes, and archaeological recovery and analysis, I systematically evaluate these archaeofisheries records for multiple potential sources of bias. Analysing these 83 assemblages – while carefully controlling for recovery and identification biases where appropriate – demonstrates that Māori fished at least 54 distinct species from a wide range of coastal habitats across northern Aotearoa, with an emphasis on snapper (Chrysophrys auratus), and on wrasses (tribe Pseudolabrini) and leatherjacket (Meuschenia scaber) from rocky reefs. Māori also began fishing large schools of small pelagic fishes like jack mackerels (Trachurus spp.), kōheru (Decapterus koheru), and blue mackerel (Scomber australasicus) after 1500 cal CE, most likely with highly productive mass capture fishing methods. Meanwhile, snapper and rocky reef fisheries show strong continuities in many places throughout the Little Ice Age and centuries of sustained human harvests. Weaving the available lines of evidence together, I conclude that each of my three hypotheses are consistent with many of the observed changes in Māori archaeofisheries records to some extent, and that multiple, historically contingent factors influenced northern Māori fisheries over time.