Garden Stone Rows

These stone rows are believed to be part of a gardening system used for Polynesian crops such as Kumara brought to New Zealand. They are at least 500 years old.

This site has been extensively studied by archaeologists interested in Maori gardening practices. A further study under the aegis of Dr Bruce McFadgen and Dr Matt Ryan is underway (2017) using the latest investigation tools including drones, ground penetrating radar and palynology - the study of pollen which can allow dating of sediments.

**Walled Gardens of Wairarapa
** An early ecological disaster?
By Gavin McLean

Like the builders of the historic Otuataua Stonefields near Auckland, people much further south were building similar walled gardens along a narrow Wairarapa coastal strip of stony soils, creating a typical East Polynesian settlement pattern of small villages by stream mouths. Their neat garden walls still stretch across the coastal platform and the lower coastal slopes. These walls marked boundaries and absorbed stones cleared from the gardens. Their builders lived to an average of 38 years and used tools that were in some cases fashioned from materials brought in from outside the area. Almost until the end the Palliser settlements were undefended and there is very little sign of fighting. Soon, though, environmental degradation drove them away. Archaeologists still dispute the causes. Some blame climate change, suggesting that Palliser Bay, settled during a warm period, may have been abandoned after temperatures dropped between about 1600 and 1850. Others, the majority, finger human activity. Once fire destroyed the natural cover, bird numbers fell and hunting parties had to travel further to get food. Fire also accelerated soil erosion, reducing crop yields, choking streams and smothering shellfish beds. By about 1500, filter feeders such as oysters, mussels, pipi and tuatua had vanished. Some time between 1550 and 1625 people drifted away.

© 2002 Original Text – Gavin McLean.

Further reading: Helen Leach, 100 Years of Gardening in New Zealand, AH & AW Reed, Wellington, 1984; B Foss and Helen M Leach, Prehistoric Man in Palliser Bay, National Museum of New Zealand Wellington, 1979.

Quote from Maori gardening, An archaeological perspective:St by Louise Furey:

"These remains of garden systems may be extensive. For example, some in Palliser Bay cover more than 9 ha. The parallel stone rows there are 2–3 m wide and between 400 mm and 600 mm high. The rows extend across the coastal platform from near the coast to the base of the hills. At the Black Rocks garden complex in Palliser Bay, rows are up to 212 m long. Sometimes, the main longitudinal rows are connected by transverse rows or cross-rows, dividing the land into plots, but the long rows were always oriented the same way, probably to allow all gardeners to have equal access to the range of conditions: ‘Thus each rectangular strip in a group of apparently contemporary strips contains comparable soils, and no single land user could monopolise the deeper soils of the hollows, while another used only the dry stony ground of the beach ridge’ . These boundaries were made up not only of rows, but also of alignments of stones . In some cases, trenches have been found under, or next to, stone rows, or are visible on the surface. Natural topographic features, such as scarps, were also incorporated into the rows to form continuous garden plot boundaries. It is this kind of evidence that provides compelling proof that the stone rows were not merely the result of a convenient place to dispose of unwanted stones, but that they also had important functions in identifying and enclosing gardens."** **