3. SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY

Marine foods played an important role in the Maori economy. Fish from open sea, rocky shore and estuarine environments are found in middens, along with large quantities of shellfish. Approximately 70% of recorded sites have visible shell midden although this is an under-estimate of the true value of seafood.

Detailed analysis of the food waste in middens allows the economy to be reconstructed at a general level. While lists of bird and fish species found in excavations are produced, exact numbers of individuals or species are not possible for several reasons. These include:

1. processes of decay. Bones of eel and flounder and the cartilaginous skeleton of ray and sharks are rarely found in sites yet references in historic accounts and Land Court records emphasise their importance. Inanga and fresh water fish have left no trace whatsoever. Food preservation techniques such as potting of birds may have led to softening of bone and subsequent rapid decay. The full range of vegetables and plant foods is also unable to be identified.

2. the absence of certain bones or parts of the body which are integral to identification of species, particularly relevant where the heads of fish have been removed at another place.

3. changing techniques in analysis of midden samples. Over time archaeologists have become more aware of the information which can be recovered from middens. In the early years of archaeological investigation, little or no midden material was analysed and certainly not quantified. Detailed examination of several middens has demonstrated the importance of preserved foods and summer and hunting camps.

Fish

A wide range of species of fish was caught by various means—line fishing, trolling, spears, nets and traps. The older sites have a wider variety of species than the more recent sites (Fig. 9 and Table 2). This is partly due to the location of the older sites on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. The excavated sites of a more recent age tend to be from the more sheltered waters of the Waitemata Harbour and lower Firth of

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