Quotations

Quotations

Pithy quotations about local archaeology are welcome here - contibutions to the webmaster@archaeopedia.com.

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Thought co's archaeologist quotations is worth a visit here.

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It was decided therefore to use the plough as a quicker method of exploring the area. Burial 19 at point 32 .... was soon located from the presence of some mandible fragments in the furrow, and burial 20 at point 33 ... from some cranium fragments and a tooth. Roger Duff 1950 The Moa-Hunter Period of Maori Culture, page 60.

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We know more about the Classic Maori than we shall know about any other phase of prehistoric New Zealand culture, because with the arrival of literate Europeans, prehistory was "caught alive". Jack Golson 1959 Culture change in Prehistoric New Zealand. in Anthropology in the South Seas. Ed. Freeman, J. D. & Geddes, W. R. Thomas Avery & Sons Ltd., New Plymouth, page 47. On other occasions Golson also used the 'caught alive' allusion in respect of other parts of the Pacific.

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Mr. Hocken, the well-known archaeologist from Dunedin, has just completed a visit to North Auckland in connection with the New Zealand career of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, who was responsible for the introduction of the missionaries to this colony in 1814. Dr. Hocken has obtained a quantity of valuable historical matter concerning early missionary effort in New Zealand, and intends to publish a book on the subject. Evening Post, 7 March 1905. See at Papers Past (The earliest use of "archaeologist" on Papers Past, or anywhere describing a New Zealand resident?)

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Of their long residence the Maoris have left many traces behind them. The remains of their whares may be seen everywhere and the writer of these lines spent a few hours very pleasantly fossicking about in search of greenstone and other relics. He was pretty successful in his research, having found several specimens of axes, adzes, and so on. These implements appear to have been dropped in the sand, and so lost the sand which covered them being afterwards blown away by the wind. .............. It thus appears that New Zealand has passed at once from the stone age of the archaeologist to the iron age, without passing through, the intermediate or bronze period. "A Trip on the Coast" by "Pakeha" Otago Witness, Issue 655, 18 June 1864, Page 8. Papers Past A book by "Pakeha's" son allows us to resolve who he is and reveals the likely site as Murdering Beach. The three ages division of archaeology first publication in English was in Charles Lyell's The Antiquity of Man, 1863, and may well be the inspiration of the latter statement. Still the writer identified himself as a fossicker rather than an archaeologist.

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I feel sure that much useful data would be obtained by digging in some of the old historical pa sites and carrying out work like Skinner has done in the south with the moa hunter people. Peter Buck 1933, Na To Hoa Aroha From your Dear Friend. Ngata / Buck Correspondence, edited M P K Sorrenson, Vol 3 1932-50. Auckland University Press 1988, page 66.

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When I hesitated, doubtful of calling myself an archaeologist, let alone a scholar, he assured me I would be welcome, so I took his word, and got the train to Jerusalem. Charles Brasch 1980 Indirections

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I recall, when my mother stopped her red and white Hillman Imp on a suburban street in Huntly and said What's it going to be, a doctor or a lawyer? replying, Actually I want to be an archaeologist. Martin Edmond 2007 Waimarino County: and Other Excursions Martin's mother was Lauris Edmond.

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The earliest period of North Island prehistory might be more fairly described as arcane than archaic. Garry Law 1972, Archaeology at Harataonga Bay Great Barrier Island. Garry was protesting the unpublished state of many excavations.

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In solving the problem as to the period when the human race was first on the earth, the geologist, paleontologist and archaeologist must go hand in hand; and when they considered the progress mankind had made since the stone age, they had every assurance of still greater in the future. There was no doubt that New Zealand had been occupied by man long prior to the period at which they supposed the country to be populated. Julius Von Haast, Inaugural address for Canterbury College, The Press, 1883. Papers Past

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Many stone implements have also been found, and it is thought that if the old pah sites were investigated numerous Maori implements which are now becoming scarce would be brought to light. The island, therefore, possesses some charm for the archaeologist..... Reporting a visit by Mr Hugh Boscawen to Little Barrier Island. The Press 1895, Papers Past

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At the age of nine I went on record, saying to George Ashton, the principal of my primary school, that I wanted to be an archaeologist. He went on record too, saying that I could "be" anything I wanted. (These were, in an austere way generous times). Looking back, I see that archaeology has always been my intent, although my activities went under different names at different times." Lynn Jenner, 2015, Lost and Gone Away. Auckland University Press.

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See also: The Australian Archaeologist's Book of Quotations 2015, Eds. by Mike Smith and Billy Griffiths. Monash University Publishing.

References

Note: The full title is A Pakeha's Recollection, The Reminiscences of Murray Gladstone Thomson. Edited Alfred Eccles, 1944, A H and A W Reed, Dunedin. It has an introduction by H D Skinner and an appendix discussing Murdering Beach hei tiki finds by Skinner as well.

Speaking of his father: "Early in 1863 he gave up his lease of the property and moved to Dunedin. Here he entered into the employ of the "Otago Daily Times" and the "Witness" as a reader, a position he held until his death in 1879. During this period of service he was a fairly constant contributor to the column of the "Times". Over the signature of "Pakeha" he wrote a series of interesting accounts of "Rambles" made on foot on various parts of Otago." (pp32-3).

Thomson does not give his father's name! However it says he was a foundation member of the Otago Institute. A search on Papers Past found a matching obituary for a Mr Peter Thomson: Obituary.

In 1864 a young Mr MG Thomson was boarding with a farmer at Murdering Beach and already taking an interest in Maori artefacts. It is quite likely Mr Peter Thomson's ramble was to there and was to visit his son.

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