A dated pollen record of vegetation change on Mayor Island (Tuhua) throughout the last 3000 years

Abstract

Pollen data are presented from Mayor Island, Bay of Plenty. The island was important in prehistory as a source of obsidian (Seelenfreund, A., Bollong, C., 1989. The sourcing of New Zealand obsidian artefacts using energy dispersive XRF Spectroscopy. In: D. Sutton (Editor), Saying So Doesn't Make It So: Papers in honour of B. Foss Leach. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph, Wellington, pp. 168–189.) and holds a strategic location relative to the settlement of the North Island of New Zealand since it lies on possible arrival routes from Polynesia, and also relative to travel up and down the east coast of the North Island. The pollen data show that the island was generally forested between c. 3000 and c. 450 BP, when forest declined and the bracken fern Pteridium esculentum (and charcoal) increased. Before significant forest decline at 450 BP, which is consistent with Maori occupation at the time of the fortified settlements known as pa, there is evidence of other episodes of vegetation disturbance dating back to c. 2200 BP which may represent earlier visits by people.