Abstract:
Archaeologists seldom engage in applied research. This seminar presents research commissioned by the Ministry of Fisheries as part of a broader project aiming to improve understanding of the structure and functioning of New Zealand?s marine shelf ecology to enable better management of fisheries. It applies a novel analytical approach to a large body of archaeological data to provide, for the first time, numerical estimates of the levels of customary harvest by Maori in to New Zealand study areas prior to European settlement. Regional differences in the range of marine resources exploited and trajectories of change over time are identified and potential explanations for these are posited.