Wairau Bar, Archaeological settlement at Wairau River delta, New Zealand
Wairau Bar is a gravel bar at the mouth of the Wairau River, where it meets Cloudy Bay on the northern coast of New Zealand's South Island. The site holds human skeletons and more than 2,000 artifacts from the earliest period of human settlement in New Zealand.
Settlers from eastern Polynesia arrived around 1280 and established a community at this river mouth. Excavations carried out from the 1950s onward brought their remains and belongings to light for the first time.
The burial sites at Wairau Bar reveal practices closely tied to the eastern Polynesian origins of the first inhabitants. Alongside human remains, archaeologists found grave goods such as tools and ornaments made from materials brought from distant parts of New Zealand.
The site is protected and research activities require official permission. Visiting through a guided tour led by a specialist is the best way to understand what was found here and why it matters.
Among the burial goods found at the site were moa eggs used as containers, suggesting the first settlers still encountered this giant bird alive. The moa later disappeared entirely, and Wairau Bar offers one of the few direct traces of the time when people and the bird shared the same land.
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