Dating South Island Māori rock art: Pigment and pitfalls

Gerard O'Regan; Fiona Petchey; Rachel Wood; Andrew McAlister; Fiona Bradshaw; Simon Holdaway

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.12.009

Dating South Island Māori rock art: Pigment and pitfalls

Gerard O'Regan^*, Fiona Petchey, Rachel Wood, Andrew McAlister, Fiona Bradshaw, Simon Holdaway

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

New Zealand was first settled by Māori soon after 1200 CE, however the age, and so the social and environmental contexts of the rock art they made remains uncertain. We report the first attempts at the direct dating of New Zealand rock art through radiocarbon analysis focusing on the return of an unexpectedly early date. Historical information and pigment testing indicates that the particular figures that returned the early date were retouched with modern crayons. We report the use of portable X-ray fluorescence to identify rock art figures that have been retouched in this way. Results emphasise the need to consider historical information in future assessments of material for dating Māori rock art.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	132-141
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Volume	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.12.009
Publication status	Published - Apr 2019

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title = "Dating South Island Māori rock art: Pigment and pitfalls",

abstract = "New Zealand was first settled by Māori soon after 1200 CE, however the age, and so the social and environmental contexts of the rock art they made remains uncertain. We report the first attempts at the direct dating of New Zealand rock art through radiocarbon analysis focusing on the return of an unexpectedly early date. Historical information and pigment testing indicates that the particular figures that returned the early date were retouched with modern crayons. We report the use of portable X-ray fluorescence to identify rock art figures that have been retouched in this way. Results emphasise the need to consider historical information in future assessments of material for dating Māori rock art.",

keywords = "Māori, New Zealand, Pigment analysis, Radiocarbon dating, Rock art, pXRF",

author = "Gerard O'Regan and Fiona Petchey and Rachel Wood and Andrew McAlister and Fiona Bradshaw and Simon Holdaway",

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AU - O'Regan, Gerard

AU - Petchey, Fiona

AU - Wood, Rachel

AU - McAlister, Andrew

AU - Bradshaw, Fiona

AU - Holdaway, Simon

PY - 2019/4

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N2 - New Zealand was first settled by Māori soon after 1200 CE, however the age, and so the social and environmental contexts of the rock art they made remains uncertain. We report the first attempts at the direct dating of New Zealand rock art through radiocarbon analysis focusing on the return of an unexpectedly early date. Historical information and pigment testing indicates that the particular figures that returned the early date were retouched with modern crayons. We report the use of portable X-ray fluorescence to identify rock art figures that have been retouched in this way. Results emphasise the need to consider historical information in future assessments of material for dating Māori rock art.

AB - New Zealand was first settled by Māori soon after 1200 CE, however the age, and so the social and environmental contexts of the rock art they made remains uncertain. We report the first attempts at the direct dating of New Zealand rock art through radiocarbon analysis focusing on the return of an unexpectedly early date. Historical information and pigment testing indicates that the particular figures that returned the early date were retouched with modern crayons. We report the use of portable X-ray fluorescence to identify rock art figures that have been retouched in this way. Results emphasise the need to consider historical information in future assessments of material for dating Māori rock art.

KW - Māori

KW - New Zealand

KW - Pigment analysis

KW - Radiocarbon dating

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JO - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

JF - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

ER -

Dating South Island Māori rock art: Pigment and pitfalls

Abstract

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