Archaeologists ‘on the right track’ at dig

THE archaeological remains of what is likely to have been one of the oldest settlements in New Zealand are continuing to be unearthed in an excavation at Cooks Cove.

A team of archaeologists from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and Otago University have added fishhooks and stone tools to their list of remnants of a small village in the cove. They believe this village could have been established by Maori as early as the 14th Century.

“This is a really exciting development. Given what we know about the history of the area, we were expecting to come across some significant archaeology — this shows we were definitely on the right track,” said co-director of the excavation, Professor Richard Walter of Otago University.