Moncks Cave, located at the junction of Main Road and Cave Terrace, Redcliffs, Christchurch, is part of the significant Maori cultural heritage landscape of the Raekura (Redcliffs) and Te Ihutai (Avon-Heathcote Estuary) area. It is a former occupation site strongly associated with the coastal and estuarine environment which has served as a traditionally important, longstanding and major mahinga kai resource for successive generations of Maori.
The general area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua Te Ngai Tuahuriri Runanga, Te Hapu o Ngati Wheke and wider Ngai Tahu Whanui, being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu for over 600 years.
Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the important collection of taonga Maori discovered there in 1889 by workmen building a road to Sumner. The collection includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu. Taonga have a living connection, relevance and significance to the descendants of their original owners. As such, Moncks Cave has cultural significance as the original repository of these taonga.
Manawhenua consider the site wahi taonga (treasured place) and have expressed the importance of bringing recognition, honour and protection to the place on account of its association with tipuna.
From an archaeological perspective, the Moncks Cave collection is considered one of the most remarkable archaeological assemblages ever found in New Zealand. The cave contained a wide range of taonga including a carved and painted canoe paddle, an outrigger canoe float, a carved wooden bailer, a carved wooden dog, and several decorated wooden combs along with more than 30 bone bird-spear points.
Also found were various fibre artefacts such as pieces of fishing net and cordage, several fragments of moa bone and a large amount of shell midden. Some of the material found suggested an occupation age during the first centuries of human settlement in New Zealand and later radiocarbon dating has confirmed this.
The artefacts found at the site in 1889 have great potential to add to our very restricted understanding of the origins and early development of Maori art. Unfortunately, this has been limited by our knowledge of the chronology of occupation of the site and by the inadequate excavation and recording techniques of 1889.
The site is also important because of the evidence that it was occupied near the end of time when moa were still being hunted. Although some moa bones were found in the site, all were 'industrial', or fragments that were broken up to make implements. The stone and bone artefacts found at the site also suggested that some time had passed since iconic 'moa-hunter' sites such as Wairau Bar, Rakaia River Mouth and nearby Redcliffs Flat had been occupied.
Following modern excavations at the site by Canterbury Museum, extensive radiocarbon dating has now provided an age estimate in the late fourteenth to early 15th centuries. As well as helping to date the artefacts, these results provided important support for a revised chronology of moa extinction. This suggests that moa survived for only between 50 and 150 years after the arrival of Maori about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Moncks Cave includes archaeological deposits inside the cave as well as extensive deposits outside the entrance. Both the interior and exterior deposits have been largely destroyed; the interior through archaeological investigations in 1889. The exterior has been modified by excavations for the construction of Council buildings including a public rest room on the northern margins of the land (now removed), and the excavation of several trenches for telephone lines and other services.
Archaeological Significance or Value:
Moncks Cave has very high archaeological significance. It is the site of discovery of a nationally significant artefact collection, including many of perishable materials which normally do not survive in archaeological sites, which has the potential to contribute important information on such topics as the origins and early development of Maori art. Of equal importance is its potential to contribute towards an understanding of the little-known and poorly understood transition between the earliest 'Archaic' phase of Polynesian settlement in New Zealand and the later 'Classic' Maori phase. Its importance is indicated in the many references to the site and its collections in various national and international archaeological publications.
Scientific Significance or Value:
Moncks Cave has considerable significance as a key site in discussions of the development of both the discipline of archaeology in New Zealand and of our understanding of the archaeology of this country in general. It has figured in all major reviews of the archaeology of both Canterbury and New Zealand.
The site has provided important scientific information about the prehistory of New Zealand in general. Specific contributions include its being the type site of the extinct New Zealand swan (Cygnus sumnerensis), now synonymised with the Australian Black Swam (Cygnus atratus) and its role in the new understanding of the chronology of extinction of the moa.
Cultural Significance or Value:
Moncks Cave has high cultural significance to manawhenua as part of the cultural landscape of the Ihutai/Raekura area. This area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua, being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu for over 600 years.
Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the remarkable collection of taonga Maori discovered there in 1889 which includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu. Taonga have a living connection, relevance and significance to the descendants of their original owners. As such, Moncks Cave has cultural significance as the original repository of these taonga.
Manawhenua consider the site wahi taonga and have expressed the importance of bringing recognition, honour and protection to the place on account of its association with tipuna.
Moncks Cave also has considerable cultural value to the local community as a nationally important item of local heritage. The fact that it was also the source of an internationally significant collection of taonga Maori contributes further to its cultural value
a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history:
Moncks Cave reflects important and representative aspects of New Zealand history in three ways. Firstly in terms of its archaeological evidence relating to the early history and development of Maori culture; secondly in terms of the early development of the discipline of archaeology in New Zealand and, finally, in terms of its contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge about extinct avifauna.
(c) The potential of the place to provide knowledge of New Zealand history:
Moncks Cave has provided very important information about the early history of New Zealand ever since its discovery in 1889. It continues to have the potential to provide such knowledge as evidenced by the excavations that took place in 1998.
(d) The importance of the place to the tangata whenua:
Moncks Cave has high cultural significance to manawhenua as part of the cultural landscape of the Ihutai/Raekura area. This area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua, being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu for over 600 years.
Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the remarkable collection of taonga Maori discovered there in 1889 which includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu. Taonga have a living connection, relevance and significance to the descendants of their original owners. As such, Moncks Cave has some cultural significance as the original repository of these taonga.
Manawhenua consider the site wahi taonga and have expressed the importance of bringing recognition, honour and protection to the place on account of its association with tipuna.
(f) The potential of the place for public education:
The site has considerable potential for public education and is regularly used for school visits and 'heritage week' field trips. Christchurch City Council developed an on site interpretation panel at Moncks Cave Reserve as part of its 1850 Heritage Trail project in 2000. Formally opened in December 2000, the project comprises an inner city trail and a coastal trail (of which Moncks Cave is part). A Christchurch City Council produced brochure entitled Christchurch before 1850: inner-city and coastal heritage trails provides additional information and maps guiding visitors to the featured heritage sites.
(i) The importance of identifying historic places known to date from early periods of New Zealand settlement:
One of the most important aspects of the site is its time of occupation. It is known to date from the earliest centuries of settlement in New Zealand - probably less than half a dozen generations after Polynesian discovery of this country. It has long been recognised as a key site in the understanding of this early phase of settlement.
(j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places:
Moncks Cave is a rare site type in three ways. Firstly, caves are a relatively rare site type. Secondly, early sites are very rare - partly because the population was very low in the early settlement phase, but also because those few sites that were created so long ago have had more time to be destroyed through erosion and other causes. Thirdly, however, the site is rare because it shows evidence of the change from the eastern Polynesian culture of the earliest settlers to that of the Maori. Only a handful of sites show this type of evidence in New Zealand.
(k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural complex or historical and cultural landscape:
The development of the city of Christchurch and it suburbs has seriously modified the cultural landscape of which Moncks Cave formed a part. However, it is still possible to distinguish the elements of such a landscape. The site is part of the cultural landscape of the Ihutai/Raekura area utilised as a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu for over 600 years.
Two of the better-known sites of the Archaic or 'moa-hunter' phase, Redcliffs Flat and Moa-bone Point Cave are situated only a few hundred metres closer to the city centre. There are other sites further around the Avon-Heathcote Estuary such as the traditional village of Te Kai a te Karoro on the South Brighton spit and eel weirs observed by early European explorers.
Some of the earliest months of development of Christchurch are represented nearby, including the site of the Heathcote Ferry at the end of Ferry Road, and an early hotel at the ferry landing. All phases of the settlement of Canterbury are recorded in the local heritage landscape and Moncks Cave is a very significant part of this.
Summary of Significance or Values:
This place was assessed against, and found to qualify, under the following criteria: a, c, d, f, i, j, k.
Conclusion:
It is considered that Moncks Cave qualifies as a Category I historic place.
Moncks Cave is of both special and outstanding significance as the site of the discovery of one of the most remarkable artefact collections ever found in the Pacific. This collection has enormous potential to contribute information about the history and development of Maori art. The site has provided internationally significant information towards an understanding of extinction processes. It has provided important information about the history and environment of New Zealand on a regular basis over the past 130 years. The site has high cultural significance to manawhenua as part of the cultural landscape of the Ihutai/Raekura area that encompasses the mahinga kai of Te Ihutai. The taonga discovered in the cave have a living connection, relevance and significance to manawhenua and the site is considered wahi taonga on account of its association with tipuna. The Moncks Cave taonga are highly significant for their age and rarity and have been exhibited nationally and internationally. There is a high degree of community appreciation and public esteem for the site and it is regularly used for educational purposes by school groups and others. Moncks Cave is a rare and important type of site both for being a cave and for the period of time during which it was used. It dates to a time when there were relatively few people living in New Zealand, but also at a time when many changes were occurring to ways of life here. It is a key site in the cultural landscape of the Avon-Heathcote/Ihutai Estuary and the only known site of its age in the vicinity.
Historical Narrative
Moncks Cave is part of the significant Maori cultural heritage landscape of the Raekura (Redcliffs) and Te Ihutai (Avon-Heathcote Estuary) area. Located at the junction of Main Road and Cave Terrace, Redcliffs, Christchurch, Moncks Cave is a former occupation site strongly associated with the coastal and estuarine environment which has served as a traditionally important, longstanding and major mahinga kai resource for successive generations of Maori. This area is of immense cultural and historical importance to manawhenua Te Ngai Tuahuriri Runanga, Te Hapu o Ngati Wheke and wider Ngai Tahu Whanui being a place of significant settlement and food gathering by Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and Ngai Tahu for over 600 years. Moncks Cave is of particular significance on account of the remarkable collection of taonga Maori discovered there in 1889 which includes some of the oldest, rarest and most treasured taonga in Te Wai Pounamu.
Moncks Cave is located in the vicinity of several traditional settlement and food gathering places including Te Karoro Karoro (South Brighton spit), Te Kai a Te Karoro (Jellicoe Park) and Te Raekura (Redcliffs). The traditionally significant site, Rapanui (Shag Rock), stands sentinel at the mouth of Te Ihutai and the two rivers Otakaro (Avon) and Opawaho (Heathcote) flow in to it. Sites along both the Otakaro and Opawaho rivers, in and around the estuary, and on the coastline near the mouth of the estuary were known and used by Maori due to the availability and abundance of mahinga kai resources. Freshwater fish and shellfish, as well as numerous native plant resources, waterfowl and forest birds could be gathered from the network of springs, waterways, swamps, grasslands and lowland podocarp forests that made up the estuary catchment.
The area's numerous caves and rock shelters formed by overhanging coastal cliffs were utilised by Maori for shelter including sites in adjacent Barnett Park, McCormacks Bay and Te Ana o Hineraki (Moa Bone Point Cave). The area offered the bounty of the estuary and provided access to the fishing grounds of Te Tai o Mahaanui (Pegasus Bay) via the estuary mouth. With waka then providing the primary means of transport, the estuary also formed part of a major transport route which enabled navigation from the sea coast, through the estuary channels, up the Opawaho and thence Halswell rivers to Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere).
Sheltered from the southerly wind, Moncks Cave was perfectly sited, with an outlook to Te Ihutai, the estuary mouth and northward to South Brighton spit. At the time of its occupation, the cave would have been just 100 metres (approximately) from the shoreline, enabling waka to be readily pulled up to the cave entrance from the water's edge. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of the taonga discovered within Moncks Cave were items associated with waka and fishing activities.
While other landmarks in the vicinity have retained their whakapapa and place names, there is no specific knowledge of Moncks Cave recorded in tribal histories. The entrance to the cave was most likely sealed by a landslide in c1400 - 1500 creating a 'time capsule' that was only re-discovered half a century later by workmen removing earth for road fill in 1889. By this time, any traditional knowledge of the existence or significance of Moncks Cave had been lost. However, it is contextually and culturally significant that right up to European times, Ngai Tahu people continued to harvest shellfish, eels and waterfowl on the tidal flats of the estuary, though they were no longer living in the area. Te Ana o Hineraki (whose aspect, location and geology is similar to Moncks Cave) continued to be used as a shelter by Maori fishing parties up to the mid 1840s and Te Ihutai remained (and remains) significant to manawhenua as a mahinga kai.
At a series of sittings of the Native Land Court in 1868, Ngai Tahu whanau and hapu throughout the South Island sought to have their traditionally significant sites set aside as mahinga kai reserves. This, in accordance with Kemp's Deed of purchase for Canterbury (signed twenty years earlier in 1848) which had expressly stated that mahinga kai would be preserved for Ngai Tahu. The importance of Te Ihutai as a mahinga kai was highlighted by the claims of Ngai Tuahuriri (Kaiapoi Ngai Tahu) to the Native Land Court at this time. On 6 May 1868 the Court awarded a small area of reserves to the Ngai Tuahuriri claimants including a fishing reserve "near the mouth of the Heathcote". The reserve (Maori Reserve 900 - Te Ihutai Reserve) provided access to the Avon- Heathcote estuary though it was only a small part of the much larger fishery that had been utilised by Ngai Tahu.
In 1956 Te Ihutai Reserve was compulsorily taken under the Public Works Act for the purposes of a sewage works development and became part of the Bromley Sewage Treatment Station. No consultation was undertaken with the landowners. At this time, the reserve was considered so valuable to manawhenua that the Ngai Tuahuriri owners refused to accept the money offered as compensation for its loss. While the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board later received monies by way of compensation, the loss of Te Ihutai Reserve remains a major grievance for the Ngai Tuahuriri owners of who have never accepted payment for the loss of their land.
The enduring significance of Te Ihutai to Ngai Tahu Whanui was acknowledged by the Ngai Tahu Deed of Settlement 1997 which gave Dual Place Name status to the Avon-Heathcote Estuary as 'Ihutai'.
By the mid nineteenth century, the spur above Moncks Cave was covered in rushes and fern and grass extended to the west across the Raekura flats, with flax and toetoe lining the estuary shoreline. Moncks Cave itself was completely obscured. From the time of their arrival, European naturalists and ethnographers were interested in the Maori history of the Raekura area. By the 1880s, much fossicking and archaeological investigation had taken place there including the excavation of nearby Te Ana o Hineraki (Moa Bone Point Cave) under the direction of Julius Von Haast in 1872.
In August 1889 while quarrying for road metal on the Redcliffs property of John Stanley Monck (1845 - 1929), workmen exposed the entrance to a cave. Soon after its discovery, Moncks Cave (as it came to be known) was formally examined by John Meeson of the Philosophical Institute and H.O. Forbes (Director of the Canterbury Museum), but by then most of its contents had been disturbed and removed into the possession of Mr Monck.
Among the taonga found in the cave were several items related to waka including a small outrigger float, a hoe (paddle) and tiheru (bailer). Other significant taonga included a rei kuri (small wooden carving of a dog), a possible god-stick, various comb fragments and a fern-root beater. Also found were adze heads, fish-hooks and numerous bone bird-spear points, as well as stone sinkers, pumice net floats and fragments of textile including fishing net, a small amount of burnt and broken moa bones and masses of cockle shells. No record has been found of manawhenua reaction to the discovery or whether they were consulted about it in any capacity, though Meeson's 1889 report indicated that local Maori had no knowledge of the cave.
Meeson and Forbes were selective about the artefacts they chose to retain, taking only those items they "found to be the most interesting." The collection was sent to the Otago University Museum in October 1922, but by this time lacked several of the articles described by Meeson in 1889. Today the Canterbury Museum is the custodian of much of the Moncks Cave collection including several taonga of immense significance to Ngai Tahu Whanui, which constitute some of the oldest and rarest examples of wood carving in Te Wai Pounamu. The Moncks Cave tiheru and rei kuri in particular have played a significant part in working out the history of decorative Maori art in New Zealand.
Taonga from Moncks Cave have been exhibited nationally and internationally in significant exhibitions of taonga Maori including Te Maori which toured the United States in 1984 and Mo Tatou, the Ngai Tahu Exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand in 2007-2009. The taonga have informed understandings about the development of Maori art in New Zealand and are featured in numerous publications on the topic of Maori art. The taonga have also inspired the development of contemporary art work - notably, the carving design for the 2000 Waka was partially based on the decorative aspects of the tiheru from Moncks Cave.
From an archaeological perspective, Moncks Cave is important as a site of early Maori occupation, near the end of the time when moa were still being hunted, and because of the range of both perishable and non-perishable artefacts found there in 1889 and partially described and illustrated by H. D. Skinner in 1924.
Moncks Cave was dug over for several weeks by amateurs before the more scholarly inspection by Forbes and Meeson in September 1889. Because Forbes was very busy with official museum work, it was agreed that Meeson should make a general record of the cave and its contents, to be supplemented later with a report by Forbes on the bone material found. This second report, if written, was never published.
Meeson described the stratigraphy as having up to five layers of charcoal-bearing deposits interspersed with loess. He concluded that the site was occupied by the earliest settlers in New Zealand, noting in particular that it had the potential to tell something of the date of extinction of the moa.
The finds from Moncks Cave have tantalised New Zealand prehistorians since its discovery. However, their potential has never been realised because of the lack of chronological or stratigraphic context.
It had long been thought that the site had been so thoroughly worked over during its original investigation in 1889 that no useful deposits were likely to remain. Indeed, the site record form described the site as totally destroyed (New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme). However, during a visit to the site in 1996, Chris Jacomb of Canterbury Museum noticed an intact face in the eastern part of the inner chamber of the cave where children had been digging. This comprised a series of very thin laminated strata, of which two contained fragments of charcoal and very sparse shell that had been washed in from an occupation layer in the front part of the cave.
At about this time the Christchurch City Council signalled its intention to carry out work at Moncks Cave Reserve for the purpose of beautification and development as a public access way. This provided an opportunity to carry out limited excavations at the site as part of the requirements of the Historic Places Act 1993. The excavations were carried out by Jacomb in 1998 and brief details of the results follow:
Approximately nineteen square metres of the site were investigated. The deposits inside the cave were very sparse and, apart from a small midden deposit just inside the entrance, comprised only small amounts of fragmentary shell and charcoal. The deposits in the exterior were more extensive and were made up of densely packed layers of shell midden. This provided a large amount of material suitable for analysis including radiocarbon dating.
The radiocarbon results indicate that the bulk of the occupation occurred around the late fourteenth to early fifteenth centuries, with some occupation outside the cave extending into the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries.
Very little was found in the way of artefacts during the 1998 excavation, although this is not surprising since the cave was almost entirely excavated during the 1889 investigation. However, three bird spear points were found and this is consistent with the 1889 results, during which more than 30 bird-spear points were recovered.
The faunal results are dominated by the molluscs, particularly mudsnail (Amphibola crenata), pipi (Paphies australe) and cockle (Austrovenus stutchburyi ). Among the mammals, there was a large amount of Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) in the sample and a few seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) bones, possibly from only a single individual. The fish sample is too small for meaningful analysis; however, the presence of snapper (Pagrus auratus) is notable, since the species is rarely found in archaeological deposits south of Marlborough. Of the birds, the Gallinula (Hodgen's rail) and the Coturnix (NZ quail) are the only extinct taxa.
The absence of any non-industrial moa bone, or other taxa thought to have become extinct early in the Polynesian settlement sequence in New Zealand, is significant for a site that is located only a few hundred metres from three well-known sites associated with moa hunting (Redcliffs Flat, Moa-bone Point Cave and Sumner Cutting). The material culture items recovered in 1889 and reported by Skinner are typical of neither the Archaic nor the Classic in the northeast South Island but contain several of the key artefact types identified by Jacomb as being transitional between the two. These factors, combined with the relatively early dates for occupation of the Moncks Cave site, led Holdaway and Jacomb to examine the possibility that moa could have become extinct in the short time available since the date then accepted for Polynesian settlement, only about a century or so prior to the occupation of Moncks Cave. Perhaps the most significant result from the new dating, however, is that it is now possible to place the normally perishable artefacts found in the cave in 1889 into a chronological context, and that this places them near the end of the Archaic phase.
Christchurch City Council developed an on site interpretation panel at Moncks Cave Reserve as part of its 1850 Heritage Trail project in 2000. Formally opened in December 2000, the project comprises an inner city trail and a coastal trail (of which Moncks Cave is part). A brochure entitled Christchurch before 1850: inner-city and coastal heritage trails provides additional information and maps guiding visitors to the featured heritage sites.
Physical Description
Physical Description and Analysis:
The cave is situated at the toe of a basalt lava spur - Moncks Spur - immediately south of the Redcliffs Flat. It has a northerly aspect and faces onto the estuary of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers. The shoreline has been modified since European settlement but was probably about 100 metres from the cave entrance during the time of occupation. The cave is approximately 20 metres long by 6 metres wide, and has a maximum ceiling height of about 4 metres. It was larger at the time of its discovery; Meeson's 1889 'ground plan' shows the outer chamber as extending some 5 to 8 metres further north than it does today. In front of the cave, the land slopes gently towards the estuary. No surface archaeological features are visible either within or outside the cave. The site is situated adjacent to one of the busiest roads in Christchurch and contains an interpretative signboard erected by the Christchurch City Council that tells of the cave and its archaeological importance.
Construction Dates
Other
1400 - 1500
Maori occupation site
Other
1889 -
Discovery of the site by workmen constructing road causeway and excavation by Meeson and Forbes of Canterbury Museum
Other
1998 -
Excavations at the site by Jacomb of Canterbury Museum
Completion Date
20th January 2009
Report Written By
Chris Jacomb, Helen Brown
Information Sources
Canterbury Museum
Canterbury Museum
H D Skinner. (1924). Archaeology of Canterbury. Moncks Cave. Records of the Canterbury Museum 2: 151-162; M M Trotter. (1975). Archaeological Investigations at Redcliffs, Canterbury, New Zealand. Records of the Canterbury Museum 9(3): 189-220.
Lyttelton Times
Lyttelton Times
'Maori relics. Discovery at Sumner', 12.08.1889, p.5
Mackay, 1873
Alexander Mackay, A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island Vols. I-II, The Government of New Zealand, Wellington, 1872-1873
Brake, 2003
B Brake, (2003) Maori art: the photography of Brian Brake. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed
Barrow, 1984
T Barrow, (1984) An illustrated guide to Maori art. New Zealand: Methuen.
Davidson, 1984
J Davidson. (1984). The Prehistory of New Zealand. Auckland: Longman Paul.
Duff, 1950
R Duff. (1950). The Moa-Hunter of Maori Culture. Wellington: 267-270.
Forbes, 1891
H O Forbes, Note on the disappearance of the moa. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 23: 373-375, 1891
Office of Treaty Settlements, 1997
Office of Treaty Settlements, Deed of Settlement: Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu & Her Majesty the Queen, New Zealand, 1997
Taylor, 1949
W A Taylor, Pictographs and Moahunters. Being a series of six articles published in the Ellesmere Guardian, Christchurch, NZ: Kiwi Publishers, 1949 (Facsimile edition 2001)
Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute
Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute
J Meeson, 'The newly opened cave near Sumner', 22: 64-70, 1889
Other Information
A fully referenced Registration Report is available from the NZHPT Southern region office.
No traditional Maori name for the site is known or recorded in tribal histories.
Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rarangi Korero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions.
