Excavation of a twelfth-century prepared-core prismatic-blade workshop at Oturehua, Central Otago, New Zealand

Tuhinga 30: 209-255

ABSTRACT: This article describes an excavation of a quarry area and associated workshop, located at Oturehua in Central Otago, for the production of prepared-core prismatic blades made from silcrete using a hard hammer-stone. Of the 290 m2 area laid out, the most instructive part was in an area of 60 m2. Each 1 m square was divided into 25 sub-squares and all finds were recorded by these sub-squares. Of the 14,015 flakes recovered, those heavier than 2 g (n = 6348) were labelled with Indian ink and laid out in their original position on a gridded laboratory floor. Over a 12-month period, flakes were matched and glued together to reconstruct a series of cores to understand the procedures involved in blade-making. Although the focus of the artisans was on producing macro-blades, the lengths of blades produced varied from 33 mm to 230 mm. One small spent nucleus was recovered, which was fluted on all sides and measured 65 mm high. Two charcoal samples from different parts of the site gave median radiocarbon dates of cal. AD 1138 (twigs) and cal. AD 1137 (flecks).

KEYWORDS: archaeology, New Zealand, lithic technology, prismatic blades, silcrete.