The transient village in Southern New Zealand

Southern New Zealand is a cool-temperate insular region, first colonized about 800 BP by hunter-gatherers, Archaeological data, particularly from the site at Shag River Mouth, show that small villages, established early in the settlement sequence, were occupied only briefly and that by about 400 BP village habitation had ceased. Ethnographic observations and some archaeological evidence show that villages were re-established late in the sequence, by about 200 BP. It is argued that these phases of sedentary settlement largely reflect different responses to relative scarcity of resources. In the early phase, transient villages were established close to rich resource clumps, notably of seals and moas, and these were depleted serially until that settlement mode was no longer practical. In the later phase, villages were sustained by long-distance movement of dispersed resources, in a system facilitated by new socio-political conditions.