DISCOVERIES IN CAVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 9

DISCOVERIES IN CAVE.

MOA EGGSHELL FOUND. SPEAR. POINTS OF HUMAN BONE. DUNEDIN, Sept.' 21. Aifaong the relics of a past civilisation stored at tho Otago University Museum none are more' interesting than those which relate to the moa. The material that has been collected over a long period of years enables an excellent idea to be formed of this huge bird. In its variety and extent it is incomparably the finest collection of this material in any museum in the world. An important addition was recently secured by a member of the museum staff, who,' in the course of investigationS'that' go- on:.unremittingly, found on ah' old Maori site an almost complete moa eggshell. The museum staff has excavated a small cave in the low cliffs south of the' Taieri River mouth. This cave appears to have been shut off from the sea and rendered capable of human occupation by a landslip, .about . the time when the first moa hunters, the earliest New Zealanders, arrived in th = e district. On the sandy floor of the cave were found fragments of a moa eggshell. The egg in all probability had been carried, into the cave by an old-time Maori and eaten there. Other discoveries which were made give rise to speculation concerning the history of Otago before European settlement. At the same level as the eggshell, and in the sft. of stratified debris above it, some fragments of moa bone. were found. At the top of the debris was a broken clay pipe, a relic, doubtless, of the whaling days. In the lowest layer, immediately above the sand, were found the broken fragments of a human skeleton. The long bones had been broken into pieces for use in making fish hooks, _ bird 6pear points and other small implements. Most of these had doubtless been carried away. A fine bird spear point of ■ human bone was found and there was also another fragment, slightly ground, from which a similar point would probably have been fashioned.