Projects

Current projects:

'Selfies with sites' Event for New Zealand Archaeological Week, 3-11 May 2025

A collaborative self-led scavenger hunt organised by Piha Community Library and Piha Archaeobotanical Services (PAS) with support from Te Kawerau Iwi Tiaki Trust will take place over Archaeology Week in Piha. 

Participants can drop into the library anytime during the week and grab a map before setting off to locate 10 sites around Piha. The New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) Site Number will be written on tape at each of the sites, and these must be written down before the map is returned to the library. 

All completed returned maps will receive a prize, and there will be a bonus spot prize awarded to one lucky participant who takes a selfie photo at one of the sites and uploads this to FB, tagging #pihaarchaeobotanicalservices in the post. 

Plus- a sandpit 'dig' for the little kids at the library on Sat May 3rd from 10am.

Come and join in the fun and learn more about Piha's history!

Whakaari Pā on Te Piha/ Lion Rock (2024- ongoing)

A collaborative project between Te Kawerau a Maki, Auckland Council and Piha Archaeobotanical Services (PAS) has been underway since 2024, with a goal to collect information about the occupation of Whakaari Pā on Te Piha/ Lion Rock. The project was initiated after Cyclone Gabrielle caused a number of slips on the island, exposing at least five archaeological shell midden deposits. Permission was sought from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT) to sample these deposits before the information was lost, and this was granted in September 2024. The field work was carried out on 27th November, with the successful sampling of all five deposits from four slips. 

It is hoped that data will be collected on the diet of those occupying the pā and associated strategies for food collection from the surrounding environment such as deep-sea fishing, rock fishing, netting, eeling and shellfish harvesting. Charcoal will also be analysed to investigate the types of tree and shrub species collected for firewood, and whether these were collected from the island or valleys and slopes further afield. Two samples of this charcoal will also be sent to the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at the University of Waikato for dating. This will provide crucial information on the timing of the occupation of the pā.

This project is a career highlight for local Archaeologist Ella Ussher who grew up in Piha and has a passion for the history of the area. The challenges posed by the topography of Te Piha/ Lion Rock also made this an exciting opportunity to learn basic abseiling skills and use these to access areas of the island that are usually off-limits to the public.

Examples of past projects:

Visit to Record Kūmara Pit Site R11/3523 with Orātia District School for NZ Archaeology Week 2024

On Tuesday 30th April six Years 3-4 classes undertook a visit to Bella Rakha Retreat Centre to help record a series of kūmara pits. This was a special event organised by the school and Ella Ussher of Piha Archaeobotanical Services to celebrate New Zealand Archaeology Week 2024. The nine kūmara pits were first identified in 2023, and the field trip was seen as an opportunity to involve the students in a once-in-a-lifetime experience recording a slice of their local history. Classes came across the road to Bella Rakha one at a time and were then given a quick talk about the site and how the rectangular pits once had roofs over them to store kūmara over winter when the crops could not be grown. Each class was then split in half, with each group taking turns to visit the site and help to count and map the pits, while the other group were occupied at a base camp digging in buckets of sand for images of artefacts to then place on a timeline. The students loved running about and placing flags in each of the pits to identify and count them, and then use tapes to measure and map them. The information gathered was collated to create a record of the site, R11/3523,  in the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme. The site is one of many in Orātia valley, testament to the long history of settlement in the area by Māori and later Pakeha settlers.

Rock Islands, Republic of Palau (2012-2013)

Ella assisted Prof. Geoffrey Clark (ANU), Dr. Christian Reepmeyer (then ANU, now Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), and Dr. Jolie Liston (Micronesian Heritage Consulting, LLC) to collect high-resolution archaeological and archaeobotanical data within the Rock Islands of the Republic of Palau. The project aimed to examine the role of climate change in the prehistoric occupation and abandonment of islands in Palau through palaeoclimate, archaeological, palaeoecological, and traditional history investigations. 

Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga (2011-2015)

For her PhD research at the Australian National University Ella carried out fieldwork in the Kingdom of Tonga,  part of a wider project led by Prof. Geoffrey Clark (ANU). Her thesis explored the use of micro-botanical, and also macro-botanical techniques, in the Pacific, focussing on the development of agriculture in Tongan prehistory. Both starch granules and charred vegetative storage parenchyma from dated contexts provided evidence for the introduction of starchy cultigens during Lapita expansion into Western Polynesia, as well as the critical role these species played during the later development of social hierarchy within the Tongan chiefdom.

Nuku Hiva (2009)

Ella worked with Prof. Melinda Allen (University of Auckland) for her Masters research in the Marquesas Islands. Her MA thesis targeted the use of starch residues on shell tools from the Marquesas as direct evidence for the preparation and consumption of roots and tubers during various periods of Marquesan prehistory. Critically, evidence was found for the introduction of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) in the 14th Century, the earliest evidence for this cultigen in the archipelago (also published in Allen, M and E. Ussher. 2013. Starch analysis reveals prehistoric plant translocations and shell tool use, Marquesas Islands, Polynesia. Journal of Archaeological Science. 40(6): 2799-2812).