<< Our Photo Pages >> Turuturu Mokai Pa - Hillfort in New Zealand
Submitted by DrewParsons on Wednesday, 26 December 2012 Page Views: 7847
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Turuturu Mokai PaCountry: New Zealand Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Hawera
Latitude: 39.56606S Longitude: 174.291820E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The photo opposite is of a model of the pa, as it once would have looked, in the nearby Tawhiti Museum. This complex of pa or fortified settlements once held some 400 inhabitants and was built in a loop of the Tawhiti stream. The site has amazingly large ditches and embankments which once would have had palisades making it a very strong and important pa. The ditches are still very clear and deep, although they were "tidied up" during the Depression. The curator of the nearby Tawhiti Museum interviewed an elderly man who witnessed this tidying up work and it appears that this was confined to clearing grass and trimming the ditches. Plans to erect palisading to recreate the original look of the site got no further than the timber being stored at the site.
The pa was built by the Ngati Tupaea a hapu or sub tribe of the Ngati Ruanui tribe. The pa was overrun during an attack in the 16th century by the inhabitants of a neighbouring pa and those not killed were taken as slaves. Consequently the pa was left deserted until a tapu lifting ceremony was conducted in 1938. The current site still has tapu (sacred) areas which are shown on a sign at the gate telling visitors which areas to not visit. In 2001 the area was returned to local iwi (tribes) as part of the Treaty of Waitangi Settlement for this area but a dispute between tribe and sub tribe led to an occupation of the site from 2002 for several years. The site was somewhat overgrown in December 2012 but well worth a visit as it is one of the largest and most impressive pa sites in New Zealand. Tawhiti Museum three kilometres from this site has excellent descriptive material about the pa. The museum website is: http://www.tawhitimuseum.co.nz
The site is located 2 kilometres north of Hawera along Turuturu Road in an historic reserve. Te Uma a Tongahake Pa is the first pa as you enter the reserve and it has a name board by it. Turuturu Mokai Pa is 100 metres further into the reserve.
References:
Tawhiti Museum (see link above)
South Taranaki Things to Do and See website:http://www.southtaranaki.com/Visit/Things-to-see-and-do/Historical-Sites/
Taranaki Daily News article 23 Feb 2009
Science & Research Series, NZ Government: Archaeological Site Stabilisation and Vegetation Management. Case Studies I: Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Central Volcanic Plateau and Taranaki. Pages 74 to 78 (photos and text): http://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/science-and-technical/sr84-Entire.pdf
New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 2008 Vol 29 (2007) pp19-37,Kelvin Day, Contested Ground: Turuturu-Mōkai Pa, Hawera, Taranaki, New Zealand.
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