Matthew Campbell

• PhD
• Research Associate at University of Auckland

Human activities have significantly altered coastal ecosystems worldwide. The phenomenon of shifting baselines syndrome (SBS) complicates our understanding of these changes, masking the true scale of human impacts. This study investigates the long-term ecological effects of anthropogenic activities on New Zealand's coastal ecosystems over 800 years...

This multidisciplinary study analyzes kurī skeletal remains from the Northern Runway Development (NRD) archaeological site (AD 1400-1800) to develop an 'osteo-history' and help us better understand 1) human-dog interactions; 2) the role kurī played in early Māori societies; and 3) to potentially use kurī as a proxy for human behavior at the site. W...

As fish move between environments of different concentrations of chemical tracers at various stages during their life, their otoliths record a continuous dataset in a two-dimensional space coordinated by various trace elements. Such a continuous dataset is equivalent to a time-series and characterised by changes in the gradients of incorporated che...

This multidisciplinary study analyzes kurī skeletal remains from the Northern Runway Development (NRD) archaeological site (AD 1400-1800) to develop an “osteo-history” and help us better understand 1) human-dog interactions; 2) the role kurī played in early Māori societies; and 3) to potentially use kurī as a proxy for human behavior at the site. W...

A count of 6235 Chondrichthyes vertebrae was recovered from the 17th to 18th century AD NRD site (R11/859) on the Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand. These have been identified by aDNA analysis as mostly rig ( Mustelus lenticulatus ). To provide context for this unusual assemblage we briefly review the archaeological record of Chondrichthyes fi...

Anthropogenic factors have been identified as major stressors of nearshore environments such as estuaries, sea grass meadows and mangroves. We hypothesize that aquatic organisms functionally dependent on these habitats as nurseries respond to disturbances with subtle changes in their habitat-use patterns. We used a novel approach coupling behaviour...

Tāmure (Australasian snapper, Chrysophrys auratus) is the most commonly identified fish in pre-European Māori middens in northern New Zealand. Tāmure reproduce in open water, after which their larvae migrate to nurseries in sheltered inshore environments. The range of suitable nursery habitats in the Hauraki Gulf has declined over the last century...

Sharks and their relatives (Chondrichthyes) were an important food source for pre-European Māori. However, their skeletons, which are largely comprised of cartilage, are poorly preserved in the archaeological record, with only teeth and vertebrae routinely recorded. Furthermore, it is often difficult to identify Chondrichthyes by their vertebral mo...

Excavation at the Long Bay Restaurant resulted in the discovery and disinterment of 25 pre-European Māori burials. The full clearance and sieving strategy employed to recover all kōiwi tangata (human remains) produced a fine-grained 13 × 12 m excavation of a stratified coastal site, providing detailed faunal and material culture samples. Coupled wi...

Recent analyses of archaeological fishbone assemblages from the upper North Island have identified taxa that have either not previously been recorded-pilchard (Sardinops sagax) and piper (Hyporhamphus ihi)-or that have only been rarely recorded-yellow-eyed mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri) and grey mullet (Mugil cephalus). We show that by sieving with...

On his return from internal exile Tawhiao, the second Maori king, had a cottage built in the 1890s on land owned by his family in Mangere, South Auckland. While it isn’t clear that Tahwiao ever stayed there, other members of the kahui ariki (royal family) are known to have done so, and it is known that the cottage had a Maori housekeeper. The cotta...

The conventional method of archaeological fishbone analysis employed in New Zealand for the past 40 years has been to identify five major mouthparts – dentary, articular, quadrate, maxilla and premaxilla – to the lowest possible taxonomic level. This method has the advantage of being relatively fast and easily learnt, and provides robust cross-asse...

Summarises archaeology in the Waikato Region of New Zealand. Prepared with the assistance of Eris Parker from the Waikato Museum and shown in the Waikato Museum in June 2013 as part of the NZAA Conference held in Cambridge then.

Emigration from Britain and Ireland to the Antipodes in the 19th century was a major upheaval. To come out to New Zealand, which was as far as anyone could come, a journey of four months or more, often arriving during periods of war with the indigenous Maori, to an uncertain future and with little hope of returning home, was an act of faith and hop...

Excavations were carried out on two sites within the historic New Zealand town of Wanganui. Both sites were occupied during the 1850s up to the present, but they diff er in their settlement nature during the 19th century where one was a Hotel and the other an urban residence and commercial business. Large numbers of animal bones, a small fraction o...

This report describes the results of the investigations of a series of shell middens, domestic occupation and horticulture relating to Maori settlement of the Papamoa dune plain, Western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand..

This study examines preservation of microfossils identified as introduced Ipomoea batatas in soils from northern New Zealand. Starch grains and xylem cells showed highly variable preservation, from good to extremely poor. For starch grains, the latter included brown-staining, expansion and distortion of the grain and vacuole, loss of the Maltese cr...

One way to understand how a landscape captures memories is to study places where documents have also preserved them. The author does this to remarkable effect in the island of Rarotonga, showing how the great road Ara Metua and its monuments and land boundaries were structured and restructured through time to reflect what was to be remembered. Stud...

Fish bone assemblages from Pleasant River Mouth are analysed in order to determine the degree of subsurface weathering that each has undergone. It is apparent that different assemblages and different fish species will exhibit different weathering patterns. The analysis is then extended to the nearby site of Shag River Mouth. It seems that the weath...

The kakahi or freshwater mussel (Hyridella menziesi) is a bivalve of the family Hyriidae (order Unionoida, the naiades), which has a Gondwanan distribution, being widespread in, but restricted to, the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand has two other Hyriid species: H. aucklandica and Cucumerunio websteri, both of which are restricted to the northern...

In the course of mitigation of earthworks associated with residential development at Omaha, 249 middens were recorded and investigated. Dates range from about AD 1400-1700, placing the occupation and use of Omaha firmly within the late phase of prehistory. The middens contained very little other than shell, and we interpret their use as a combinati...

In order to examine the precontact production system of Rarotonga beyond the limits of the archaeologically visible irrigated taro terraces, a model of potential productivity is created. The model is based on an assessment of the productive potential of soil types and an inventory of precontact crops on Rarotonga. It is used here to examine a numbe...

The modern landscape approach is often treated as a natural extension of settlement analysis in archaeology, but in fact these methods are very different from each other. One way to begin reconciling the two may be through an examination of hierarchies of analytical scale. I propose that the relationships between scales are contingent, and that to...

The records of the early 20th century Rarotongan land courts are an invaluable source of ethnohistoric information regarding pre-contact land tenure, social and political relations, and historical processes affecting tenure and relations. They are analysed here from the point of view of contextualising the archaeological record of the island. Pre-c...