Anthropologists are working to find out more about human remains that were uncovered during work on a new section of the Waikato Expressway.
Work has been halted after the discovery of the bones, known as koiwi, near Huntly on Tuesday.
Contractors found a skull while laying a culvert. Digging was immediately called off while local iwi were notified.
Hamilton highway manager Kaye Clark says following a blessing at the site, the koiwi will be sent to researchers in Auckland, and reinterred at Taupiri Urupa by kaumatua after they have been examined.
"We've immediately gone into our protocols we have with Waikato Tainui for what we do when that happens," she says.
“Our protocols include provisions for kaitiaki (guardians) from iwi to work on site, as needed, to monitor earthworks as they unfold. This discovery was made by the kaitiaki and the project archaeologists working alongside each other, which is exactly what should happen."
Project archaeologist Warren Gumbley says a physical anthropologist will examine the bones to determine the age, sex and possibly health of the person, depending on how intact the remains are.
The date of the burial could be determined by materials around the site.
“It is an interesting site because it contains a shell midden which are very rare inland and would normally be found in more permanent coastal settlements," Mr Gumbley says.
"We have also found a kumara pit at the site which suggests it may have been a temporary, seasonally occupied site, relating to both harvesting the resources of the lake and also growing kumara.
Ms Clark says contractors will be diverted to other parts of the expressway until excavations are completed.
In 2002, work on the Waikato Expressway near Mercer was halted as local iwi claimed a taniwha -- or guardian spirit -- inhabited the wetland in the path of the road.
Newshub.
