Prodigious Birds
Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand

Prodigious Birds brings together the entire field of moa-related research, some 150 years of enquiry.

Atholl Anderson (Author)

9780521543965, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 October 2003

260 pages, 60 b/w illus. 20 tables
27.9 x 21 x 1.4 cm, 0.59 kg

Prodigious Birds brings together the entire field of moa-related research, some 150 years of enquiry. The moa was a large flightless bird, hunted into extinction by the Maori tribes of New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans. Atholl Anderson brings an historical perspective to the development of moa research and its formative debates, analytical methods and results, reviewing evidence from palaeontology, biology, archaeology, ethnography and history.

Preface
1. Introduction
Part I. Discovery and Biology of Moas: 2. Discovery
3. Systematics
4. Origins and development
5. Morphology and behaviour
6. Maori traditions
Part II. Moa-Hunting, Processing and Extinction: 7. The Moa-hunter debate
8. North Island sites
9. South Island coastal sites
10. South Island island sites
11. Hunting strategies
12. Processing technology
13. Chronology and extinction
14. Conclusions
Index.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]