Human sacrifice for a new Pa

Here we have another question which has been much magnified by writers on Maori customs. In only one case were human bones found at the base of the stockade posts of a fortified village, and this was magnified by some authors into a common custom. The place alluded to is the Tawhiti-nui pa at Opitiki, said to be a very ancient place. 

Indigenous tradition tells us nothing of its origin, but states that it existed twenty generations ago. No doubt the burial of a human sacrifice in such a place was practiced occasionally, but there is no evidence that it was practiced often. Obviously, the idea which inspired such a barbaric act was similar to that relating to the burial of a person at the foot of a house post: the preservation of the building.

In flight. 15 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Colonel Gudgeon reports the discovery made at Tawhiti-nui: “The current owner of this place, in leveling the old ditches of the fort, saw fit to dig up the butts of some old puriri posts which had at one time supported the palisades of the Pa. These butts, although nearly 2 feet in diameter, and of a wood which is considered almost indestructible, were, with the exception of a small core, found 

But the leveling revealed the interesting fact that no fewer than thirteen skeletons were found in such positions as to suggest that they had been placed in the holes at the same time as the posts, and that they were probably buried living…. the original pa was of a very early date can be inferred from the fact that the bones I mentioned crumbled into dust after a few days of exposure to the air; only the teeth remained intact. In this case, it must be assumed that the victims had been buried at the base of the heaviest posts of the stockade in order to "retain" them.

Among the Takitumu of the east coast, a stone was buried at the base of one of the main stockade posts of an important fortified village. Such a stone was called a whatu, and it served as a mauri for the village and its inhabitants – that is, it was a talisman made effective as a protective agent by being a kind of sanctuary or of place of residence for the god or gods. under whose protection the village had been placed. It was by means of certain ceremonial performances of tapu that the mana or power of the gods was implanted in such a stone.

Colonel Gudgeon mentions a case in the Bay of Plenty district in which a member of a vassal clan was used as a human sacrifice for a new pa: "When the Ngati-Whakaue rebuilt their grand pa at Pukeroa (Rotorua), all the tribes in this neighborhood lived for some time in a state of apprehension, for they knew very well that some casualties would be necessary to sanctify the work, and they did not breathe freely until the blow fell on Ngati-Tura.

The statement made, however, in a footnote on p. 209 of vol 12 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society lacks supporting evidence; we do not know that such a thing has often happened.

Tylor gives us evidence of such human sacrifices for fortified places in Europe, Africa, Asia, Japan, in the Asian archipelago, etc., thus showing how widespread the custom was. The burial of human victims at the bases of protective works posts was also practiced at Tenasserim.