Digging Up the Past

Honor Award, 2012 NZ Post Children's Book Awards

What do moa eggs, seeds chewed by rats, and 600-year-old footprints have in common? Archaeologists in New Zealand deal with artifacts like these every day to determine how people lived years ago. This fascinating book chronicles the work of these patient scientists as they dig up the past, journeying to the top of volcanoes, beneath city streets, and within Māori pā and explorers' huts. Sharing their discoveries--obsidian adzes, enamel cups, and the carved prow of a canoe, for example--this account narrates the remarkable, uncovered stories of Polynesian voyagers and Pākehā sealers, Māori gardeners and Chinese storekeepers. Engaging and informative, it offers great insight into the science of archaeology while encouraging readers to do some excavating of their own.