Māori pā (terraced fortified village)
Pā maorí (aldea fortificada con terrazas)
- Date
- c. 1400-1800 · confidence low
- Place
- Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill), Auckland, New Zealand
- Credited to
- Māori peoples
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A fortified village with banks, ditches, palisades and defensive platforms on hills, headlands or islands. The pā on Auckland's volcanoes, with hundreds of terraces, housed thousands of people.
About 6,000 pā are known in New Zealand; the archaeological chronology places their rise from the 15th century. Their origin date and evolution are debated.
What it led to
- defence and control of resources between iwi
- terraced landscapes still visible
- adaptation to muskets with trench pā in the 19th-century wars