Skull sparks debate: 13-08-2008
The history of western man's arrival in New Zealand has been thrown into contention by the discovery of a woman's skull.
Carbon dating puts the age of the remains at around 266 years old, despite Captain Cook only arriving on the island in 1769, 239 years ago.
Forensic anthropologist Dr Robin Watt, who was called in to investigate the artefact, was left stumped by the findings.
"We've got the problem of how did this woman get here? Who was she?" he asks.
"I recommended they do carbon date on it and, of course, they came up with that amazing result."
Initially, police had treated the investigation as a murder enquiry, but have now changed their focus.
It was thought that only the Maoris inhabited the country in the 18th century, but the skull is said to be almost certainly of European origin, and definitely not Maori.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovered the country in 1642, but had no women aboard his ship, leaving the debate raging as to how the skull got there.
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