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Waimarino County and Other Excursions - Martin Edmond

Readers of Martin Edmond's Chronicle of the Unsung (2004) will have picked up his interest in archaeology and pacific prehistory.

The autobiographical parts of his latest book Waimarino County and Other Excursions (Martin Edmond, Auckland University Press 2007) give us more on how he came to that.
"I recall when my mother stopped her red and white Hillman Imp on a suburban street in Huntly one day and said, What's it you are going to be, a doctor or a lawyer? replying, Actualy I want to be an archaeologist."

Edmond had a 1972/73 holiday job at Takatu and spent some of his spare time looking at and digging in archaeological sites. "I drew a map of the pa site and sent it to Auckland Musuem, my sole contribution to archaeology."

It is easy to disagree. His writing is rich in landscape, history and their connection. This book has a startling example: an account of his accidental personal discovery of the Tongapurutu rock carvings (p81). It is a fine piece of writing which exposes his emotional response to the site. Surely not all archaeological contributions need to be as prosaic as maps.

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