page_title: Pā
hierarchical_section_title: Pā
caption_attribution_description: Terraces visible on the south slopes of Mt Eden, Auckland.
context_page_description: The word pā can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā are mainly in the North Island of New Zealand, north of Lake Taupo. Over 5,000 sites have been located, photographed and examined although few have been subject to detailed analysis. No pā have been yet located from the early colonization period when early Polynesian-Māori colonizers lived in the lower South Island. Variations similar to pā are found throughout central Polynesia, in the islands of Fiji, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands.
  In Māori culture, a great pā represented the mana and strategic ability of an iwi, as personified by a rangatira. Pā are located in various defensible locations around the territory of an iwi to protect fertile plantation sites and food supplies.
  Almost all pā are found on prominent raised ground, especially volcanic hills. The natural slope of the hill is then terraced. Dormant volcanoes were commonly used for pā in Auckland. Pā are multipurpose in function.
context_section_description: The word pā (IPA /paː/; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā are mainly in the North Island of New Zealand, north of Lake Taupo. Over 5,000 sites have been located, photographed and examined although few have been subject to detailed analysis. No pā have been yet located from the early colonization period when early Polynesian-Māori colonizers lived in the lower South Island.  Variations similar to pā are found throughout central Polynesia, in the islands of Fiji, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands.
  In Māori culture, a great pā represented the mana (prestige or power) and strategic ability of an iwi (tribe or tribal confederacy), as personified by a rangatira (chieftain). Pā are located in  various defensible locations around the territory (rohe) of an iwi to protect fertile plantation sites and food supplies.
  Almost all pā are found on prominent raised ground, especially  volcanic hills. The natural slope of the hill is then terraced. Dormant volcanoes were commonly used for pā in Auckland. Pā are multipurpose in function. Pā that have been extensively studied after the New Zealand Wars and more recently were found to safeguard food and water storage sites or wells, food storage pits (especially kūmara), and small integrated plantations, maintained inside the pā. Recent studies have shown that in most cases, few people lived long term in a single pā, and that iwi maintained several pā at once, often under the control of a hapū (subtribe). The area in between pā were primarily common residential and horticultural sites. A tourist attraction of authentic pā engineering is Auckland's Maungawhau / Mount Eden.
caption: Terraces on Maungawhau / Mount Eden, marking the sites of the defensive palisades and ditches of this former pā
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