BANKS PENINSULA: Le Bons Bay
Resurvey June 2003.
LE BONS BAY, BANKS PENINSULA, SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND.
(173d, 05`, 48E. 43d, 44` 48S)
This bay has a sealed road c22k long connecting it to Akaroa.
Alongside the car park is the dried up bed of a 6m wide canal with stoned banks. At the mouth of the canal MAS detected the outline of a 10m x 3m sampan, one anchor being laid out seawards. (173d, 05`, 45E. 43d, 44`. 38S).
At the south end of Le Bons Bay is the mouth of Le Bons Stream, (c100m wide). MAS located the outline of a pair of parallel stone harbour walls, each c 1m wide, 11.5m apart and 40m long. The harbour walls headed southwards across the mouth of the tidal stream. Within the walled harbour on the edge of the low sandhills, an outline of a 47m x 11m junk was located (173d, 05`, 51E. 43d, 46`, 44S), with two bow anchors out.
Forty metres into the mouth of the stream, the outline of two junks were located,
Both laying at right angles to the shore, ie Southwards across the stream.
The inner one is c 37m x 15.5m (173d, 05`, 50E. 43d, 44`, 39S.) Both anchors are out.
The outer junk is c 22m x 6.5m (173d, 05, 52E.. 43d, 44`, 40S.)
Long Lat references taken at centre of Junks.
Adjacent to the inner (shore) Junk the outline of a raft c 11m x 4m was located. Presumably this raft was used to transport men and equipment across the stream, in those days free from the build up of sand and far deeper. The endless cable is still attached to the raft and is buried in the sand for most of the width of the stream. Having read of Kublai Khan`s abortive invasion of Japan in the 11th century and the Japanese professor who, whilst searching for evidence of the sunken fleet, located one of the huge stone anchors with it`s rope cable still stretched out on the sea bed. I appreciated that ropes constructed from bamboo, buried in sand could still be in good enough condition to be capable of creating a magnetic anomaly.
Some 50m upstream, MAS located a second pair of 1m thick stone walls forming a harbour, c 40m x 40m. (173d, 05`, 48S. 43d, 44`, 48S). Within the harbour the outlines of two junks were located, one 20m x 19m, more like a raft than a Junk and one 34m x 14m.
Both with double anchors out.
Further up the stream, on the northern shore was a small harbour, (172d, 05`, 32E. 43d,
44`, 52S). On the southern shore of Le Bons Stream, a complete line of dry stone had been erected for over a kilometre, this supported a small track under the cliff face, the track was the working platform to access the cliff face for magnetite iron ore.
Opposite the site of the raft, a built up area c45m x 8m had originally supported a smelter, complete with a waterwheel driven bellows which provided the combustion air. Above the smelter a further flattened area c 44m x 4.5m was the site of a walled area inside of which was a standard Chinese barrack block, with nine rooms, each c4m x 4m. Eight of the rooms being unpaved and the ninth being paved.
SLAG DATING.
Slag from this smelter has been tested by the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Institute of Geological & Nuclear Science, using an advanced mass spectrophotometer (AMS) and dated to 854 plus or minus 40years BP.(Before Present date) ie 1109AD –1189AD. This means iron was being smelted by the Chinese in New Zealand, over 500 years before Captain James Cook landed.
FORTIFIED AREA.
A fortified area stretched from the entrance to the sports field (BBQ area) southwards to Le Bons Stream. The site comprised four sections covering a total area of 3.42ha (8.22 acres. The northerly section covered, c 160m x 114m (The sports field) MAS detected the foundations of barrack blocks over the complete area. (A Roman fort of this size would easily accommodate 1,000men.). The site was bounded by a double earth rampart and originally capped by a stone wall. The remains of the stone wall were located all round the site MAS and at the south east gateway by ground radar. The results from MAS and ground radar being identical.
The second section comprised the inner fort, (citadel), c 80m x 35m, protected by an earth rampart, with an integral stone wall, stone towers flanked the gateways.
The third section c80m x 35m, contained a number of smelters on their clearly visible ramps, each smelter was served by an adjacent water wheel driven (presumably bellows) which provided the combustion air. Each water wheel was served from a common aqueduct, this was traced for some two hundred metres upstream, possibly originally a weir across the “Le Bons Stream” forced the water down the aqueduct to the smelter water wheels.
The fourth sectionc80m x 28m, was also protected by a double rampart, capped by stone walls, accessed from the beach by a pair of staggered gateways. The site contained a single line of barrack blocks, presumably for the smelter operators and their assistants.
A road paralleling Le Bons Stream was also located by MAS This led to the small harbour upstream.
CONCLUSION.
The evidence of occupation by a highly technological society in Le Bon Bay is identical to that found in several adjacent bays, this indicates that the Chinese had colonized the whole of the Banks Peninsula and exploited the mineral wealth of the area for at least 600 years prior to the Maori invasion of South Island.
T.C.Bell 7/2003.
