Ian Smith

Ian Woodford Gibson Smith (21 September 1954 – 3 January 2020) was a New Zealand archaeologist who specialised in researching the exploitation of marine mammals in prehistory and historical archaeology. His particular interest was in the intersection of Māori and Pākehā cultures in the early European contact period

Early life and education Born in 1954, Smith was one of five children of Robin Smith and Shirley Smith. Most of his early life was spent in Ranfurly, where he attended Maniototo Area School before moving to Hamilton. There he attended Hillcrest Normal School, Hamilton Boys' High School and Melville High School. He studied archaeology at the University of Otago, gaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1976 with his thesis on the exploitation of fur seals in the Chatham Islands and a PhD in 1985 with a thesis on sea mammal hunting and subsistence. Career From 1982 to 1987 Smith was a lecturer at the University of Auckland, followed by two years as an archaeologist with the Department of Conservation. In 1989 he joined the University of Otago as a lecturer, later becoming an associate professor.

Smith's research on prehistoric marine mammal exploitation and the analysis of faunal remains in archaeological sites generated a significant number of publications.

While he continued to study the human impact on marine life throughout his career, Smith's research interests expanded to historical archaeology. In 2007, he collaborated with Atholl Anderson and Angela Middleton on a project to investigate the pre-European settlement and historic occupation by sealers of Codfish Island / Whenua Hou; Smith directed the excavation of a house at Sealers Bay.

In 1999 and 2004, Smith published two reviews of the study and practice of historical archaeology in New Zealand. By 2004 Smith argued that archaeologists "were not contributing enough to Aotearoa New Zealand's historical narrative or to the general understanding of the social and cultural processes, and that we needed to do better." In it he divided the period into five phases: "ship-based exploration(1769-1791); sojourning (1792-1813), in which Pākehā were first left on shore to fend for themselves; the beginnings of permanent residency, though confined to the far north and far south and to single function settlements (1814-1828); dispersal around the entire coast and diversification across trades (1828-1840); and colonial governance and settlement (1840-1860)".

Smith retired in 2019 and died in Dunedin on 3 January 2020.

Selected publications A full list of Smith's publications is published in his obituary by James Flexner.