M?ori settlements
Archaeological evidence shows the first human (M?ori) occupation of New Zealand occurred between AD 1250�1300, with population concentrated along the southeast coast. A camp site at Kaikai's Beach, near Otago Heads, has been dated from about that time. There are numerous archaic (moa hunter) sites in what is now Dunedin, several of them large and permanently occupied, particularly in the 14th century. The population contracted but expanded again with the evolution of the Classic culture which saw the building of several p?, fortified settlements, notably Pukekura at (Taiaroa Head), about 1650. There was a settlement in what is now central Dunedin (?tepoti) occupied as late as about 1785 but abandoned by 1826.
Maori tradition tells first of a people called Kahui Tipua living in the area, then Te Rapuwai, semi-legendary but considered to be historical. The next arrivals were Waitaha followed by K?ti Mamoe late in the 16th century and then Kai Tahu (Ngai Tahu in modern standard M?ori) who arrived in the mid 17th century. These migration waves have often been represented as 'invasions' in European accounts but modern scholarship has cast doubt on that. They were probably migrations like those of the European which incidentally resulted in bloodshed.
The sealer John Boultbee recorded in the 1820s that the 'Kaika Otargo' (settlements around and near Otago Harbour) were the oldest and largest in the south.
European settlement
Lieutenant James Cook stood off what is now the coast of Dunedin between February 25, 1770 and March 5, 1770, naming Cape Saunders on the Otago Peninsula and Saddle Hill. He reported penguins and seals in the vicinity, which led sealers to visit from the beginning of the 19th century. The early years of sealing saw a feud between sealers and local Maori, from 1810�1823, the "Sealers' War" sparked by an incident on Otago Harbour, but William Tucker became the first European to settle in the area in
