The 19-hectare Wairau Bar, also known as Te Pokohiwi o Kupe, is believed to be New Zealand's oldest burial ground. Source: Rangitāne o Wairau

Having withstood tsunamis for over 700 years, scientists are warning that an ancient graveyard could be reclaimed by the ocean within a generation.

Approximately 75 per cent of heritage land at Wairau Bar on New Zealand’s South Island could be lost, due to a deadly mix of rising sea levels and the threat of a one-in-100-year storm wave that could occur before 2130.

Members of the local Māori community, the Rangitāne, are discussing whether to remove the bodies or allow them to be taken by the sea.

The problem of changing weather patterns destroying cultural sites is causing concern around the world. Two examples include the Moai stone statues at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) being threatened by rising sea levels and increased storm activity, and Edinburgh Castle in Scotland facing degradation from increased rainfall.

Ancestors had only been returned to site in 2009

What’s adding to the trauma of the situation at Wairau Bar is the remains of 60 Maori ancestors were only just repatriated to Wairau Bar 16 years ago. They had been taken without permission in the 1940s by the Dominion Museum, now the Canterbury Museum.

Prior to their return, several were placed on display, echoing events that occurred at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery where the skeleton of Indigenous woman Truganini was placed in a glass cabinet. Artefacts taken at the same time remain in collections around the world, including the Russian Naval Museum and Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum.

While the gravel bar has been smashed by tsunamis in the past, sea level rise will increase the harm they cause. Source: Rangitāne o Wairau

Corey Hebberd is a co-author of the paper and the general manager of one prominent "iwi" or tribe, the Rangitāne o Wairau. He still hopes these artefacts, known as taonga, could one day be returned home to an area where they are protected.

“The dream for us is that they come home to Wairau. They have a story to tell about the birthplace of our country and the Wairau Bar,” he told Yahoo News.

But now, because of the changing climate, he’s working on two fronts — the “unfinished business” of bringing home the taonga, and ensuring those that remain in the ground aren’t lost.

“We’ve got less time than we thought we had. I’m 30, and some of the modelling around inundation suggests it will happen in my lifetime,” he told Yahoo News.

Huge wave could inundate most of ancestral site

Wairau Bar, also known as Te Pokohiwi o Kupe, is a 19-hectare gravel bar that was home to at least 200 people after it was settled in the mid-1200s to early 1300s. Today it is covered in grass, and because of its isolation, the only sounds are those of birds, the ocean, and a nearby river. On a clear day, you can look across the water and see the capital, Wellington.

Wairau Bar is in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Source: Keelan Walker Photography

The region has been subject to at least three major tsunamis, which likely forced out human settlers. But modelling indicates that climate change will increase threats to the site, primarily because one metre of sea level rise is expected between 2070 and 2130 if fossil fuels continue to be burned at current rates.

Rangitāne o Wairau worked with Earth Sciences New Zealand to determine the impact of this problem coupled with extreme storm waves. They completed a first-order assessment of the site, and their research was published in the MAI Journal on Thursday.

Its lead author, Shaun Williams from Earth Sciences New Zealand, explained that saltwater intrusion could already be compromising some of the artefacts at the site. Other immediate threats are coastal erosion and the slow onset of sea level rise, but an extreme one-in-100-year wave or a large tsunami could overwhelm most of Wairau Bar.

But as the sea level rises over time, it will intensify the impact of any tsunami. “If the same event were to happen today, compared to 50 or 100 years later, its impact would probably be more far-reaching,” he told Yahoo News.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo News Australia at https://au.news.yahoo.com/fears-bodies-will-wash-away-as-ancient-graveyard-feels-climate-impact-034409812.html