Archaeologists from In Situ Heritage are digging up parts of the Gate Pa battle site this week – hoping to not find anything.

'We are excavating in order to prove there is nothing there,” says archaeologist Charles Parkinson.

Archaeologist Charles Parkinson checking the flag pole footings.

He's sifting the dirt over the site of the new flag pole that's to stand at the top of the site near the church. This week eight puwhenua holes alongside Cameron Road were also checked to make sure no relics from the past were disturbed.

It's not considered likely. After the battle nearly 150 years ago the site was scavenged by souvenir hunters, and the British military built redoubts on the former Pukehinahina Pa where the British suffered their major defeat of the Maori land wars.

After the redoubts were abandoned residents from the expanding Tauranga township began filling in holes on the site to prevent injury among grazing livestock – decades before the cutting for Cameron Road was put through or the bulk of the pa site was flattened to accommodate the Gate Pa bowling club and tennis club.

'It's largely a precautionary dig because under the Historic Places Act any work that might impact an archaeological site is required to be investigated,” says InSitu Heritage director Linda Walter.

'That's to ensure that if there are archaeological features there, that they are recorded in case they are going to be damaged. So this work is very small scale.”

The archaeologists are only investigating the area where ground is going to be disturbed - the puwhenua holes and the footings for the new flag pole.

The only discovery so far is that the existing memorial constructed in the 1960s, is built on steel reinforced concrete footings. Part of the footings will have to be cut through to make room for the new 12 metre tall flag pole.

'We weren't anticipating the existing memorial was quite so solidly built,” says Linda.

The Battle of Gate Pa was on April 29 1864. An outnumbered party of Maori armed with hand weapons stopped and inflicted heavy losses on a much larger British contingent of soldiers backed by artillery.

The commemoration will take place onsite on April 29 2014.