From a total of 19 burials deemed possible candidates for aDNA
recovery (based on physical examination of the skeletal and dental
material), we were able to obtain complete mtDNA genomes from
two individuals (burials 1 and 2.1) and nearly complete mtDNA
genomes from two others (burials 16a and 18). Burials 1 and 16a
could be assigned unambiguously to mtDNA haplogroup B4a1a1a3,
which had previously been identified in a modern Maori population
from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand (Benton
et al., 2012). Burial 2.1 could be assigned to haplogroup B4a1a1a
with two unique mutations at nucleotide positions 4917 and 8790.
Burial 18 could only be identified as belonging to haplogroup
B4a1a1 as identifying downstream markers were not sufficiently
well covered (Knapp et al., 2012).