A 20-metre track suspected to have been dug out has sliced through an ancient archaeological site on an Auckland maunga.
The damage along the Mt Richmond site was a prosecutable offence under the Reserves Act 1977 and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority's Mike George confirmed the mess was reported last Thursday but it was unknown who caused it or why.
The authority's operations manager Nick Turoa said the damage was most likely caused by a spade, because there were no track marks leading up to the site.
"From time to time we do find trees being planted and areas being dug at or similar, but nothing like this," Turoa told Stuff.