Wellington - A coroner's inquest on a skull found on a New Zealand riverbank has highlighted the mystery of a victim who could have been the first European woman in the country when she died more than 350 years ago, news reports said Tuesday.

Pathologists said the skull, found near Featherston in Wairarapa province, belonged to a Caucasian woman in her early 40s and radiocarbon dating indicated she was alive in 1742, give or take 34 years.

But historian Gareth Winter told Masterton coroner John Kershaw that Europeans did not settle in the area about 70 kilometres north of the capital, Wellington, until a century later.

Historical records also show that it was 1806 before the first two white women arrived in New Zealand, home of indigenous Maori tribes before the first European settlers came from Britain. They were Kathleen Hagerty and Charlotte Edgar, two convicts who escaped from Australia on a ship.

Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand in December 1642 but did not land.

The skull was found by a man walking his dog by the Ruamahunga River in October 2004.

Noting the difference of nearly a century between the radiocarbon dating and the first recorded European population in the region, the coroner said, "It may mean that radiocarbon dating is an imprecise science, and my decision is, therefore, imprecise.

"I find that a death has occurred. That the person's name is unknown but was likely female and possibly of European descent aged between 40 and 45 years."

Kershaw said the cause of death was unknown but given that the skull was found on the banks of the river, accidental drowning was a possibility. (dpa)