Our research on show at the New Zealand Archaeological Association conference 2021

A couple of weeks ago the NZAA’s annual conference was held in Taupō, and the Southern Cemeteries Archaeology Project was there sharing our research and telling the archaeology community about all the amazing things we have learned from our project! There was a whole session focused on historic cemeteries research – which suited us perfectly. In … Continue reading Our research on show at the New Zealand Archaeological Association conference 2021 →

Life on the goldfields – more multicultural than you think?

Part of our work in the historic cemeteries has involved looking at where people came to Otago from during the early colonial period. You might not think we need to do this – surely we have ship’s records and censuses that tell us all about who was in New Zealand and where they came from … Continue reading Life on the goldfields – more multicultural than you think? →

The Search for Drybread

During the archaeological investigations at Drybread we are not just looking at the cemetery, but we are also looking for evidence of the places where these people lived and worked: the Drybread Diggings. Drybread was a small goldfields canvas town that like many others sprang into existence in the early 1860s during the Otago Goldrushes, … Continue reading The Search for Drybread →

Four seasons in one day! Report from the field at Drybread

We've been rather busy excavating at Drybread Cemetery over the last month. There's been lots to do and over the next little while we'll be reporting on our findings as we start to analyse them. But while we're readjusting to life back at home we thought you might like a little insight into life on … Continue reading Four seasons in one day! Report from the field at Drybread →

We’re dusting off our tools, and headed to Drybread!

It's been a while since we posted on the blog - post-lockdown we've been very busy catching up on analysis and making plans for the future - one of which is heading into a new collaboration with the Drybread Cemetery Trust, to help them understand the extent of their burials, and hopefully shed some light … Continue reading We’re dusting off our tools, and headed to Drybread! →

Women on the Goldfields?!?

Part of the purpose of our work in colonial archaeology is to bring to light the stories of the people who are often left out of history books. In the nineteenth century, historical records were dominated by the stories of European men. Women, children, and non-Europeans aren’t given a voice, but they were there, and … Continue reading Women on the Goldfields?!? →

Reconstructing Milton life using tooth, bone and hair chemistry

This week we have an article out in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology looking at reconstructing the lives of the St. John's, Milton individuals using isotopic analysis. In this post we explain how we do this kind of analysis, and give you some of the highlights of the article. In previous posts I've talked … Continue reading Reconstructing Milton life using tooth, bone and hair chemistry →

Childish Amusements

Well, we've explored children's burials, childhood diseases, feeding children and their playthings...and our Little Lives series is drawing to a close. So for our final blog for NZ archaeology week we're heading back to St John's in Milton, and trawling through the old records to look at the social events set up for children in … Continue reading Childish Amusements →

Archaeology – it’s child’s play

In the Southern Cemeteries project we mostly study skeletal remains and archaeology relating to death and burial. Not always the cheeriest topic! It's really important for us to remember that the people we're looking at lived lives before they died. They experienced hardships certainly, but they also had fun times! So for the final blogs … Continue reading Archaeology – it’s child’s play →

Teething problems?

How and what we feed our children depends on a whole lot of different factors. It follows fashions, medical knowledge of the time and depends on the availability of different foods. We can learn a lot about childhood diet just by looking at or analysing teeth. In this blog post we look at the archaeological … Continue reading Teething problems? →