Today's blog explains some of the results of chemical analysis of diet in the St. John's Milton sample. It is based around the team's recently accepted paper in the Journal of Historical Archaeology. Extract from the Otago Witness 21st March 1868 (Issue 851), with one reader at least feeling very melodramatic about the lack of … Continue reading “So scant my fare, my bones are bare…”?
Our first publications on St. John’s Milton, the rescue excavation at Cromwell, and Milton and the old and new cemeteries at Lawrence are now out in Archaeology in New Zealand (the New Zealand Archaeological Association’s magazine). You can check out what we’ve been finding in the pdfs below. St. John's Milton Excavation 2017 Download Petchey & … Continue reading Preliminary site reports
Full disclosure: this blog post isn't really to do with our cemeteries project ... in fact it's outside of the time period we're interested in, but when I came across it in my research I couldn't resist sharing. In the early 1900s, rural New Zealand was beset by an exploding trousers problem. You heard that … Continue reading The New Zealand Exploding Trousers Epidemic
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Dr. Weber and reports of his use of drugs and alcohol to ease the pain of his wife’s passing. The rather gossipy reporting of this in the Bruce Herald reflects social ideas at the time. The temperance movement was gaining traction in New Zealand, indeed Dr. Weber … Continue reading Taking the edge off in colonial Milton: chloroform and laudanum use.
This blog post deals with one of the identified individuals at St John's Milton and is published with the full knowledge and permission of his known descendants. It deals with issues of substance abuse and depression, and the family hope that in telling his story we can illustrate how deeply-rooted these issues can be in … Continue reading The Doctor will see you now…
Southern Cemeteries Archaeology Project 