University of Otago Christchurch campus works
Kia ora, Earlier this year, ahead of the start of construction of a new six-storey building on the University of Otago's Christchurch campus , a team from our archaeological research and consultancy unit at the University, Southern Pacific Archaeological Research (SPAR) , undertook an archaeological salvage excavation on the site. The excavation was one of the conditions of an archaeological authority for the construction works that had been granted to the University by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga . In New Zealand, these authorities are a legal requirement where there is reasonable cause to expect that earthworks will affect archaeological evidence associated with pre-1900 AD human activity. In the present instance, the site is located on Oxford Terrace in Christchurch along the Avon River, right in the heart of the earliest occupied part of the Canterbury Association's Church of England settlement (which was founded in 1850 AD). Archaeological work undertaken i