Archaeology Actually

Since this post was first published in 2022 I have permanently deactivated my Twitter/X account but have chosen to leave this post up, albeit without many of the photos it once included.   Kia ora, Last week (November 21-24) the New Zealand Archaeological Association 's 2022 Conference was hosted  by the University of Otago and Tūhura Otago Museum in Ōtepoti Dunedin. The theme of this year's conference was "Archaeology and the Climate Crisis", and the conference programme included a themed session of papers focused on the impact of climate change on archaeology and potential responses from the archaeological community, as well as an evening public panel discussion on this topic that included archaeological, climate science and indigenous (Māori) perspectives.  In an attempt to try something new on this blog, this post includes the story of the conference as told through social media (well, ok - mainly through my Twitter account). The full conference programme, incl...

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). Archaeologi...

Kia ora, New Zealand Archaeology Week 2022 is underway! New Zealand Archaeology Week, now into its sixth year, is an annual week of nation-wide public talks, exhibits, and other events aimed at increasing public awareness and appreciation of archaeology and of New Zealand's own archaeological record. Events are run by a range of amazing individuals and organizations and coordinated by the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA). Over the last couple of years New Zealand Archaeology Week has been forced to adapt to the present pandemic world. In 2020 it was forced entirely online as New Zealand experienced its highest level of COVID-19 related restrictions. Thanks to the success of those earlier restrictions, New Zealand was enjoying a pre-Delta variant respite this time last year and New Zealand Archaeology Week 2021 saw the return of several in-person events alongside original online content from the NZAA and various content partners. With the Omicron variant now widesprea...

Kia ora,   New Zealand Archaeology Week 2021 (April 24 - May 2) is underway!  New Zealand Archaeology Week, now into its fifth year, is an  annual week of nation-wide public talks, exhibits, and other events aimed at increasing public awareness and appreciation of archaeology and of New Zealand's own archaeological record. These events are run by a range of amazing individuals and organizations  and coordinated by the New Zealand Archaeological Association  (NZAA).   As I have noted on more than one occasion on this blog,  the archaeological record in New Zealand is something that people in New Zealand are often either not aware of, or tend to dismiss as not important.  "Real" archaeology is often perceived as something done overseas and not here in our little country in the corner of the South Pacific. Well, needless to say, New Zealand's archaeological record is as real as the archaeological record of anywhere else in the world. Of course,...

Kia ora, Due to recent work schedules, it has been difficult for my partner and I to take full advantage of New Zealand's post COVID lockdown freedoms and travel very far beyond Dunedin. Fortunately, within less than an hour's drive of where we live there are plenty of scenic walking tracks, opportunities to view local wildlife, and some fascinating heritage sites! Ross Creek Reservoir I mentioned the Ross Creek Reservoir when I talked about the Silverstream Water Race in my last post . This reservoir was created in the 1860s to meet the need for a reliable water management system for the then rapidly growing settlement of Dunedin, becoming New Zealand's first major urban water supply. Built and initially managed by the privately owned Dunedin Waterworks Company (backed by a provincial government guarantee), construction began in August 1865 and was completed in November 1867. The facility was taken over by the Dunedin City Council in 1875. The Ross Creek Earth Dam and Va...

Kia ora, Over the last couple of weeks I've been fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of the slightly relaxed COVID-19 restrictions by visiting some local walking tracks around Dunedin. This included a walk along one of The Silver Stream Water Race Tracks . Water races are a familiar component of historic goldfield archaeology in New Zealand. These are channels that were cut across hillsides to bring water from streams to places where gold was mined.  The Silver Stream Water Race was not established to supply water for gold mining however, but to help meet the demand for water of a rapidly expanding urban population in the nineteenth century. View of North Dunedin ca. 1861 ( Hocken Snapshop , Item 0518_01_003A ). North Dunedin in December 1874 (To create this image I've stitched together two separate photos taken from the steeple of Dunedin's First Church and sourced from  Hocken Snapshop ). In the earliest days of Dunedin ...