Lyttelton is a fun and exciting place to do archaeology. I’ve been lucky enough to get to do a bit of archaeology in Lyttelton in the last few months, mainly out in the road, because of the digging that’s been … Continue reading →
A few weeks ago, there was an interesting interview on Radio New Zealand with historian Jock Phillips, on the history of tobacco use in New Zealand. In the interview, Jock talked about the ways in which people consumed tobacco in … Continue reading →
An entry from Gallivanta's blog for 12 January 2013 entitled, "From this to bliss".
An earthquake memories story from Karen Wilson, Charge Nurse Manager, Ward 10, Christchurch Hospital, titled, "This is bad".
An entry from Roz Johnson's blog for 19 June 2012 entitled, "Christchurch Container this Winter".
A PDF copy of pages 68-69 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Why is This Real Not That?'. Photo: Reuben Woods
He is bed maker to the dead. The pillows which he lays never rumple. The day of interment is the theatre in which he displays the mysteries of this art. Thomas Lamb 1811. Nothing in this would can be … Continue reading →
This week on the blog, a selection of chamber pots for your perusal, ranked according to my entirely objective, and not at all arbitrary, assessment of how fancy they are. This is accompanied by my very best attempt at using … Continue reading →
Continuing on from our last FAQ post, here are the answers to a few more of the questions we face regularly here in Christchurch. 1) Are you doing this for a school project? Yes, seriously. This gets asked more often … Continue reading →
People often ask what we’re learning as a result of all this post-earthquake archaeology. Quite a lot, as this blog reveals. But, to date, the blog has focused on the individual sites and/or stories – there’s not been much of … Continue reading →
This week on the blog, we delve – or dive, even (sorry, I can already tell you that this post will be filled with water puns) – into the bitter waters of the 19th century, by which I mean mineral … Continue reading →
A photograph captioned, "Nobody’s trained for this, you go to your lawyer and they can’t give you an answer because they've never faced this before, so yeah, even they are scratching around trying to find out".
The challenge for this week’s blog was to consider class and buildings – more specifically: houses. When I decided to write this post, I thought it’d be relatively straightforward – I have a really interesting house to tell you about, … Continue reading →
Regarded as Christchurch’s oldest home, this two storey farm cottage was built in 1851-2 for Mr. Parkerson, a surgeon. It was built with 600 mm thick scoria stone blocks quarried from Lyttelton and roofed with Welsh slate. The layout of this cottage … Continue reading →
This blog may lean more heavily on the personal than the archaeological. Every year, thousands of Kiwis and Aussies commemorate ANZAC Day. We take this time to reflect on the losses of war, and the terrible costs it has had … Continue reading →
And just like that, another year is over. This year’s been a big one for us. We’ve excavated some large sites, found some cool artefacts, and on top of all that we moved offices. This fortnight on the blog we’re … Continue reading →
In writing an introduction to this post, I found myself straying unexpectedly into alliteration. This happens sometimes. I decided to run with it. So, as an aside from our accustomed analysis of antiquity, we’ve assembled an array of artefacts for the the … Continue reading →
This week, a few of the fabulous things we’ve been finding recently.
This study determined areas of different liquefaction susceptibility in Hurunui District based mainly on geological data, with some limited borehole strata interpretation. Geotechnical data was not analysed. This was the same method used in the earthquake hazard assessments for engineering lifelines in other districts in Canterbury. Hurunui District was the first district that a hazard assessment for engineering lifelines was undertaken for (in 2000) and it did not include a liquefaction susceptibility map like the other district earthquake hazard assessments did. There are no recommendations associated with this report. See Object Overview for background and usage information.
A photograph captioned, "Lovely big weeds, they're pretty aren't they. Amongst all this".
Beside Christchurch’s Town Hall, stood Solomon Nashelski’s hardware and ironmonger’s shop. Called ‘Melbourne House’, this small shop was later replaced with a permane…
A photograph captioned, "We get the young fellas to come in and do the upkeep on the government houses that have been sold. They cut down all the long grass and just tidy up all the fire risk sections. This one's easier cos the house is gone. If you keep it tidy it looks tidy from the road. There's people living here, and there's nothing worse than looking over your house and seeing grass this high".
The underlying geological issues hidden beneath Christchurch’s swampy plains meant that the city’s founders and their surveyors who chose this site for their planned city, knew nothing …
In response to the loss of our inner city of Christchurch, we were inspired to create this website, Lost Christchurch, as a freely accessible archive of photographs, social history and memories of …
Interview with Engineering Geologist, Shamus Wallace. This interview was conducted by Emma Kelland as part of Deidre Hart's Coastal and River Earthquake Research project.
Christchurch has a frontier appearance about it in this photograph taken by Dr. Barker in 1860 from the tower of the Canterbury Provincial Buildings. With little beyond the immediate streets, it c…
The red brick, cream stone and plaster building on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Street, proudly displays the architectural features becoming commonplace in the commercial confines of this…
The growing permanence and sophistication of Christchurch, is evident in this photograph of Lichfield Street. Taken by the Burton Brother’s, the photograph shows us that the little frontier …
This land-locked port of Lyttelton – called occasionally Port Cooper and sometimes Port Victoria – is the main, or rather the only, entrance to the Province of Canterbury. The surroundi…
Here we look upon one of Christchurch’s beautiful public gardens which spans Durham Street and the River Avon. This photograph shows how carefully the city authorities went about landscaping …