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 →
Down on the corner of a Lyttelton street, there was a butcher, a courier and a large family to meet… Or at least, one could have met them about 150 odd years ago when three early settler families in Lyttelton … Continue reading →
Today, art is my inspiration, at least as a starting point. The title of this blog post may seem whimsical, but it is both a practical description of our subject today and a reference to the art of centuries past. … Continue reading →
In 1848, when the City of Christchurch was nothing but a design concept of the Canterbury Association back in London the idea of a ‘little slice of England’ (but half the world away) was born (Rice 2014, 9). Exactly how … Continue reading →
Yellow stickers on the window of 164 Victoria Street. The sticker on the left readings, "Danger, your building has a yellow placard, do not enter". The sticker on the right indicates that the building is restricted to essential business.
An image designed for use as a sticker for the All Right? Winter Survival Kit. The image reads, "Get your free Winter Survival Kit today! What makes you feel All Right in Winter? Reading or exploring your local library".
A photograph of a tag on the back of the Wunderbar on London Street in Lyttelton. A message has been written under the tag, reading, "Next time you scribble on walls, how about adding a bit of colour...xxx".
A sign erected on Retreat Road in Avonside by the Christchurch City Council reading, "Non-residents are asked not to enter this area. Traffic may cause further damage to roads and properties. Please respect the needs of local residents".
A photograph of a tag on the back of the Wunderbar on London Street in Lyttelton. A message has been written under the tag, reading, "Next time you scribble on walls, how about adding a bit of colour...xxx".
A photograph of a hand-written cardboard sign reading 'The Beginning Is Nigh'. The sign is cable-tied to the fence next to a vacant site on Gloucester Street. The site is the location of Illusions, part of LUXCITY.
When we are recording a standing structure we might be lucky enough to discover wallpaper hidden behind plasterboard or tucked under skirtings. In some houses we can find layers of wallpaper, each revealing a stylistic period. While many of the … 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 →
Gender matters. And it’s complicated, which is why writing this blog post has been particularly difficult. Why is it so complicated, from an archaeological standpoint? Well, let me try and explain. Historical archaeology developed as a discipline in the mid-20th … Continue reading →
Last time on the blog we introduced our Life Before Plastic blog series, and today we’re continuing the series by discussing packaging. A lot of what we find in the archaeological record are containers, which are a form of packaging. … Continue reading →
‘Rubbish’ is the most common thing we find on our 19th century archaeological sites. I have ‘rubbish’ in quotation marks because to us what we find isn’t rubbish, it’s the material evidence of what life was like in the early … Continue reading →
Class is a complicated concept, historically and in the present day. It’s difficult to define, somewhat ephemeral, and yet so clearly there in our societies and our cultures. For better or for worse, social stratification has been part of human … Continue reading →
Last time on the blog we talked about packaging and how our Victorian ancestors made do without plastic trays to wrap their cans of coke in (and all the rest of it). This week we’re going to take a closer … Continue reading →
Picture this. A summer’s day: clear blue skies and the heat of the afternoon sunshine, just the hint of a breeze. You might be in a garden, sheltering from the sun in the shade of the tree or under a … Continue reading →
Who would have thought a Bin Inn could have such a sacred past? But as is usually the case with archaeology, once the layers are peeled back, an entirely different story starts unveiling itself. In its glory days this bargain … Continue reading →
Last week, Jessie’s post mentioned MacLaren’s Imperial Cheese, an early 20th century foodstuff we found in Christchurch. This cheese pot, which looked so insignificant and sounded so odd, represents one of the steps en route to our modern culinary world. Even … Continue reading →
So, that message in a bottle? Well, it turns out it wasn’t the only interesting thing about the site it came from. A fellmongery, German Danes, shoes… read on! First up, the bottle came from under a house built in … Continue reading →
Today on the blog we’re taking a look at a pair of neighbours, Joseph Rowley and David Scott. The pair lived next to each other on the south side of St Asaph Street- with Rowley owning Lot 7 DP 51 … Continue reading →
If you recall our 2020 end of year blog, I made a new year’s resolution to ensure that we were updating both our social media accounts and the blog regularly. If you follow our blog and our other accounts, you’ll … 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 →
Few would suspect that the now empty lot on the corner of Worcester, Gloucester and Manchester streets was once home to the famous Waverley Wine Vaults. Previously known as the Australasian Wine Vaults, the business was established in the late … Continue reading →
The Beca Heritage Festival 2019 is currently on in Christchurch. There’s lots of interesting events being held, highlighting both the work being done in the heritage sector in Christchurch and providing opportunities to visit and interact with Christchurch’s heritage (see … Continue reading →
Disclaimer: This blog post will mainly focus on fossicking on historic sites, as that’s what we have the greatest experience with in Christchurch. We wouldn’t be able to do justice to discussing fossicking on Māori sites, but it has occurred … Continue reading →
On Wednesday I celebrated my six year anniversary working at Underground Overground Archaeology. I did plan on marking this milestone by staying up all Tuesday night to bake a special six-tiered chocolate cake to bring in to work and share … Continue reading →
All good things must come to an end, and so this post marks the final blog in our Life Before Plastic series (here’s part one, two and three if you’ve missed any). Speaking of endings, today we’re going to be … Continue reading →
Last time on the blog we talked about packaging and how our Victorian ancestors made do without plastic trays to wrap their cans of coke in (and all the rest of it). This week we’re going to take a closer … Continue reading →