Last Sunday volunteer Mike came up and spent the day on-site. Mike comes all the way up from Kingston, at the foot of Lake Whakatipu, as passionate as me about Cooper’s Terrace. He’d already done some weed-eating and spraying before I got there later in the morning. We walked over the site as we usually do, discussing the possibilities of discovery and how the miners lived here, Mike dropping fascinating pearls of knowledge from his reading of gold-mining communities like this one. We were at the area by the road that had been cleared of trees so the poplars could be felled. Still no sign of the Fire Brigade to do this mahi, but I’m confident it will happen in time. Mike told me how he shifted a pile of tree trunks to the side and noticed a mound of stone that looked suspiciously 3-sided. It’s so great to have someone on the same page, who is careful and understands the process. It could just be stone tumble, but we agreed, if it was a hut, then it was in danger of being obliterated, being right in the path of machinery, stomping boots and falling trees. I am not allowed to dig, under the Archaeological Authority I have....I am only to clear the vegetation. But I knew from my experience on digs overseas what to do. If it was a hut then I had to protect it. And I had to try and find a vital clue that would confirm our suspicions. I didn’t know when the fire brigade boys would turn up so had to act fast. After we had cleared away the periwinkle, i set to with my trowel around the edges and an inner corner. Very quickly glass came into view, then tin. Then more glass and more tin. I photographed every stage of the process carefully. Bits of old tin sheeting are commonplace throughout the site, but I eventually removed a lovely intact squat clear glass bottle .... Artifact 2 ....... for its protection. I then covered the site with foliage until my return. Still no wiser as to whether it was a hut, but when I got home and looked over old photos, it got exciting.
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Jan MorrisonProject Manager of an archeological dig of a 1800s European mining settlement near Arrowtown, Central Otago. Archives
April 2021
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