Almost 200 boxes of artefacts have been unearthed at Christchurch's Te Kaha multi-use arena site, as the archaeological excavation project prepares to wind down.
The process was part of the early works package at the central city location.
After three months of digging and scraping at the primarily residential site, the team have unearthed thousands of historical pieces, telling the story of the city’s early colonial settlers.
Some artefacts date back to the 1850s, including fine china, smoking pipes, old bottles and, surprisingly, a 1953 Chilean peso.
"It means that we can look at who was living at the site, their socio-economic status and things like that.
"And then look at what we're finding to see if those relate and if the wealthy people had fancier stuff than the poorer people. It's sort of a big theme that we're hoping to explore with this dig".
She reckons it'll take most of next year to wash, analyse and document all the artefacts they've found.
- By Geoff Sloan
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
