Life and Death on the New Zealand Goldfields Frontier

Description

In 2018, an archaeological and bioarchaeological investigation of two goldfields-era cemeteries in Lawrence in Otago, New Zealand, provided insights into the miners who worked in the Tuapeka Goldfield from 1861 onwards, including the Chinese miners who arrived from 1866. The Ardrossan Street Cemetery (1861 to ca. 1865) had 24 graves containing 25 individuals. The Gabriel Street Cemetery (ca. 1865 to the present day) replaced the older cemetery, and 21 graves in the Chinese section were investigated, but only nine contained skeletal remains. The others had been historically exhumed for repatriation to China. Analysis of these individuals was carried out using a ‘biocultural’ approach that combines biological and cultural information. It focuses on both human remains and archaeological evidence, considered within a wider archaeological landscape. This is the first study of its type in the New Zealand goldfields and complements earlier work at Milton carried out in 2016.