Eight archaeology students from the University of Otago have returned to the Chinese camp at Lawrence for a fourth field school season.
Associate Prof Richard Walter said this season's excavation would last for three weeks and would focus on areas of the site that were not well documented in historical publications.
Previous excavations had explored the formal and documented activities; they were now looking for evidence of informal activities, he said.
Prof Walter said previous excavations had uncovered the foundations of a joss house (place of worship) and Sam Chew Lain's residence.
This year, students would be looking for evidence of activities that were not documented in the newspapers of the day.
"It's the areas behind houses that we don't know much about - the miners who didn't have a lot of money set up in those areas."
Prof Walter said the aim of the project was to understand the "full range of activities" that were carried out at the site.
It was surprising a butcher's shop had not been discovered, nor had any type of rubbish dump been found at the site, he said.
- Rachel Taylor
"Maybe they didn't dispose of it in that way?"