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?"
