Another find was an intact, 19th century bottle, with the paper label still readable.
The two week excavation finished last week. A $6 million, three level building for Skyline Enterprises will soon be built on the waterfront land.
Dunedin archaeologist Andrea Farminer said the surprise discovery of the barrel latrines came late in the dig as they were ''bottoming out'' the site.
''We haven't got a precise date but they're probably from the 1870s 1880s.
''The fact they're in a very straight line, very close together, clearly one phase is extremely unusual _ for Queenstown and probably further afield.
''In our interpretation at the moment, it very much looks like they were the pub loos for the Eichardt's Hotel because it's within their site.''
Dr Farminer said the wooden barrels were originally set in the ground, with a basic toilet seat over the top. From photographs, there was a building over the area in the 1870s and 1880s.
She said it was likely the outhouse was for male pub patrons _ comparatively well to do hotel guests would have had nicer suites and bathrooms.
The wood has rotted away, leaving the iron hoops and the surrounding gravel. The next challenge for the archaeologists is to try and retrieve one of the barrels.
''It was a great way to end the dig.
''We found so much information which we've got to spend the next six months or so processing and putting together in a report.''
The label reveals the bottle is tonic or wine bitters from Feraud, a brewery which operated from Clyde's Dunstan Brewery during or after the goldfields sprang up in the area.
Dr Farminer said to have the paper label survive on a bottle in the site ''is really something'' and suggested they were the first people to hold the bottle since it was emptied and dumped in an Eichardt's rubbish pit.
All recovered material will be analysed in Dunedin.
The team has also uncovered stables, cobblestones, building foundations, ceramics, animal bones and rubbish pits. Hopefully, the majority of good historical finds would come back to Queenstown, Dr Farminer said.
