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Introduction (41 secs)

Getting underway (40 secs)

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Omata, Autridges - Day 1 Preparations

1 February 2008

Another day of planning and preparation, as the second excavation gets underway.

Initial work in Area D. Photo: Janice Adamson, University of Auckland

The site we are working in now belonged to Charles Autridge and his family. This site is approximately ½ km away from the site we excavated in December, Mrs Jury's.

Left: Monitoring the digger's activities. Right: Hamish hard at work. Photos: Janice Adamson, University of Auckland

On the first day of work we investigated an area (Area A) which we thought may have been the position of the homestead. However, we found that this area probably had a building relating to more recent 20th century farming activity on it. So we will not further investigate this area, and we now have focussed our efforts to a more promising area on a hillock on the high point of the site where there was once a well, according to what we've been told.

Porcelain doll face. Photo: Janice Adamson, University of Auckland

Today we had the digger excavate four separate areas (Areas B, C, D and E). In Areas D and E, directly under the grass layer, an extensive artefact scatter was visible. These artefacts were mostly ceramic, all 19th century, and some bottle and window glass, metal nails, and also a piece of a porcelain doll's face. This lovely piece was found by Hamish.

Tomorrow we will go on excavating by hand, cleaning up the digger scrape. Until we find features, like rubbish pits, all artefacts are surveyed individually to observe the extent and pattern of the artefact scatter.

Left: Area E with find distribution. Photo: Janice Adamson, University of Auckland Right: The non-digital part of artefact recording. Photo:Hans-Dieter Bader, Geometria

^ Go to Days 2-4

GLOSSARY   Archaeological terminology Like any profession, archaeology comes with its own "language". This glossary helps with less familiar terms, particularly those used on this site. >> Read more

For questions about the Omata excavation, contact archaeology@historic.org.nz

Hello I'm Hamish Williams and I've just finished Bachelor of Arts with Honours in archaeology from Otago University. Will be starting work on my Masters later this year. Happy to be digging here on Autridge's Farm; I'm passionate about historical archaeology and we have a great team here in New Plymouth. Just a reminder, that this year is the International Year of the Potato, check out potato2000.org!!