Christchurch Archaeology Project has been established by three friends and colleagues: Katharine Watson (previous owner of Underground Overground Archaeology), Hayden Cawte (current owner of Underground Overground) and Jessie Garland (former employee at Underground Overground). We’re all deeply passionate about archaeology in general, and the archaeology of Ōtautahi Christchurch in particular. It might help that we’re all Cantabrians by birth…

More importantly, between us, we’ve seen most of Ōtautahi Christchurch’s post-earthquake archaeology happen, we’ve read the excavation reports, we’ve thought about it what it might all mean and we can see that this is an incredibly important archive that the city is lucky to have (you can read more about what the archive is over here). It’s an archive that has almost endless potential to help better understand not just Ōtautahi Christchurch but the 19th century world in which the city was formed.

But, what to do with it all? How to realise this potential? How to share the data and the research and the stories? Well, firstly, we’re building a database, so that all the data is organised and indexed and freely accessible to all via the internet. This is going to be our main focus through until the middle of 2024 but, in addition, we’ll be writing blog posts, sharing updates on social media (links below), and having events as part of Christchurch Heritage Festival and New Zealand Archaeology Week. Learn more about what we’re up to on our projects page.

Banner image: A. Dodd and G. Richardson.