Melborne Metro Archaeology updates
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Gary Vines
Jun 4, 2018, 8:25:54 PM6/4/18
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Latest news on the Melbourne Metro excavations http://magazine.melbourne.vic.gov.au/city-news/big-dig-breaks-ground/
MM has some relatively recent updates on the archaeological excavations being undertaken by Ochre Imprints and Andrew Long & Associates.
and some more on their Facebook page and some Instagram images
There is an "opportunity for a limited number of community participants to join the Archaeological teams" which I presume means volunteers.
Gary Vines
Jun 19, 2018, 9:43:30 PM6/19/18
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Not sure if I posted this previously, but some updates from a couple of weeks ago
Gary Vines
Jun 19, 2018, 9:47:32 PM6/19/18
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https://www.3aw.com.au/fascinating-the-archaeologists-digging-for-pre-federation-artefacts-in-melbournes-cbd/
‘Fascinating!’ The archaeologists digging for early artefacts in Melbourne’s CBD
Archaeologists conducting a dig on a CBD site hope to find rare relics related to Melbourne’s settlement days, including John Batman’s cottage.
The site, next to Young and Jacksons on Swanston Street in the CBD, is being surveyed over the next few weeks while construction workers prepare to begin work on the Metro Tunnel.
Excavation Director Meg Goulding said they were hopeful of finding more items linked to the city’s early history.
“We have been given this time – around about 12 weeks to do a really good excavation of the site and then we can let the guys get in there and build their tunnel,” she told Ross and John.
To date, they have uncovered a newspaper from the 1900’s as well as other relics.
“What we do know is that there were some of the earliest European occupation on this site.
“We think there’s possibly the remains of a structure that John Batman himself built.”
Ross: The Holy Grail is finding John Batman’s cottage…
Click PLAY to hear the full interview
Gary Vines
Jun 19, 2018, 10:26:15 PM6/19/18
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from the Hun
Melbourne Metro Tunnel archaeological dig
could reveal treasure trove of city history
JOHN MASANAUSKAS, CITY EDITOR, Herald Sun
May 22, 2018 7:05pm
ARCHAEOLOGISTS hope that a CBD site linked to Melbourne pioneer John Batman will reveal a treasure trove of the city’s early history.
Already, a dig next to Young and Jackson Hotel on Swanston St has uncovered items like antique bottles, coins, metal spoons, marbles and even human teeth.
The excavations were made possible when several buildings were demolished for work on the proposed Town Hall underground station as part of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project.
Swanston Street in 1875.
Senior archaeologist Cornelia de Rochefort with a section of the
Herald newspaper stuck to stonework dating back to the early 1900s. Picture:
David Caird
Batman paid 100 pounds for the land just two years after Melbourne was founded in 1835 and built a timber cottage that soon became the city’s first girls’ school.
Excavation director Meg Goulding from archaeological consultants Ochre Imprints said that a possible location of the structure had been identified but more digging was needed to find the footings and even original timber posts.
“If we find Batman’s cottage it would be very significant as finding something structural from the 1830s would be quite rare,” she said. Another part of the site has yielded the remains of a doorway and fireplace, probably dating to the 1840s.
Heritage Victoria principal archaeologist Jeremy Smith said it appeared to have been a two-room cottage. “The artefacts will tell us, was it a factory, was it a pub, a residence, a school potentially,” he said.
“That first generation of
Melbourne’s history, the pioneers — this is where they’ve settled, this is what
they’re doing in those very first years of the city’s settlement.”The site changed dramatically
during the Gold Rush with Batman’s school razed in 1853, and Young and Jackson,
or Princes Bridge Hotel, opening in 1861.Over
the decades the rest of the land was variously used for warehouses and
businesses including an iron monger, chocolatier and dentist.More than 100 archaeologists,
field workers and students will survey the site, as well as another Metro
Tunnel site at La Trobe St, for several more weeks.Viewing windows have been
installed at both locations to allow the public to see the digs in action.Transport Minister Jacinta
Allan said that the northern CBD site dig had already produced thousands of
items, including highly decorative pottery and clay tobacco pipes.“The viewing windows will
give locals and visitors the chance to get up close to the biggest
archaeological digs in Victoria’s history and watch as treasures from
Melbourne’s past are unearthed,” she said.It is hoped the dig will find John Batman’s cottage. Picture:
David Caird
FOUND ITEMS FROM LOST MELBOURNE
Antique torpedo bottle Metal spoons Coins Herald newspaper fragments from early 1900s Human teeth
Gary Vines
Jun 19, 2018, 10:32:40 PM6/19/18
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Message has been deleted
Gary Vines
Jun 19, 2018, 10:41:09 PM6/19/18
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Try again
Time lapse on the Swanston Street site :
and Hun video:
Gary Vines
Jun 29, 2018, 10:32:57 PM6/29/18
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MELBOURNE METRO TUNNEL | ALA ON SITEHOMENEWSMELBOURNE METRO TUNNEL | ALA ON SITE
ALA is currently part of what is heralded as one of Melbourne’s largest archaeological digs.
Lead by Paul Pepdjonovic we currently have a team of over 20 archaeologists, conservators and artefact analysts excavating an important city site as part of the new Melbourne metro tunnel development.
Heritage Victoria are expecting the dig to provide a large collection of artefacts dating back more than 180 years.
http://magazine.melbourne.vic.gov.au/city-news/big-dig-breaks-ground/
http://amp.abc.net.au/article/9642282
Gary Vines
Jun 30, 2018, 9:31:11 AM6/30/18
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Some remarkable discoveries - artefacts from 18th century Australia - presumably Aboriginal?
"The archaeological excavations on Swanston and LaTrobe streets are continuing at full speed, with hundreds of thousands of artefacts from 18th and 19th century Australia already uncovered."
Gary Vines
Jul 3, 2018, 8:52:21 PM7/3/18
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Some interesting artefacts on the Melbourne Metro twitter feed
We have found the oldest archaeological item at our 377-391 Swanston Street so far: a tree stump from Melbourne’s pre-colonial woodland. The stump was once a large Eucalyptus, which formed part of the extensive woodland that characterised the area before European settlement.
Barry Green
Jul 5, 2018, 12:09:37 AM7/5/18
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Tree stumps are always an interesting discovery on CBD sites. The one pictured below was uncovered about 2m below current street level on a site we excavated on Little Lonsdale St in 2017. Check out the poster for more info. The report is in prep, but if anyone would like more details please feel free to contact us on in...@greenheritage.com.au.
Cheers,
Barry
Gary Vines
Jul 5, 2018, 12:37:41 AM7/5/18
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Why do you think such places in Melbourne are never conserved and interpreted, when Sydney has numerous examples?
Gary Vines
Jul 5, 2018, 1:06:43 AM7/5/18
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Clarke v. Green
In the right corner the right Barry Green's 115 Little Lon excavation site and in the left corner, Vincent Clarke's Jones Lane excavation (once known as Green Lane)
Barry Green
Jul 5, 2018, 1:14:46 AM7/5/18
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There is obviously a difference in archaeological frameworks between the two cities. I think that's a question for the grown-ups to answer. A good starting point in addressing the issue to achieve better outcomes would be much earlier input from archaeologists in the design stage of these major developments. A recurring problem is the identification of archaeological compliance obligations late in the planning application process.
On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 2:37 PM, Gary Vines <garyvi...@gmail.com> wrote:
Why do you think such places in Melbourne are never conserved and interpreted, when Sydney has numerous examples?
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Barry Green
Jul 5, 2018, 1:36:16 AM7/5/18
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You could have popped in for a chat while we were excavating, we had plenty of people through! GML were also just up the road at the same time on a cracker of a site.
How have you fared in preserving archaeological remains on your Melbourne digs?
Gary Vines
Aug 21, 2018, 7:53:59 PM8/21/18
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No hidden treasure, but 1000 teeth found at Swanston Street dig site Carolyn Webb The Age 21 August 2018 — 6:28pm
One thousand teeth, but alas no bags of gold, are among more than half a million artefacts unearthed at two archaeological digs in Melbourne's CBD.
Halfway through the six month excavation next to Young & Jackson pub in Swanston Street, clues to our ancestors’ lives are being unearthed daily.
Some had appalling tooth cavities, or smoked opium in glass bongs made from cut up beer bottles.
There is a jet earring, modelled on Queen Victoria’s mourning wear. There’s a child’s crude slingshot and a bone-handled fork.
The artefacts will be preserved but the ruins will make way for the Town Hall underground station to be built as part of the Metro Tunnel Project.
The project will put select artefacts from here and from the second dig site at the corner of Swanston and La Trobe streets (earmarked for State Library station) on display at its visitor centre opposite Melbourne Town Hall from September 24.
At the site near Young & Jackson, excavation director Megan Goulding said she felt history ‘‘hovering around us’’, with building footings dating from the 1830s gradually emerging.
‘‘It’s quite evocative,’’ she said. ‘‘Every aspect of our European past is here on the site and you can still see it.’’
Passersby peering through windows into the site often ask whether staff have found bodies, or a gold hoard (no to both) and are hungry to learn more about the early buildings.
The buildings include one of our earliest girls’ schools, Nichola Cooke’s Roxburgh Ladies’ Seminary (1838); Freemason’s hotel (1856); and Powell’s hardware store (1850s).
Ms Goulding says two cart ruts date back to a few years after Melbourne’s 1835 founding.
There were several dentists on the block, hence the 1000 teeth found in pipes or sediment.
The most prominent dentist was JJ Forster, who practised at 11 Swanston Street from 1898 to the 1930s.
He was extremely wealthy, and in 1909, a 16-year-old boy threatened to bomb and shoot Forster, unless he handed over 50 pounds.
Forster’s newspaper ads boasted he could remove teeth ‘‘truthfully without pain’’.
But in 2018, Melbourne University dental school Associate Professor Mark Evans is skeptical.
Dr Evans, an endodontist who specialises in root canal therapy, said early 1900s anaesthesia, for tooth removal by lever and forceps, might involve cocaine, novocaine or nitrous oxide.
But the drugs were not as reliable or long-lasting as today’s lignocaine or articaine. There was no paracetamol or ibuprofen for post-procedure pain, and no antibiotics to fight infection.
Anaesthetic was often not used for fillings. The dentist would hollow-out your cavity using a vibrating, pedal-driven drill. ‘‘It would have been horrible,’’ Dr Evans says.
Dr Evans, who identified the teeth for conservators who are cleaning and cataloguing the artefacts in the Nicholas Building in Swanston Street, said many of the teeth had ‘‘massive cavities’’ which represented years of pain.
Ms Goulding said the teeth gave us an "intimate" connection to people’s lives 100 years ago, and conveyed the suffering of patients for whom ‘‘dental care was often a last resort rather than a preventive measure’’.
Gary Vines
Aug 22, 2018, 10:56:22 PM8/22/18
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The Age video with Meg Goulding and others with the teeth!
Shaun Canning
Aug 23, 2018, 2:51:03 AM8/23/18
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The ‘other’ with the teeth would be long time (~20 years) Melbourne archaeologist Jenny Porter.
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Gary Vines
Aug 23, 2018, 3:18:50 AM8/23/18
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Thanks Shaun, I am terrible at remembering faces (also names, phone numbers, voices on the phone, birthdays, appointments, etc. etc.)
Gary Vines
Sep 2, 2018, 9:44:16 PM9/2/18
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1,000 teeth and opium lamps among items found during Melbourne Metro Tunnel dig
Updated 28 Aug 2018, 7:53am
An unprecedented archaeological dig is underway beneath Melbourne's CBD.
In order to make way for the Metro Tunnel — a rail network that will include five new stations — a team of more than 100 archaeologists, students and staff are overseeing excavations at two locations.
Here's a look at some of the 500,000 artefacts they've found in the digs so far:
Piles of teeth washed down the sink
Yes. It's disgusting. More than 1,000 human teeth were found at one of the locations, next to the Young and Jackson pub on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets.
Excavation director Meg Goulding said there used to be a dentist on the site.
"This guy clearly disposed of a lot of his teeth down the pipe, down the sink," she told ABC Melbourne's Richelle Hunt.
The teeth, some of which could date back to 1898, are especially disgusting by modern standards.
"A lot of them are unattractive because they've got very big holes in them," Ms Goulding said.
"So they instantly say to you pain and agony, both in terms of people suffering for the length of time that they must have had some of these teeth in their mouths, but also just the extraction process."
A peek into industries past
A number of objects highlight the different businesses which have stood on the sites during the 180 years since the European settlement of Melbourne.
Hundreds of lead print types were discovered, left behind by a stationer and printer who worked in the area in the late 1800s.
There are also labels from James Dickson & Co ginger ale bottles, a company which started in a Richmond shed during the 1850s gold rush before moving to the CBD in 1869.
Heat-resistant ceramic crucibles may have been used in a printing workshop or sold by stationery shops.
The seedy underbelly of early Melbourne
Gambling dice and gaming discs have also been unearthed, mostly made from cattle bone or ivory.
At least 20 dice were recovered from 13 Swanston Street, a site formerly occupied by hotels, along with corks, corkscrews, glass tumblers, wine glasses, swizzle sticks and alcohol bottles.
Archaeologists also uncovered 34 glass discs which suggest that opium lamps were manufactured in the area.
Items left behind by wealthy patrons who would have visited the hotels include an opulent jet earring which probably fell through the floorboards, lost for more than a century.
Children's toys from a simpler time
Plenty of children's toys have also been uncovered, including a toy soldier that dates back to the 1850s.
It was likely made in Germany and depicts a British army drummer around the time of the Battle of Waterloo.
There's also a yellow bird-shaped whistle that dates back to at least the 1860s and the head from a china doll.
The doll is believed to be a Frozen Charlotte, which were popular toys that got their name from a song about a vain girl who refused to cover up and froze to death on a winter's night.
The connection to Aboriginal land
When the excavations from European settlement are complete, traditional owners will be invited on site to excavate older deposits.
Ms Goulding said the area was used by Indigenous people camping by the Yarra River.
"Towards the end of our historical archaeological program we then move into the Indigenous archaeological program."
What will happen to the artefacts?
The team is processing the hundreds of thousands of artefacts uncovered in the first four months of the dig.
"A conservator does conservation work on the very fragile ones and then the artefacts get catalogued and they get processed properly," Ms Goulding said.
Some of them will be put on display at Metro Tunnel HQ located at 125-133 Swanston Street from September 24.
Gary Vines
Oct 29, 2018, 4:55:08 PM10/29/18
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Some Moore teeth. This time from Georgia (USA). Wonder if anyone might do some comparative analyst? https://au.news.yahoo.com/news/builders-make-disturbing-discovery-inside-wall-construction-work-235858869.html
Gary Vines
Oct 29, 2018, 6:50:00 PM10/29/18
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more teeth here https://www.journal-news.com/news/workers-find-teeth-embedded-into-walls-georgia-building/rAKovjgnJfkbZRQSn3JYuN/
By Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk Oct 26, 2018
Construction workers at a south Georgia site found a building with bite.
The laborers were preparing commercial space at a building in downtown Valdosta when they found approximately 1,000 teeth buried into a second-floor wall, the Valdosta Daily Times reported.
A photo of the discovery at the T.B. Converse Building has been shared more than 1,500 times on Facebook as of midnight Thursday.
Dustin Merriman, project manager for Converse, told the newspaper that the teeth have been removed and disposed.
So why are there teeth in the walls?
According to Harry Evans, researcher for the Lowndes County Historical Society and Museum, the building’s first tenant in 1900 was Clarence Whittington, a dentist. Another dentist, Lester G. Youmans, came to Valdosta in 1911 and remained a tenant in the building until at least 1930, Evans told the Daily Times.
A receipt, retrieved recently by Valdosta dentist Pat Powell from an antique store, shows a receipt for a tooth extraction from Dr. L.G. Youmans dated June 12, 1928, Powell told the newspaper.
Ellen Hill, the director of Valdosta Main Street, said two other Georgia cities -- Carrolton and Greensboro -- had buildings where teeth were embedded into the wall, the Daily Times reported. Both buildings were former dental offices, she told the newspaper. “I’m not sure if it was a common practice between dentists at that time, but it’s very strange that there were two other people that said, ‘Hey, we’ve had that happen, too,’” Hill said.
Gary Vines
Oct 29, 2018, 8:37:31 PM10/29/18
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Metro Tunnel Retweeted
Our #Archaeology students are gaining hands-on excavation experience at the site of the @Melbourne's new @metrotunnelvic project.
Jeannette Hope
Oct 29, 2018, 10:13:18 PM10/29/18
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Maybe it’s related, or parallel, with the tooth fairy belief? That there’s something magic about lost teeth?
“ Fear of witches was another reason to bury or burn teeth. In medieval Europe, it was thought that if a witch were to get hold of one's teeth, it could lead to them having total power over him or her.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooth_fairy
Perhaps paying for baby teeth was originally a method of averting witches – the tooth fairy took over the associated risk from children, and defused it. Building extracted teeth into a wall might have originated as a way of keeping them out of the hands of witches?
Jeannette
From: oza...@googlegroups.com [mailto:oza...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gary Vines
Sent: Tuesday, 30 October 2018 9:50 AM
To: OzArch
Subject: {OzArch} Re: Melborne Metro Archaeology updates
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Gary Vines
Oct 29, 2018, 11:01:30 PM10/29/18
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I suspect the teeth stashes are related to the concerns for discarding human tissue. While different from the amputated limb or extracted tonsils/appendix, there is still an ethical dilemma around reuse or discard of body parts. Incineration is the usual method, but before collection of biohazards, it was up to the individual doctor/hospital to deal with them. however, teeth with amalgam fillings can't be incinerated as they release mercury into the atmosphere. The Georgia example is probably a result of a convenient slot in the wall - like the razor blade disposal slots sometimes built into bathroom walls and cabinets.
Denis Gojak
Oct 30, 2018, 2:31:14 AM10/30/18
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A more general toothy question prompted by some training I was delivering today.
Our Unexpected Finds Procedure requires specific action if potential human remains are found. We normally assume this would apply to discoveries like uncleared former cemeteries, Aboriginal burials, possible murder victims and so on. However, in NSW at least if we found stray human teeth we would not have provision to treat them differently to the discovery of, say a scapula or cranium. The law gives you no discretion. Is this also the case in other jurisdictions?
Given that teeth can be lost without the implication of a fatality or something else weird happening, how do different states apply any statutory or procedural human remains discovery reporting processes [administered by heritage agency + cops + coroner etc] to the discovery of stray people teeth, such as during an excavation [or embedded in a wall for decorative effect, as was the style at the time]?
thanks
denis
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Denis Gojak
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----- Original Message -----From:oza...@googlegroups.comTo:"OzArch" <oza...@googlegroups.com>Cc:Sent:Mon, 29 Oct 2018 15:50:00 -0700 (PDT)
Subject:{OzArch} Re: Melborne Metro Archaeology updates
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Gary Vines
Oct 30, 2018, 7:51:42 PM10/30/18
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Metro Tunnel
Opium lamps and slingshots! Two more fascinating finds from our Town Hall Station archaeology site near the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets. Find out more about our archaeological digs at: https://bit.ly/2Oy0rzO
Gary Vines
Jan 16, 2019, 6:02:00 PM1/16/19
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Some more images of the Melbourne Metro Dig
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