Pictures: Artifacts Provide Clues to Life in Early Christchurch

Doll's Head Revisited
Photograph courtesy Jessie Garland, Underground Overground Archaeology
At 12:51 p.m. on February 22, 2011, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked New Zealand's South Island, killing 185 people, injuring several thousand, and changing the landscape of Christchurch forever. In the central business district alone, more than 750 buildings were damaged beyond repair.
As demolition began on the ruined buildings, archaeologists were called in to photograph them and document what lay underneath.
What they've found in the last two years—from soda bottles and patent medicine containers to ceramic beer bottles and fragments of clay pipes—is akin to a time capsule from the earliest days of Christchurch, which was settled in the mid-1800s.
"These things have the power to connect us to the people who built our city," said Katharine Watson, director of Underground Overground Archaeology, the leading firm that's making these discoveries.
Sometime during the late 1800s, this china doll's head was thrown out with the trash near a hotel in downtown Christchurch. Today it's among the growing number of artifacts—now estimated at more than ten thousand—that have been collected from sites around the earthquake-ravaged city.
Watson's team recovered the doll's head at the site where stables once stood adjacent to the Zetland Arms Hotel on Cashel Street, today the city's main shopping area. Built in the early 1860s, and rebuilt between 1901 and 1903 after a fire, the hotel had most recently housed shops and restaurants.
"I imagine that the doll belonged to a child living at the hotel—probably the proprietor's daughter," said Watson. "She dropped the doll and broke it, and the pieces were buried with the hotel rubbish near the stables."
Judging from details such as its hairstyle, the doll was likely made in Germany and may have been a type known today as a "waterfall head."
—A.R. Williams
Published February 21, 2013
Pieces of the Past
Photograph courtesy Gwendolyn Jackson, Underground Overground Archaeology
The largest group of finds uncovered so far came from under the partly demolished Isaac Theatre Royal. Filling 18 boxes that measure about 16 x 20 x 24 inches (40 x 50 x 60 centimeters), the items were likely trash left by people living on the site before construction began on the theater in 1906.
These two trays show a representative sample, which includes:
—A small brown stoneware bottle (left tray, front) known as a penny inkwell.
—Part of a leather shoe (left tray, back).
—Animal bones (both trays), presumably thrown out with kitchen scraps.
—A blue glass bottle (right tray, back) embossed with the legend "Langton's/Scott & Edden/London." This would have held Pure Cod Liver Oil or Concentrated Compound Extract of Red Jamaica Sarsaparilla, two products manufactured by this company that were widely advertized in New Zealand starting in the 1880s.
—A tall brown stoneware bottle with a handle (right tray, back) that contained German spring water. The legend embossed on it, "HERZGOTHUM NASSAU," refers to a duchy that existed only between 1806 and 1866.
—Examples of common china patterns found on 19th-century sites in Christchurch, such as Willow (the blue-on-white sherds at the back of both trays) and Rhine (the gray-on-white sherd at the back of the left tray).
However, the archaeologists are puzzled by the medium-size blue ceramic bottle (left tray, back). Do you know how it was used? Share your thoughts, below.
Published February 21, 2013
A Sign of the Times
Photograph courtesy Katharine Watson, Underground Overground Archaeology
This advertisement came to light when an adjacent building was torn down. Mr. Craig ran his business here in the Christchurch suburb of Sydenham between January and March of 1903. An ad in the Star newspaper on January 10, 1903, promoted the store with these words: "Craig's, 76, Colombo Road, cheapest place for Wigs, Scalps, Fringes, Switches, Pads and Transformations."
By April of that year Craig had moved to Armagh Street—possibly a more prestigious address.
Sydenham was a working-class neighborhood near the main railway station. A number of foundries, as well as wool and grain warehouses, were located along the rail line between Sydenham and the city center, about a mile to the north.
Published February 21, 2013
Put a Cork in It
Photograph courtesy Kirsa Webb, Underground Overground Archaeology
Recovered from the Isaac Theatre Royal site, this ceramic top would have fit over a cork stopper set in the neck of a glass baby bottle. The hole accommodated a rubber nipple. An advertisement for "Nursery Requisites" that appeared in the Manawatu Times on February 21, 1877, is evidence of the earliest date when these bottle tops were available in New Zealand.
"I haven't been able to learn anything about Mather's," said archaeologist Katharine Watson. "I suspect that this company was not as successful as Maw & Son, which made similar tops."
Published February 21, 2013
Glass Menagerie
Photograph courtesy Kirsa Webb, Underground Overground Archaeology
This assortment of bottles came from a site on Southwark Street in central Christchurch. According to a map of the city dating from 1877, at least four houses and several outbuildings stood there at that time.
The bottles range in date from the 1880s to the 1920s, when bottle production began in New Zealand. Most were imported, but the clear bottle (sixth from the left) was made locally and likely held sparkling water or a cordial.
The cobalt-blue bottle (center) and some of the amber brown ones contained pharmaceutical products, while the two green flask-shaped bottles (fifth from left and fifth from right) held liquor. Others held household products such as Jeys Fluid, a British disinfectant that's still used today.
The short white jar (second from right) contained Marmite, a food spread made from yeast extract.
"The taste of marmite differs depending on where in the world it was made," said Watson. "New Zealand marmite is made in Christchurch and has not been produced since the earthquake. It's not been possible to buy it for some time, much to the ire of marmite lovers here."
According to a recent news report, it's scheduled to return to shelves on March 20.
Published February 21, 2013
Good for What Ails You
Photograph courtesy Jaden Harris, Underground Overground Archaeology
A tiny container for Holloway's ointment, less than two inches (five centimeters) wide, came from what was probably a brick-lined basement on Madras Street under a multistory modern commercial building.
British patent medicine entrepreneur Thomas Holloway began to advertise his ointment in 1837, claiming it would cure an impressive list of ailments—"Bad Legs, Bad Breasts, Burns, Bunions, Bite of Mosquitoes and Sandflies, Coco-bay, Chiego-foot, Chilblains, Chapped Hands, Corns (Soft), Cancers, Contracted and Stiff Joints, Elephantiasis, Fistulas, Gout, Glandular Swellings, Lumbago, Piles, Rheumatism, Scalds, Sore Nipples, Sore Throats, Skin Diseases, Scurvy, Sore Heads, Tumours, Ulcers, Wound(s), Yaws."
("Coco-bay" is a Jamaican word for a form of leprosy. "Chiego-foot" is a Trinidadian term that describes a foot covered in chigger bites.)
Holloway moved his company several times in London. "The changing address and the subtle differences in the wording and images that appear on these pots are what enable them to be dated," said Watson. The address on this particular pot—533 Oxford Street, London—indicates that it was made between 1867 and 1881.
Published February 21, 2013
Creature Comforts
Photograph courtesy Gwendolyn Jackson
Made in Germany, this porcelain child's cup was likely part of a set that could have included a saucer, plate, bowl, and teapot. In addition to the father lion and his cubs, some of the pieces would have depicted an elephant, a bear, and other animals, all dressed up as if they were performing in a circus.
A British penny from 1910 was found nearby. Archaeologists believe the cup probably dates to that time.
Published February 21, 2013
Healthy Choice
Photograph courtesy Jessie Garland, Underground Overground Archaeology
Virol was touted as a "Tasty English Health Food" in the early 1900s. Meant to be spooned from the jar and stirred into milk, it was a concoction of bone marrow, malt extract, eggs, lemon syrup, and salts of lime and iron.
This jar was found at a residential site, possibly an indication that a baby once lived there. In 1924 an advertisement in the Auckland Star proclaimed that "Virol is the best and safest food to wean a baby on. Virol builds sturdy limbs, good teeth and a strong constitution."
On the other hand, the consumer may just have been an anxious adult. More than 300 glass bottles were uncovered near the jar, many of them pharmaceutical containers.
"Given the somewhat dubious nature of many of the patent medicines these bottles contained," said Watson, "we hypothesized—somewhat cheekily!—that the person who deposited the bottles was a hypochondriac."
Published February 21, 2013
Precious Time
Photograph courtesy Kirsa Webb, Underground Overground Archaeology
Probably gold plated when it was new, this lady's fob watch was found in the same basement on Madras Street as the Holloway's ointment container. It bore an engraved fish-scale pattern on the back and a floral pattern on the face. About an inch (three centimeters) across, it may have hung from a chain or been attached to a brooch-like artifact found nearby.
"This discovery tells us that someone from the upper middle class was living at this house, which is also what the historical information about the property suggests," said Watson.
The land was first owned by Herman Franz Fuhrmann, an upholsterer, cabinetmaker, and undertaker who came to Christchurch from Melbourne, Australia, in the 1860s and set up a successful business. A series of surgeons later rented one of the buildings on the property.
Published February 21, 2013
Put That in Your Pipe
Photograph courtesy Luke Tremlett, Underground Overground Archaeology
The site of the stables at the Zetland Arms Hotel yielded this fancy clay pipe. Its bowl has survived along with part of the stem and a hand-painted figurine—a woman, now headless, riding a horse sidesaddle.
"We suspect it may have been ornamental rather than functional," said Watson. "The weight of the figurine would have made it very difficult to smoke."
Most of the pipes found in Christchurch were made in England or Scotland, but this one is puzzling. "We've not seen anything else like it, and enquiries overseas have not resulted in any additional information," said Watson.
Do you know anything about this kind of pipe? Share your ideas below.
Watson estimates that there are at least three more years of post-earthquake archaeology to do in Christchurch. You can follow the progress on the Underground Overground Archaeology Facebook page and on a blog that Watson is hoping to launch in late March.
Published February 21, 2013
See the Destruction Caused By the Christchurch Earthquake
Television still from TVNZ via AP
Published February 21, 2013