My interest in the Goldfields of New Zealand originated with Priscella Wegar's edite volume, Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese (1993), and specifically Neville Ritchie's article. This article introduced me to the archaeological work that Neville and others had undertaken in the Otago Region.
The Otago
Region covers 32,000 sq km (12% of total New Zealand land area) and has
a population of 190,600 people (5% of New Zealand’s population). Twelve
percent of the region is governed by the Department of Conservation. This
includes many sites of mining activity as well as natural resources and
prehistoric sites. It is estimated that approximately 4,600 archaeological
sites (1,140 Maori and 3,460 European) exist in the region.
Location
of Otago Region in
The goals
of this thesis can be broken down into two categories that correspond
to chapters in the thesis. The first is to provide the reader with a general
overview of the region, this is especially important since the majority
of people who will read this may be somewhat (or totally) unfamiliar with
the Otago region and New Zealand in general. I will present a brief history
of the region, including the geological and industrial histories. Also,
there is a chapter dedicated to exploring what life was like on the goldfields,
and any differences that may have existed between the European and Chinese
miners. Then, I will focus on testing my questions for the use of GPS
and GIS in archaeology. This portion of the project can be broken into
four specific questions:
1) Is GPS accurate enough for intra-site feature mapping?
2) Is GIS intuitive enough for archaeologists to use?
3) Can they be used for public archaeology? (public anthropology)
4) If so, begin developing a step-by-step process for myself and others.
This website
contains, in abbreviated form, the contents of my Honors Thesis completed
in partial fulfillment for the of the requirements for Honors Studies
in Anthropology at the University of Arkansas (2004).