diversification into excavations of industrial sites and agricultural sites, and some for the cultural tourism industry, the major areas of growth were in the analysis of site content and site recording. Thorough descriptions of excavated assemblages, along with detailed analyses of fauna, various artifact classes, and site features make up almost a third of the published literature in the period (Smith 1990).

An even greater proportion of the literature reports on surveys of the distribution, form, and features of historic period sites in specific areas. These surveys are overwhelmingly dominated by gold-mining sites, reflecting in part the significance of this extractive industry in New Zealand’s economic and social life, from the alluvial gold rushes of the 1860s to the decline of hard-rock mining in the early decades of the twentieth century. However, this interest also reflects the growth of public archaeology. Funding of historical archaeology by government agencies had its origins in the late 1960s, but it was another decade before it became a routine component of government activities. By the early 1980s, nearly 70 percent of all site surveys were being undertaken by or for two government departments, the Forest Service and the Department of Lands and Survey. The main interest of those two departments concerned the management of their own lands, which included a considerable proportion of New Zealand’s main gold-mining areas.

There was a significant change in focus toward urban historical archaeology in the second half of the 1980s. Prior to 1986, there had been only four excavations on historic period sites in urban areas, but over the next four years more than half of all excavations were on urban sites, largely within the city of Auckland during a period of extensive urban redevelopment. Most of the excavations were funded by developers and undertaken by the Regional Archaeology Unit, which was established by Susan Bulmer of the Historic Places Trust and after public service restructuring in 1987 became part of the Department of Conservation. These excavations were focused on sites from the period between 1840, when the city was founded, and 1865, when the colony’s capital was shifted to Wellington. Excavated sites included major public buildings such as the original Parliament buildings and the first courthouse and jail, hotels, and early industrial sites as well as the cottages and houses of early residents (Macready 1991). Artifactual remains from these sites have derived predominantly from residential refuse and provide insight into early urban domestic life.

A decline in urban redevelopment by the end of the 1980s and the rising price of gold have seen the emphasis in fieldwork shift again from the urban sector to the mining industry. However, with the introduction of university courses in historical archaeology by Ian Smith at Otago and Rod Clough at Auckland, greater continuity has been maintained in research into the broader themes of culture contact, extractive industry, and urban domesticity.

Ian Smith

References

Best, E. 1921. “Old Redoubts, Blockhouses, and Stockades of the Wellington District.” Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 53: 14–28.

———. 1927. The Pa Maori. Dominion Museum Bulletin no. 6. New Zealand.

Davis, S. 1963. “A Note on the Excavation of the Barracks at Paremata.” In The Paremata Barracks, pp. 25–29. Ed. R.I.M. Burnett. New Zealand: Historic Places Trust Bulletin no. 4.

Green, R. C., and W.A. Pullar. 1960. “Excavations at Orongo Bay, Gisborne.” Journal of the Polynesian Society 69, no. 4: 332–353.

Macready, S. 1991. “A Review of Urban Historical Archaeology in Auckland to 1990.” Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology 9: 14–20.

Prickett, N. 1981. “The Archaeology of a Military Frontier: Taranaki, New Zealand, 1860–1881.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Auckland.

Ritchie, N.A. 1986. “Archaeology and History of the Chinese in Southern New Zealand during the Nineteenth Century.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Otago.

———. 1990. “The Clutha Valley Archaeological Project 1977–1987: A Summary Report.” Archaeology in New Zealand 33, no. 1: 4–20.

Smith, I.W.G. 1990. “Historical Archaeology in New Zealand: A Review and Bibliography.” New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 12: 85–119.

———. 1991. “The Development of Historical Archaeology in New Zealand, 1921–1990.” Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology 9: 6–13.