Death on the Goldfields

Preliminary report on excavations at the Drybread Cemetery, Central Otago

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results of archaeological excavations at the Drybread Cemetery in Central Otago, New Zealand. The excavations were the third phase of a bioarchaeological research programme into the lives of early colonial-era settlers in Otago, following investigations at St. Johns Cemetery in Milton and the Adrossan and Gabriel Street cemeteries in Lawrence. The Drybread excavation investigated 13 graves, 10 of which contained human remains, and five of these individuals were Chinese. This paper describes the site history, the archaeological investigations and the preliminary results including the basic details of the individuals and their funerary traditions.