Author Archives: Rebecca Phillipps

At the end of November 2012 a small group of archaeologists spent a week on Great Mercury Island. The intention was to carry out small excavations on the two sites selected for excavation by the Fieldschool in February 2013, to … Continue reading →

We only had one week to complete the excavation on the beach, begun in February. We began by clearing away the sand covering to excavation until we reached the protective layer of tarpaulin covering the archaeological material still in situ. … Continue reading →

Eager to get back out to Ahuahu, a small group of us returned to the island in June to continue excavations not completed in February. The June crew consisted of Simon, Louise, Peter, Pete, Alex, Rod, Ben Davies, Ben Jones, … Continue reading →

The field work may be over, but some of the most interesting aspects of this project are just beginning! The archaeology field school is part of a 3rd year course in Anthropology ‘Field Methods in Archaeology‘ that teaches students how … Continue reading →

The last few days on Ahuahu Great Mercury Island were hectic and the weather was not particularly obliging. We had intense heat, then rain and strong winds from the north west with our dune excavation was in its direct path. … Continue reading →

Today we opened a test pit (a 1x1m hole) in a new excavation area. It was a place that was selected near the beach for its unnatural flat plateau, and was run with the geophysical survey a couple of days … Continue reading →

The garden site excavation has finished and Thegn has gone back to Auckland. Simon Holdaway has arrived to direct excavations in the second week. Simon’s interests are in lithics (stone tools) and formation process (how the tools got to where … Continue reading →

After six days of digging we finally got our first day off, with a fantastic sleep in till 7:30am! Our great Pa adventure started at 10 am where we were driven to the outskirts of Tamawera Pa. While waiting for … Continue reading →

After several days of excavation, I can confidently say that I am enjoying myself! Starting out my first day of excavations, we opened a 1×1 metre test pit across a section of the stone alignments, in the garden zone. After … Continue reading →

Excavations are well underway. Today was fine and very warm, and an improvement on the steady rain yesterday. Although we had shelters over the excavation areas on Day 2 the soil was very wet and water was seeping through the … Continue reading →