Archaeology: Material Culture

This database is a research tool for archaeologists (and others) interested in ceramics recovered from sites in New Zealand. Such items are useful for researchers for dating sites and identifying those potteries supplying the colonies during the Victorian era.

We are a museum of social history dedicated to telling the story of the people of Dunedin and the surrounding area, whose character, culture, technology, art, fashion and transport shaped New Zealand’s first great city. Our fourteen-themed galleries feature interactive displays and powerful narratives tracing the human history of the area, from the earliest settlers to the most recent arrivals.

The Museum is owned and operated by the Port Chalmers Historical Society Incorporated which was formed in September 1913 as the Port Chalmers Early Settlers and Old Identities Association. It is an entirely volunteer organisation and relies for its income on entry fees, donations modest grants from local organisations and profits from sales. The Museum is housed in the former Port Chalmers Post Office building. opened in 1877, and is registered as a category 1 historic building by Heritage New Zealand.

The dendroglyphs (tree carvings) of the Chatham Islands were first cataloged in depth by Christina Jefferson between 1947 and 1956 at the urging of her advisor at the Canterbury Museum. Jefferson attempted the first complete record of these dwindling artifacts of Morioriculture.

Te Papa's Collections Online has information on almost 800,000 artworks, objects, and specimens from Te Papa’s collections; from dinosaur teeth to contemporary art, buzzy bee to Xena. The Collection is of Fishhooks including (Māori taonga / taoka)

All newspaper articles and advertisements are from Papers Past - National Library of New Zealand or Trove - National Library of Australia unless otherwise stated. I am not able to provide any information about photographers other than that on this site. I am also not able to date photographs or assist you in identifying people in photographs you may have.

The Historical Photography Collection began from the early days of the Colonial Museum and consists of photographs taken by staff as well as collected photography. It was primarily taken and collected as illustrative material for the various research interests of the Museum.

The Photographic Archive was started in the late 1930s and forms part of the Alexander Turnbull Library collections. Find out how to access images in the Photographic Archive, how to get copies and highlights of the Photographic Archive.

The Hocken Collections / Uare Taoka o Hākena is home to a significant collection of photographs with a particular focus on Aotearoa New Zealand’s people and places. What you see here represents just a small sample of our extensive holdings.

There are over seventeen thousand people buried in this cemetery. Most of these folk led normal everyday lives until they finally succumbed to the rigours of time and old age. Medical practice was not as well developed as it is in the twenty first century and many ailments could neither be diagnosed nor treated and so others died prematurely as a result of flu epidemics, complicated childbirths and unknown causes.

The Southern Cemetery in the New Zealand city of Dunedin was the first major cemetery to be opened in the city. The cemetery was opened in 1858, ten years after the founding of the city in an area known as "Little Paisley". The cemetery had separate sections set aside for Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Roman catholics, as well as a Jewish section.

The present cemetery was established around 1866, at the time Lawrence was proclaimed a municipality. The old cemetery on the hill on Ardrossan Street behind the Commercial Hotel was closed in 1867 and the consent of relatives of persons interred there was obtained to allow the remains to be moved here.

A once remote location the Symonds Street Cemetery was established in 1842, when Auckland was the capital of New Zealand, with a population of 2000. At that time the area was out beyond the town limits, and the location was considered appropriate for a cemetery because of the wide, sweeping views. Land was set aside for burials from 1842, with each religion given a seperate area. To the east of Symonds Street facing towards the harbour were the Anglican and Weslyan burial grounds. To the west of Symonds Street were the Jewish, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic areas. In 1905 the Cemetery was closed and given to Auckland City Council as a public park.