Greymouth fossickers returning artefacts

21 June 2012

MEDIA RELEASE

Greymouth fossickers returning artefacts

New Zealanders are an honest bunch – that’s the recent experience of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) after offering an amnesty to fossickers who return finds from an archaeological site – the former site of Selwyn Traders – in Greymouth.

“Two lots of artefacts have already been handed in to the Greymouth Police, including 16 pieces of worked pounamu that seem to date from the nineteenth century, and an intact bottle and pieces of ceramic,” NZHPT Archaeologist Dr Matthew Schmidt said today.

“The pounamu has definitely been worked and some pieces look as though they may have been worked with ‘modern’ tools, although modern means from the 1800s.”

Mawhera Incorporation, who are working closely with the NZHPT, collected the artefacts from police and delivered them to the Hokitika Museum. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage will register the pounamu as taonga under the Protected Objects Act 1975 and determine who will ultimately have ownership of the pieces.

“We’re really pleased with the success of this initiative and want to acknowledge the honesty of the people who have already handed items in.”

The NZHPT hopes to invite those people, and anyone else who hands in artefacts from this Greymouth site, to a future archaeological dig to help them learn about the importance of leaving artefacts where they’re found.

“We learn so much when archaeologists are able to view artefacts in situ. Critical information is lost when they’re removed, and the more people learn about the work we’re doing and why it’s important, the greater the likelihood that they’ll avoid disturbing archaeological sites.”

Anyone who suspects they have found an archaeological site should contact the NZHPT. An archaeological site is defined in the Historic Places Act 1993 as any place associated with pre-1900 human activity, including shipwrecks, where there is evidence relating to the history of New Zealand that can be investigated using archaeological methods.

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