New Zealand Archaeology Week

The first New Zealand Archaeology week was held on 1 April 2017 and coordinated by the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA). It is now celebrated in the final week of April.

Archaeology Week is celebrated annually through a series of nationwide talks, community events and displays designed to increase public awareness and highlight the importance of protecting our heritage.

Events are hosted by a variety of consultant archaeologists, museums, heritage organisations and iwi. A complete list of these events can be found on the NZAA Archaeology Week homepage.

Aotearoa’s historical record may be short by old world standards, but we have a rich heritage of archaeological sites both in Wellington, and across the country.

The Wellington City Council (WCC) Archives holds a collection of selected Excavation monitoring and building Archaeology reports, completed in fulfilment of archaeological authorities granted by Heritage New Zealand, relevant to items held in other collections within the Archives. The original items from our collections are referenced in the reports. The reports themselves relate to sites within the Wellington City Council administrative boundaries.

As an example of our collection in action, the archaeological report on the Wellington Hospital redevelopment can be explored below; including maps and historical photographs used in the development of the report.

The Thomas Ward survey, which has been used extensively across the reports, is a map of the central city completed in 1892 and contains valuable historical land information. Images from our collection can show us what the hospital building looked like from as far back as the 1800’s, and the archaeological monitoring report provides a thorough summary of all information collected on the site across a variety of collections, archives and agencies, including a fascinating rundown of specific artefacts unearthed on the site.

The series links will provide more contextual information on the monitoring reports and our wider heritage collection.