The Star: May 10, 2018

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Thursday May 10 2018 27
Our People
Kirsa Webb
Digging up the city’s history
Underground Overground archaeologist Kirsa Webb
says there has been a boom in archaeology since
the earthquakes. She talks to Julia Evans about
what a day looks like excavating sites and some
of the cool things she has dug up
What does a ‘normal’ day
look like for an archaeologist?
Well, basically we get jobs that
get called in all the time. At the
start of the day we might not
know if we’re going to a site or
not unless we’ve been on a site
the previous day. Most of our
jobs are quite short term so we
go to a site in the morning for
half the day and that’ll be it.
Most of our work is monitoring
construction and demolition of
buildings around the city. You’ll
start out, come to the office, and
by about 10am, you get a call out
to go to a site. You really have no
idea what your day might look
like when you arrive to work.
What happens at a site?
We’ll go to the site and
have a look at whatever the
contractors have found and
sort of determine the age of it,
when it was deposited, and try to
figure out what the context was
as well. How it was deposited, by
whom, whether it was a domestic
deposit or commercial, just
anything like that. Sometimes
you might get just an individual
fragment of glass or an
individual bone or it might be
something more substantial like
a whole rubbish deposit. Even
with rubbish we’re right in there
– if it’s pre-1900 rubbish, we’re
all over it.
What kind of things do the
artefacts tell you?
It tells us a lot about pre-1900
life in Christchurch. Basically
if it’s a domestic deposit it
could tell us how people lived
their lives while they were at
home, what sort of food they
were eating, what sort of class
they fitted into, what sort of
tableware they had, things like
that. Whether or not there were
children on the site. Quite often
we find artefacts that are related
to children and I’ve
got some children’s
artefacts here. They
might include
a little tea set
or children’s
plates with
stories
on them.
Sometimes we
find clothing
items and shoes,
we can tell what
clothing they
wore. We can
tell what sort of
fibres, whether
the items were
fashionable
and where they
sat in society.
That’s the whole
point of it. Just
to learn more
about society
and culture in Christchurch in
the 19th-century.
What are some of the coolest
things you have found?
We always get asked this
question, every time. We
do find some really cool
stuff. It depends, though.
All archaeologists have their
favourite items to find. For
me, smoking pipes are usually
quite cool. They’re cool to
look at, nice to handle, a lot of
them have really cool looking
designs on them as well. In
the shape of heads or fish or
animals. We have found quite
a few cool pocket watches. Of
course, they’re not as nice as
they once were. They’ve been in
the ground for more than 150
years. In terms of artefacts, we
also might find one individual
bottle from a country overseas
that we’ve never found anything
from before. It might be quite a
mundane artefact, but because it
HISTORY: Kirsa
Webb with some
of archeological
artefacts she
has found
in the city
after the
earthquakes.
PHOTO:
MARTIN
HUNTER
comes from somewhere other
than England or Australia, that
makes it an incredible cool. It’s
all about context. I’d be pretty
stoked if I found any of those on
a site.
How did the earthquakes
impact archaeology in
Christchurch?
There was definitely a boom.
There’s always been legislation
in place to protect archaeology
and pre-1900 sites. But prior to
the Christchurch earthquake,
everyone claimed ignorance
or did not know that there was
legislation. When CERA, and
later Otakaro, came in, they
heavily supported that legislation
through their managed demolitions.
Our company came in
right from the start and worked
with CERA to see that their obligation
under the legislation was
met. So we worked very closely
just after the earthquake to manage
their work and make sure all
the archaeology was recorded as
things were either demolished or
excavated. The earthquake, while
horrendous, has been a great
opportunity to study our city. If
we hadn’t had the archaeologists
on site from the get-go, all of the
context and history would’ve just
been lost. I’m sitting in my office
and there’s about 1000 boxes of
artefacts, there’s another one or
two storage containers
just filled with
artefacts. There’s huge
amounts that have
been discovered.
Are there any sites from
around the world that you
would love to study?
When I first started at university,
I really wanted to be able to
research ancient
hominids,
ancient
humans.
But gradually
I got
side-tracked
into historical
archaeology.
The first papers
you take at
university go through ancient
human history. I wanted to do
that but to get to Africa can be
quite difficult. You have to pay
to volunteer onto an excavation
site and it can be quite hard to
get into the country sometimes.
When I first started I thought
that would be quite cool, roaming
around Africa looking for
human remains.
How did you end up being an
archaeologist in Christchurch?
Archaeology is my second
degree. There weren’t many jobs
around when I graduated, so I
went to work in retail and on
orchards. Then the earthquakes
happened. I was literally sitting
in my supervisor’s office about
to go back to university and
start my master’s. But he said
don’t you want to go and work in
Christchurch. A couple of weeks
later I was here and I’ve never
left. I was only offered a couple
of months work; we thought
everything would be over in two
years. I just haven’t left. It was a
great opportunity to get handson
experience. I’ve built a career
out of archaeology in the city.
Have you always been
fascinated with history?
Where I grew up on the
Otago Peninsula, there’s a
whole landscape of Victorian
dairy farms. I was a free-range
child, so I would just spend
afternoons and weekends
roaming around and looking at
these old buildings. I’ve always
been interested in the history of
communities.
Is your family interested in
history?
My parents aren’t especially
interested in history, but my
uncles have researched our
genealogy and history. My
father’s family is from Lyttelton.
They were quite well-known –
Webb Lane was named after my
family. There were three brothers
and each of them served as
mayor in Lyttelton over the late
19th-century. It is really cool to
go back and research the history
of your family as part of your
job. We’ve done a lot in Lyttelton
but haven’t been physically on
any of their properties. We have
done work on one of their farms
that they leased.
What other hobbies do you
have?
I’m pretty heavily involved in
bonsai at the moment, which
is kind of still digging up old
things – it’s just old trees. That’s
my main other passion that isn’t
archaeology. I go outside and
spend time with my tree when I
get home. Watering, re-potting,
pruning, there’s a lot of work
that goes with having a bonsai
tree. I’m a member of the bonsai
club. It’s quite a big thing in
Christchurch, there are two
bonsai clubs. We recently had a
display at the garden show and
it’s our club’s 50th anniversary
this year. Otherwise, I’m a bit of
a sci-fi fan, when I get time – I
just finished Lost in Space.