Unveiling the Past: Salvaging Brisbane's Early History
In the heart of Brisbane, a young woman, Emily Totivan, is engaged in a unique puzzle, piecing together fragments of the city's early days. As an archaeology student, she is part of a team working to catalog artifacts from the early 19th century, a time when Brisbane was transitioning from a penal settlement to a river port capital. The artifacts, including ceramic shards from dinner plates, offer a glimpse into the genteel life of the era, with intricate blue and white patterns depicting Chinese-inspired scenes.
Totivan, like many of her peers, is part of a new generation of archaeologists who are not only interested in the past but also in touching it. Despite popular culture's fascination with Indiana Jones-style tomb raids, many of her fellow students will go on to work in major cities, unearthing and examining artifacts like these blue China plates. Brisbane is on the brink of a salvage archaeology boom, with the city preparing to host the 2032 Olympics. This will require digging up vast quantities of soil, including at a heritage-listed park, to make way for new infrastructure.
Elisha Kilderry, another 19-year-old student, is working with a different set of ceramic shards, bearing a geometric design. Initially, she imagined her career would take her to Europe or remote Indigenous cultural heritage digs in Australia, but she finds herself sifting through the William Street assemblage, a collection of quotidian fragments from the 1870s, 80s, and 90s. The artifacts, ranging from clay pipes and rum bottles to ceramic dolls and bone toothbrushes, offer a surreal connection to the people who once lived on the same street.
The William Street assemblage was not unearthed by excavation but was instead discovered during the 2011 floods, when a burst water main dislodged tens of thousands of artifacts. The University of Queensland Archaeological Services Unit (UQASU) worked alongside emergency crews to salvage the most unusual or noteworthy items, providing insight into the everyday life of the era. Despite the artifacts' violent dislocation from their resting place, they hold little scientific value, but they were acquired by the museum for more emotive reasons.
The physical and local appeal of archaeology is evident in the experiences of students like John Duckett, who previously volunteered for a dig on a bronze-age brewery in Norfolk, England. Duckett, who enjoys playing video games and looking at Instagram, finds the hands-on nature of archaeology more appealing than the digital world. The artifacts, with their weight, texture, and smell, offer a tangible connection to history, making archaeology as much a physical pursuit as an intellectual one.
