Latitude Heritage Projects

Hope and Anchor Hotel Archaeological Excavation, Nipaluna/Hobart

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 03:49:35 GMT

An early public house in a fledgling colony

Please check back here regularly as our excavation progresses!

Maxwell River Valley Survey and Recording, Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

Wed, 10 May 2023 21:09:29 GMT

Pleistocene (ice age) Tasmanian Aboriginal occupation of one of the world's great archaeological 'provinces'

Previously excavated and recorded rock shelter sites in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) provide evidence of Tasmanian Aboriginal habitation over thousands of generations from at least 35,000 years Before Present (BP) to approximately 16,000 BP, preceding and spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (24,000BP to 18,000BP). The TWWHA is considered one of the world’s great archaeological ‘provinces’, containing a number of Pleistocene (ice age) Aboriginal heritage sites with similar characteristics. This ‘province’ provides a southern hemisphere comparison to better-known Late Pleistocene sites in sites in Europe (DPIPWE 2017:9). Ochre markings on the walls of some rock shelters and bone, charcoal and stone tool assemblages within the rock shelters provide insight into a period when lutruwita/Tasmania was much cooler than it is today, and an open, alpine environment existed where wet, dense forests now stand.

Latitude Heritage Pty Ltd was engaged by Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania (AHT) to assist with assessing and recording rock shelter sites within the dolomite karst system along the Maxwell River Valley in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA). Adding to existing knowledge about the distribution of sites and their characteristics (without excavation) will assist AHT in better understanding, managing and protecting the cultural heritage values of the TWWHA into the future.

Services provided:

- Archaeological survey

- Site assessment and recording

- Remote site work

For more information please see the literature review and synthesis report prepared by the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment in 2017:

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/aboriginal-heritage-twwha.pdf

An Early Industry Spanning the British Empire

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:32:31 GMT

Bone disc button manufacture at Anglesea Barracks, Hobart

Bone disc button manufacturing debris has been recovered at archaeological sites in eastern North America, the Caribbean and Australia. Generally dating to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, these provide evidence of a widespread and early industry associated with British colonial military, slave and convict sites. Dozens of archaeological sites internationally and within Australia, often prisons, alms-houses and British military sites, provide evidence of bone disc button manufacturing.

Cattle ribs and scapula were most often used for bone disc manufacture, though in the Caribbean turtle shell carapace pieces (the underside of the shell) were also used. The ribs were cut into rectangular segments and split lengthwise (using heavy-bladed implements such as a machete, cleaver or hatchet), creating two pieces with cancellous (spongy) bone on one side and smooth, cortical bone on the other. Once the bone pieces were prepared, hand-held braces or centre bits (referred to as ‘button bits’) were used to extract the discs. Unsuccessful extractions and broken discs were often left in place and discarded (as shown in the image above) (Klippel and Price 2007:133-135).

Salt beef, a staple of the British colonial military and naval forces overseas, was often barrelled in pieces no greater than 8 pounds in weight, which is consistent with a 150mm long-rib segment from a side of mature cattle. Cattle ribs cut into 150mm to 200mm pieces were recovered from the 1841 shipwreck of the William Salthouse, further suggesting that long-ribs were used for salt beef. Stable isotope analysis of bone disc debris from Brimstone Hill Fortress, St. Kitts, found that the cows had been raised in England and eastern North America. The pieces used for bone disc manufacture likely originated in barrels of salt beef which had already travelled overseas to feed the colonial population (particularly military personnel and those under government control) (Klippel and Price 2007:133-135).

Bone disc buttons provide a tangible connection between British colonial foodways and early colonial clothing and uniforms

The bone disc button manufacturing debris pictured here came from beneath the Second Soldiers Barracks (Officers Mess) at Anglesea Barracks, Hobart. Bone buttons recovered in the same context are also pictured. Buttons, thread and needles were often issued to convicts to enable them to fix their own clothing, and presumably a similar process occurred with military personnel. Sew-through buttons were used on slop clothing issued to clothe convicts, civilians and military personnel when off duty, used as fixtures on trousers, shirts, jackets, undergarments and frocks (Stocks 2008:36). Buttons 18mm, 14mm and 11mm in diameter were made using these bone pieces, and no good portion of bone appears to have been wasted, as multiple rows of disc extraction are visible on at least two of the pieces recovered. The larger 18mm buttons would have been used for coats, jackets, pyjamas and trousers, while the remaining buttons would have been used for underclothing, waistcoats and shirts (Lyndbergh 1999:51).

Single hole bone discs were often also used as ‘molds’ for cloth or thread-covered buttons. Military garments from the same period are often depicted with buttons of the same material as the clothing they are attached to, suggesting that the bone discs may have been used to make buttons for military uniforms (Klippel and Price 2007:138-139). Some of the hundreds of fabric scraps recovered from the same place as the disc-making debris underneath the Second Soldiers Barracks at Anglesea were likely used to cover the button discs and clothe the burgeoning population of soldiers in Hobart and Van Diemen’s Land more broadly.

Bone disc buttons illustrate the interconnectedness of British colonial settlements, in terms of diet, clothing practices and movement of people

Bone disc-making debris, or ‘button blanks’, were recovered from underneath the floorboards of the Second Soldier Barracks (Officers Mess) at Anglesea Barracks, Hobart, alongside hundreds of textile pieces, scraps, old leather boot pieces and leather offcuts. The bone discs and buttons may have originated as food scraps from the salt-beef rations imported by the British government to feed military personnel, convicts and in some cases civilians.

The single-hole bone discs were lik ely used for military uniforms, while the three, four or five-hole bone buttons may have been issued with (and on) government-issued ‘slops’ clothing provided to convicts, civilians and military personnel to wear while off duty. These artefacts provide a connection to a widespread and early form of industry operating at military, prison and slave sites across the former British empire.

References

Klippel, W. E. and B. E. Price (2007), 'Bone Disc Manufacturing Debris from Newfoundland to Antigua During the Historic Period', in Bones as Tools: Current Methods and Interpretations in Worked Bone Studies , edited by C. G. St-Pierre and R. B. Walker, BAR International Series 1622, 133-142.

Lindbergh, J. (1999), 'Buttoning Down Archaeology', Australian Historical Archaeology , 17:50-57.

Stocks, R. (2008), 'New Evidence for Local Manufacture of Artefacts at Parramatta, 1790-1830', Australian Historical Archaeology , 26:29-43.

Private Thomas Lennon's Jacket Collar, Anglesea Barracks, Nipaluna/Hobart

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 02:19:05 GMT

Manslaughter, dishonourable discharge and transportation for life

Thomas Glennan, a private in the 63d regiment, was…charged with the wilful murder of James McCabe of the same regiment, by stabbing him in the left breast with a knife on the night of the 2d October, of which wound McCabe died. ( The Tasmanian , 2 November 1832, p. 6)

Private Thomas Lennon, labourer, tailor and soldier, came from Breaghwy, County Mayo, Ireland. He enlisted with the British military in April 1821 and embarked for NSW on 31 March 1829 before being stationed in Avoca, Van Diemen’s Land, from June 1832. Lennon formed part of the 63rd Regiment as part of Company No. 1, the grenadier flank company. Soldiers in this company were generally the tallest and strongest in the regiment, leading assaults. The ‘G’ stencilled on the collar beside '63rd Reg' presumably reflects his role as a grenadier.

Lennon and other members of the 63rd Regiment, stationed in Avoca (a lso referred to as ‘St. Paul’s Plains’) were drinking that day at the Greys’ Arm public-house. Between 9pm and 11pm Lennon was found lying drunk on the ground with two constables, all three men having overconsumed and taken to the floor for a rest. As Lennon’s colleagues from the 63rd Regiment tried to rouse them and return to the barracks, Lennon became quite irritable, demanding that they ‘let him alone, or if they did not, he would stick the first of them that came nigh’. Their failure to listen proved fatal:

… immediately after he scrambled on his feet, and drew a clasp knife out of his pocket, with which he inflicted a wound on the deceased, whereby he died. On receiving the wound, the deceased ran a few yards and fell. Morrill, one of the witnesses, having cried out, ‘McCabe, he has stuck you,’ the deceased exclaimed, ‘Oh yes,’ which were the last words he ever spoke; that on conveying him back to the public-house, he opened his mouth twice and then breathed his last… ( The Tasmanian , 2 November 1832, p. 6)

Lennon immediately expressed his regrets and sorrows, asking his companions to shoot him on the spot. Lennon and McCabe had always been on good terms with no quarrel or malice between them. Given the lack of malice and an excellent character review from Lannon’s commanding officer, the jury found him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, saving him from execution. Lennon was given a dishonourable discharge and sentenced to be transported for life to Hobart, though he was then sent to Norfolk Island.

The name ‘Lannon’ is a known variant of ‘Lennon’ in western Ireland, and ‘Glennan’ seems to be a misconstruing of that name. The collar from a hand-stitched brown wool jacket lined with coarse white cotton found underneath the second Solider Barracks at Anglesea Barracks in Nipaluna/Hobart, Lutruwita/Tasmania, belonged to Private Thomas Lennon, part of the grenadier flank company in the 63rd Regiment. It is likely that the collar was deliberately torn off Lennon’s jacket as part of the dishonourable discharge and finding it has provided a tangible connection to this woeful tale of unfortunate circumstances and poor judgement.

Thanks to Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart of Digital Heritage Tasmania and his colleagues at Biographical Database of Australia for connecting the soldier to the jacket. Thanks as well to Dr Kate Hibbert, Department of Defence, for finding the account of Lennon's trial.

Anglesea Barracks, Officers Mess, Archaeological Investigations

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 05:47:33 GMT

A surprise find of early colonial garments and footwear

A tradesman found a selection of leather shoes and textile pieces beneath the Officers Mess at Anglesea Barracks, a building constructed in 1827 as the ‘New Range’ Soldier Barracks, the second constructed on the site. Assessment of these artefacts identified that they dated to the early colonial period and represented a range of rare objects reflecting early convict, military and civilian footwear and garments. A mass of leather and textile offcuts, as well as extensive patching, mending and partial deconstruction of many artefacts themselves, suggested the presence of a tailor and cobbler in a workshop mending clothing for distribution, their workshop likely pre-dating the 1827 Barracks itself.

Objects remaining beneath the building were, however, at risk of damage from regular underfloor access and ingress of water and waste from sewerage pipes in the space. Latitude Heritage Pty Ltd was engaged by Ventia Pty Ltd, on behalf of the Department of Defence, to collect surface artefacts in a systematic manner and protect the site with geotextile and sand, ensuring its ongoing security and safety. Latitude Heritage also catalogued and analysed the resulting artefact collection, providing new insights into what was, at first appearance, a pile of rags and leather scraps.

The artefacts recovered provide evidence of the early colonisation of lutruwita/Tasmania and critical shortages of clothing and footwear supplies in the fledgling settlement. Research on the collection is ongoing by our Director, Dr Jennifer Jones-Travers, with the Army Museum of Tasmania. The collection remains at Anglesea Barracks within the Army Museum of Tasmania and will be the subject of a new interpretive display.

Services provided:

- Archaeological investigation

- Artefact cataloguing and analysis

- Collections significance assessment

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery - Watergate Wall and Bond Store, Archaeological Services

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 06:31:04 GMT

Hidden vaults beneath the Bond Store courtyard and museum entrance

Latitude Heritage was engaged by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to complete archaeological monitoring of works to install steel structural supports to stabilize the Watergate Wall following damage to the wall in 2018 as a result of extreme weather events. Monitoring was completed to satisfy the conditions of a permit issued under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995 (TAS).

Monitoring works provided evidence of vaulted storerooms built between 1823 and 1826 during construction of the Bond Store, later demolished and left beneath the ground surface of the Bond Store courtyard. Two vaulted storerooms were excavated into an escarpment that formerly extended across the Hobart waterfront, the same landform being site to some of the town’s earliest colonial settlement. The storerooms were constructed on sandstone foundations with twin brick-arched roofs, measuring a combined 12m long and 13m wide.

A series of brick wall footings related to a mid-nineteenth-century outbuilding was also excavated and recorded during monitoring. The brick wall alignment created four small internal spaces identified, possibly cesspits or privies used by staff at the Customs Bonding House. Demolition deposits within the brick wall footings included large quantities of roof slate, suggesting that the long, linear outbuilding abutting the Watergate Wall featured a slate roof. Fragments of mud and lime render with a coat of beige-coloured milk or chalk paint provide evidence of more of the materiality of this outbuilding. The outer wall of the Bond Store facing the courtyard still bears marks of the building’s former roofline, providing a glimpse of its height and profile.

Services provided:

- Archaeological monitoring

- Artefact cataloguing and analysis

- Post-excavation reporting