Investigation of unmarked graves at Drybread Cemetery shifts to new stage

A gravestone at the Drybread Cemetery in Central Otago. Photo / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes

By RNZ

After uncovering 20 unmarked graves at the 150-year-old Drybread Cemetery, researchers will now shift their focus to building a picture of the deceased's lives.

"I suspect that the original township as it would have existed in the mid-1860s is quite deeply buried. So we know where it was but I don't think we'll ever get to where it was," Petchey said.

Despite that, he hoped to return later this summer to search for more evidence of it.

"One of the things with archaeology is you tend to raise as many new questions as you answer.

"There's more questions to go and answer, so I'd like to go back later in the summer and dig a few more holes if possible."

"We were able to identify two of the Chinese people from the names still on the coffin plate and [find] tantalising clues about another of the Europeans - the only female we found, actually," she said.

About a year's worth of work would go into researching all those who were exhumed.

During the month-long dig, co-director Peter Petchey also searched for the settlement which lent its name to the cemetery, but only a few clues were unearthed.

Petchey said he located glass, ceramics and evidence of structures that would have scattered around the diggings in the 19th century, but not the settlement itself.

The month-long excavation finished earlier in December.

Drybread, north of Alexandra, was an 1860s gold rush settlement.

The cemetery dates back to that time, but is still in use today and the fear that future planned burial plots may already contain remains led to the excavation.

The dig's co-director, Professor Hallie Buckley, said 12 graves were exhumed including six Chinese people and two infants.

- RNZ