Rotorua's Nikolaus Cox has helped dig up history while holidaying in Spain.
In early July, the former Western Heights High School student joined ArchaeoSpain, an educational and archaeological organisation based in Connecticut, United States and Madrid.
He took time off in Spain before heading to university for academic study.
According to ArchaeoSpain director
Mike Elkin, Mr Cox and his team helped uncover both an Iron Age/Celtic necropolis and defensive walls dating back to the 5th century BCE at the settlement of Pintia in Valladolid, central Spain.
Mr Elkin said the team of archaeologists and archaeology students from the United States, Spain, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand excavated one tomb belonging to the Vaccean culture and also excavated a moat around recently discovered Roman city walls.
"After the Romans conquered the city and had no use for the moat, they filled it in and used it as a trash site. For us, that material is priceless information on how these ancient people lived.
"The Pintia participants learned excavation and surveying techniques, plus how to treat and catalogue artefact," Mr Elkin said.
"Nik and his co-workers have learned not only how to conduct an excavation and how to interpret the archaeological clues discovered, but they have experienced Spain away from the tourist traps and visited some amazing historical sites," he said.
In the past few years the organisation has uncovered more than 200 burial sites at Pintia. Research in the area is helping investigators understand better the social organisation of the pre-Roman people of the region.
Mr Elkin said in recent years ArchaeoSpain had assisted in major discoveries at various sites in Spain and Italy, including the excavation of Clunia, the largest Roman theatre of its kind in Spain and a Byzantine settlement on the island of Mallorca.
Mr Cox is still enjoying his holiday and could not be contacted by The Daily Post.
