Our bones, our teeth, our hair, are all made out of basic chemical elements. These elements pass from the soil, to growing plants, to the food we eat and into our bodies. By following this pathway backwards, researchers can learn where and how people lived through analysing chemical isotopes from their tissues.
Drybread cemetery in Central Otago Photo: Supplied
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This is what research fellow Dr. Charlotte King, of the Department of Anatomy in the University of Otago, is involved in, focusing on reconstructing the lives of some forgotten people.
She is part of the Southern Cemeteries Archaeology project – a group of researchers working with local communities who were concerned about unmarked graves related to the gold fields of central Otago.
The project has run over several years and has involved excavations of unmarked graves at several cemetery sites in Milton, Lawrence and Drybread. Once human remains are recovered many lines of evidence are used by the team to reconstruct where these people came from and how they lived.
The aim is to learn about them, and life in the Otago gold fields, before they are reburied in marked sites. Charlotte uses chemical analysis to uncover clues as to where the people were from and what kinds of food they ate.
The Southern Cemeteries Archaeology project is co-lead by Prof. Hallie Buckley and Dr. Peter Petchey. The excavations at Drybread cemetery were done in consultation with, and permissions from, the Drybread Cemetery Trust and Leslie and Maisie Wong of the Otago-Southland Chinese association.