WEST TOODYAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION - BONE

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1860

Subcollections

Overview

Part of West Toodyay Archaeological collection.
Fragment of bone collected before formal excavation of archaeological site on property of S. Thom (1860s cottage ruin).
Fragment of femur or shoulder blade, likely sheep.
Clean cut on one side indicates animal was butchered.

Historical information

Retrieved from property on Toodyay West Road, West Toodyay. Part of a group of five items retrieved from this site and donated to the Shire of Toodyay museum collection, per accession numbers 2012.31 - 2012.35 inclusive.

In late 2011, Sean Thom from West Toodyay approached the Shire of Toodyay enquiring about some historic ruins on his property, which he believed to be remains of an old bakehouse. Unfortunately, the landowners attempted some excavation of the site themselves, but with the help of the Shire’s Heritage Officer a small excavation was mounted in January 2012. The excavation was performed by students from the UWA Archaeology Society under the supervision of professional Archaeologist Sean Winter, who had previously directed excavations at the Newcastle Convict Depot in 2010. The purpose of the excavations was to determine the date range for occupation of the building, any functions the building might have served and the likely extents of the sub surface remains across the block.
The excavations were a success, with a range of material found at the site.

In February 2012, Sean Thom again approached the Shire with some additional archaeological material that was found in the surface demolition layer of the site (i.e. a layer of rubble from the demolition of a structure that fell onto the surface
of the ground and was left undisturbed, forming a new layer). This demolition area had been partially excavated by the archaeologists but eventually left for future digs as the rubble required a larger team to shift and the demolition layer
contained little to no spatial patterning of artefacts. The landowner was advised to wait for any future professional excavation opportunities however the material was donated to the museum collection as part of its archaeological reference
collection.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-37-2012.31

Item type

Objects

Themes

Social History

Material

Bone

Width

35 mm

Height or length

85 mm

Depth

5 mm

Contextual Information

It is believed the site where this material was found was originally Lot R44 on Toodyay West Road granted in 1857 to James Forbes, who built a substantial brick house containing four good rooms. One room was fitted up as a store.
Forbes, who had arrived as an Enrolled Pensioner Guard in 1851, earned a good living as a storekeeper and carrier enabling him to purchase other properties nearby.
He sold his store in 1868.

Year

1860

Statement of significance

The value of the West Toodyay archaeological collection lies in the research value as a group rather than their individual representativeness and rarity. While the items were not collected as part of a structured excavation in the presence of professionals the items were collected from a specific area that had already been considered disturbed by the demolition of the structure.

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Shire of Toodyay

Organisation Details
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