Callan Park discoveries

On a recent trip to Callan Park I happened upon this section of earth being slowly worn away by the elements. For those of you not familiar with the site, Callan Park is a significant public space in Sydney spanning 61 hectares in the Inner West, and littered with buildings which formed a large complex used as a hospital and insane asylum from 1878 to 1994, before housing Sydney College of the Arts. You can read more about it here. Even with my non-archaeologist’s eyes I could see the clearly defined layer of ash, and the compacted and distinct layers of rock and rubble both above and below. The dating of archaeological strata is completely outside my area of expertise: for all I know these are the remnants of a building fire, old picnic barbeques, ashes dumped from the old asylum kitchens, or something older again. I took a few snaps out of curiosity and forwarded them on to a friend who works in the field.

The word has come back that these may indeed be the remnants of a midden, and need further investigation. Regardless of what they are they form part of the history of the site: history is not always ‘old’ just yet, and sometimes more recent remains need to be studied and preserved. The shots have been forwarded to the appropriate authorities. I’ll keep you all posted on the results.