Tuesday, August 21, 2018

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—The Age reports that the archaeological investigation at the site of a new subway station on Swanston Street, one of the city’s original nineteenth-century thoroughfares, has uncovered a half-million artifacts, along with more than 1,000 human teeth. Buildings that once stood on the site housed a girls’ school, a hotel, and a hardware store. The artifacts include clay pipes, glass bongs made from beer bottles for smoking opium, a jet earring modeled after Queen Victoria’s mourning wear, a child’s slingshot, and a bone-handled fork. Many of the teeth had massive cavities, and are thought to have been pulled by dentists who had offices on the block. Most of teeth were found in the sediments or in pipes, suggesting they were flushed or washed down drains. To read about excavations at Pentridge Prison, in the Melbourne suburbs, go to “Alone, but Closely Watched.”