宅男导航

To celebrate National Archaeology Week (17-23 May), this week we're sharing five images, and the stories behind them, from our archaeology books. For more on Archaeology Week, including an impressive line-up of online events, head to and follow on Twitter. You can see all of our archaeology titles .

Archaeology in 5 pictures, no. 1: Absinthe bottle, Melbourne, c. 1870

This absinthe bottle was found in a rubbish pit in Little Lon, aka the Commonwealth Block, in the north-eastern corner of Melbourne鈥檚 CBD, at the site of a shop run by Alicia Bond.

听

From 鈥淒iversity and Change in Little Lon鈥� by Sarah Hayes and Barbara Minchinton, in The Commonwealth Block, Melbourne by Tim Murray et al. , part of the Studies in Australasian Archaeology Series. Photograph by Bronwyn Woff via Museums Victoria.

鈥淢rs Bond was an Irish widow who first came to public notice in 1862 when she was reported as running a 鈥榙isreputable house鈥� in Stephen (Exhibition) Street. Her (at that time) de facto husband, William Bond, had been attacked by her son from her previous marriage, and her evidence at the trial revealed that her husband barely worked, and 鈥榮he could not see her children starve, and had at first taken in washing, and then had to keep a brothel to support the family鈥� (The Argus, 30 April 1862: 5).

鈥淢rs Bond was raising three children in this manner until her drunken, violent husband died of tuberculosis in 1863. Then she began accumulating assets; she first bought a two-roomed cottage off Lonsdale Street 鈥� Within a few years she had purchased three more houses in Lonsdale Street; two were rented to sex workers, but she turned the third one into a grocer鈥檚 shop. The historical records represent it clearly as a genuine shop, but a close inspection of a rubbish pit on the lot supported McCarthy鈥檚 conjecture that the site was used as a brothel (McCarthy 1989: 129).

鈥淭he pit was distinctive with regard to artefact types and distributions: it contained a large number of champagne, imported spirits and absinthe bottles, and over 300 oyster shells (McCarthy 1989: 126) 鈥� The absinthe bottles (representing 28% of all beverage storage bottles from the pit) were particularly noteworthy, given their absence across the rest of Little Lon. The only other deposit which yielded absinthe bottles was the cesspit on the same lot. Absinthe, or 鈥榯he green fairy鈥�, was an alcoholic drink with a reputation for being hallucinogenic; it was available from the 18th century but reached new heights of popularity in bohemian Paris in the late 19th century, coinciding with the timing of Mrs Bond鈥檚 occupancy of lot 30.鈥�

This bottle also featured in the Old Treasury Building's exhibition in 2018.

For more images from the digs at Little Lon, explore the .