Medicating Miners: The Historical Archaeology of the St Bathans Cottage Hospital

Abstract

This research examines the nature of health care provision in Central Otago during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century through an archaeological and historical investigation of the St Bathans cottage hospital. Material excavated from a cesspit on the hospital site has provided the basis for a detailed investigation of the practice and provision of medical care in the settlement and surrounding district from the early 1890s until the 1920s. The information derived from analysis of the archaeological assemblage has been combined with documentary sources to provide a comprehensive illustration of medical and domestic life at the cottage hospital, with an emphasis on the relationship between the dual function of the building as a domestic residence and medical institution. This has, in turn, been used to explore the way in which the cottage hospital interacted with its wider social and geographical context on a local, national and international scale, including how that context influenced and was adapted to the day to day operation of a small health care institution in rural New Zealand.