Solder scavenging from hole-and-cap food cans in the Western Australian goldfields

Identifying site modification processes

Bibliographic Data

ID11955720
AuthorsRoger Bateman (0000-0003-1630-7907, The University of Notre Dame Australia, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume90
Issue3
Pages347-357
Publication date2024-07-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0312-2417 • E-ISSN: 2470-0363
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03122417.2024.2381259
OpenAlexW4401034317
LanguageEN
References cited10

Site modification via large and dense can dumps dating from the gold rushes of the 1880s and later in the Western Australian goldfields may profoundly affect the archaeological interpretation of these sites. A can dump has been examined in the abandoned campground of Muslim cameleers that dated from the 1892 gold rush to after the First World War. Here, can dumps comprising hundreds of cans, stacked up and in mutual contact and without other artefacts such as bottles, were not all the unmodified remains of meals and camps of transient people. This work presents a geochemical technique applied to soil samples around these dumps, showing high levels of tin and lead contamination, inconsistent with the underlying geology and similar to the composition of the solder used to seal the cans. This is consistent with the written reminiscences of a family supplementing its income by scavenging solder from hole-and-cap food cans over the period 1894–1909. This process of site modification by solder scavenging must be considered before food-can distribution patterns can be interpreted in terms of primary site occupation

Archaeology · Geography · Gold rush · Metallurgy · Mining engineering · Seal (emblem · Soldering · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Materials Science · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology

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