 I will give you an insight of the archaeological fieldwork that is done in Christchurch to this day as a result of the earthquakes in 2010 and 11 and of 2016. So where are we? Although this is an European annual meeting I'm talking about Christchurch which is in New Zealand which in turn is on the other side of the world. First I will give you a bit of a background before we talk about the archaeological tasks and the results. Despite the fact that New Zealand has always been an area of earthquakes given the tectonic setting along the edges of the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate and that Christchurch already got hit before it came as a surprise when two earthquakes shattered the city. They were not the most devastating earthquakes in New Zealand history though. In 1931 the Hawkes Bay earthquake, Hawkes Bay is up here, completely destroyed Napier and affected nearby settlements. Nevertheless the earthquakes had an impact on Christchurch and its people to its presence. The first earthquake that left its mark was in September 2010 where the center of eruption was in Darfield about 40 kilometers to the west of the Christchurch city center in a depth of 10 kilometers. So Darfield is here. Visible breaks in buildings and destabilization of foundations have been noticed and plans were made to improve buildings to resist seismic eruptions with better conditions. Those plans could not be realized since the devastating earthquake of February 2011 happened too early. Here the epicenter was much closer to Christchurch, literally just at the southern rim underneath the port hills and just five kilometers below the surface. So the port hills are about here. There are aftershocks daily and many thousands since the 22nd February 2011. Not only Christchurch was affected, also the town of Ashburton 80 kilometers away was hit too, but not so heavily. In between there is a lot of farmland free space where not so much damage could have been caused. So Ashburton is about here and so here you see again the first epicenter in September 2010 and the second one right here in February 2011. So these were the aftershocks that came. There were thousands of them, most of them you do not feel. The result of the roughly 25 seconds of shaking earth was 185 casualties, damaged, destabilized or completely destroyed buildings and a city that was left limping. The entire CBD area was affected and additionally thousands of private homes east and northeast of the city center. So the CBD area is about here and this entire area was pretty much affected. Some were able to be repaired but many had to leave their homes for good. The homes uninhabitable due to houses close to collapse and already demolished buildings. Plunder and a rising rate of crime were recorded. So here again this is the CBD area and this was the red zone. It was completely closed down and couldn't enter. In addition the earthquake caused a process which is called ground liquefaction. That happens when a mix of sand and water are under pressure and pushed to the surface because of soil movement. So here's the area which has been affected by liquefaction as well. Entire blocks with houses and cars sank into the mud. Unfortunately most of Christchurch was built on sand and that was pretty much the worst point on it. So I'm just going to show you a few pictures. This is how liquefaction looks like. So you see the cars are sinking into mud like this. This is the red zone. It is completely empty or it was fenced around. You see the buildings here. They are not straight up again. They are sort of moving towards each other and you see the same. This is the Cathedral of Christchurch. The major tower tumbled down which has been at the front here. There was the tower. On the left you see rakes in the facade. On the right you see the facade only which has been left and helped stabilize by constructing containers. No idea what that building was. It was just an awful sight to see. Another little church which was devastated. Other buildings which were partly damaged. That was the Catholic Cathedral with the image how it once looked like before up in front. This was a cinema. This is in front of the Christchurch Cathedral where you see other problems like water rising in the middle of the city centre. So you have to figure out how to deal with that. Since a lot of demolition is going on there is a lot of free and empty spaces in the city centre of Christchurch. At the time two archaeological consulting companies are involved with the observation and documentation of demolitions. Those buildings which could not be restored which were heavily damaged or close to collapse had to be torn down. Some of them were built pre-1900 so they had to be documented as well as it was possible before demolition. Mostly the demolition of foundations were documented as well, especially in the residential area. Most foundations were merely 20 centimetres deep if they were not sitting on top of the ground at all. With the removal of buildings the focus of the archaeologists were in supervision of foundation demolition, the analysis of finds and the writing of reports about the documentation. In contrast to, for example, Germany, the reports are published in New Zealand and available online or on request per email. First buildings were demolished without any archaeological monitoring. That changed in winter 2011 when buildings built pre-1900 needed an archaeological permission. These permits were issued by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust which today is heritage New Zealand. This institution supervises all legal affairs concerning archaeological sites. These permits are necessary to destroy damage or change location which might be of archaeological significance. Such a permit involves conditions which regulate the way of documentation. They also state the necessity of writing a report of the archaeological work no matter if something was found or not. Here as well the absence of an archaeological record or artifact as a scientific result. The city council itself has no legal saying when it comes to the archaeological sites although they work close together with heritage New Zealand in case they need to announce a possible destruction of an archaeological site because of demolition or construction works. To get into the red zone as seen before, the entire CBD area was closed with construction fences. You needed an identification card. This ID is issued by CIRA, the Christchurch earthquake recovery authority. There are checkpoints which you have to pass. You were checked and able only to drive where the demolition site was you were working at. Every time I knew there was a safety briefing on site. Earthquakes were recorded daily, most of which you would not notice so there was still a continual occupational hazard. What is it all for? The demolition of foundations are observed to check if there's anything of historical or archaeological interest underneath them. Focuses on the European settlement pre-1900 and Maori relics. In case of a letter, in case the letter is recovered, the local Iwi in Christchurch they would be the runanga, would be informed this is the tribe if you want to say so from the Maori which is located in Christchurch area. They will send a representative to supervise the continuing work together with the archaeologist. The cooperation between archaeologists and the local Maori is close and of mutual understanding. Most of the settlement sites of the Maori are known and holy places are untouched. It happens relatively rarely that the delegate of the tribe needs to come to special tasks. All Maori artefacts, taonga toturo or honoured objects, are surprisingly legally property to the British crown. In case those objects are found the runanga are informed and can claim kaitiaki which means protection or guardianship to such a taonga. European artefacts are legally possession of the property owner. The archaeologists are working close together with the property owners to produce an efficient long-term storage for the artefacts founded on informative value and importance of the collection. Some buildings are demolished while an archaeologist is present. The building gets documented. A few details like certain elements or parts of the decoration are recorded and some of them are claimed for storage after demolition. So here a few archaeologists are already working on foundations of demolished buildings before they are taken out as well. These include also storage buildings, warehouses and buildings or areas of industrial use. Now and again the working conditions for everybody not only for the archaeologists but also for the construction companies become more complicated in especially industrial areas. Where we in Europe rarely have to deal with contaminated areas as for example plague victims on cemeteries here building parts or interior or the ground itself might be contaminated with poisonous materials. These are mostly either asbestos or diverse types of hydrocarbon. Work gets harder for one might has to document dig or take examples and protection gear wearing gas masks and using limited equipment with direct sun reflection and temperatures with 35 degrees or more. Many artifacts were documented and disposed of locally especially organic material could not be taken away. Other materials like glass needed intensive cleaning as did the equipment which sometimes only partially possible or not at all which is why the equipment usable is limited. The archaeologists suffer due to heat and limited breathing through the masks themselves. Communication amongst the archaeologists as well as with people from the construction companies while wearing the mask is also difficult as you can see here in the picture. In case artifacts are found they are both local productions and imports from overseas. For Kiwis it represents a rich archaeological value and product culture of the own history. The Europeans might be reminded on the contents of the grandmas vitrina. Decorate China where as tableware or figurines smoking pipes pocket watches or bottles rich in variety of shape and size signed or not signed decorated of glass or stoneware are part of the inventory material. Among those important bottle imported bottles made of stoneware was one from the Duchy of Hesse Nassau which partly is modern state Hesse in Germany where I'm from. Today it seems strange to import water bottles from Germany or water from Germany since New Zealand can be proud to have the cleanest water resources in the world. Compared to the artifacts of most of the archaeological disciplines in Europe the corpus of artifacts can be dated exactly to the year of production due to productions design or stamp of the manufacturer. The reader need to bear in mind that the artifact is generally limited to the 19th century. At the end of the 18th century a few wailing stations have been established which were inhabited by wailers and the families. Those were mostly temporary and concentrated to the northern island. New Zealand has been settled by Europeans on a regular basis only since the 1820s. Therefore the time frame is just about 80 years although of course inherited pieces like jewelry could well be from the 18th century and among the finds. When it comes to media and the public despite the circumstances and the tension involved political disagreement as well as the sad side of damaged buildings and ruins and empty streets right in the city center every day the public meets the archaeological works as part of the situation with interest and open-minded. To get informed there's a webpage on Facebook a blog a small exhibition at the local library and presentations among interested community circles. Once a year there's the Christchurch City Council Heritage Week where an exhibition is set about the actual situation the archaeological reports made so far can be viewed at the seismic webpage. Also the media reports about the archaeological work mostly about special finds and the circumstances of their discovery. Apart from there there are also more general appearances at the media in newspapers or at the radio for example at the press or the radio in New Zealand. What are the future prospects? The observing of demolition works and the excavations continue to the day and probably will for the next few years. Therefore the construction works are not done yet it is not only buildings roads bridges cables and canals were damaged too and nearly a neat renovation. There's still earthquakes in Christchurch although most of them pass and nearly unnoticed. Most of the CBD area shall remain without constructions and be changed to recreational areas. In many areas the ground is not suitable for construction anymore due to the liquefaction the ground is too unstable to carry buildings. Also now there are special demands in construction for example to build not too close to the river Avon. Furthermore Japan is used as a role model and ways of construction are copied for example the use of massive steel anchorages in the ground. This is possible only under some circumstances. Provisionals were built for example for the closed-down stadium or the collapsed Christchurch Cathedral. In the case of Christchurch the disaster did not have an impact on archaeological sites as in as in endangering them but because of the disaster archaeology can actually happen. Thank you very much for your attention.