One skull leads to another in cliff-side find

Press, 3 September 1977, Page 6

One skull leads to another in cliff-side find

A human skull found sticking out of a cliff-face on Lyttelton Harbour brought unexpected excitement to a farmer and his [ family this week. The skull was uncovered [ on Thursday by John Stapleton-Smith, aged 16, while gorse-cutting on his i father’s farm at Camp Bay. It w’as lodged about 25ft 1 down the cliff, below’ a pro- . montory knoum as Cemetery Point. The family were at a loss about what to do. Yesterday morning they tele- ' phoned the Mount Herbert County Council, u’hich ad- • vised them to get in touch with the police. Just before noon yes- [ terday policemen from Lyttelton began excavating round the skull site, using . grubbers borrowed from ( the farmer. They pared the soil back to the rock-face and in the 1 process found a second . skull. Both skulls are in ■ near-perfect condition, said i the police, and had been i sent to Christchurch for ' date analysis. | Camp Bay served as one , of Lyttelton’s earliest quar-

amine stations. About 70 persons are believed to have been buried on Cemetery Point between 1763 and 1877. The skulls recovered yesterday lay directly below the old burial ground. The police suspect that they may have been carried by erosion during the last two winters. Apparently, most of those buried on Cemetery Point were immigrants and sailors who had suffered and died from typhoid, cholera, and a variety of other shiphoard diseases. The Stapleton-Smiths hope to retrieve the skulls once the police tests are completed, and “give them a decent burial.”