Anne McConnell - Archaeologist

Anne McConnell is the archaeologist with the 2007-08 Mawsons Huts Expedition. Anne has worked as an archaeologist since the late 1970s, initially in Aboriginal archaeology and later in historical archaeology. Anne currently works as a consultant, but until 1995 she worked for the government. Anne also has an earth sciences background and has worked in the area of geoarchaeology, using geological expertise to solve archaeological problems such as reconstructing paleoenvironmental conditions, materials analysis (eg, ochres, bricks) and sourcing stone tools.

Anne has worked on a variety of archaeological sites, mainly in Australia but also in New Zealand, Jordan and France. Anne's main interests as an archaeologist are in heritage management and the archaeology of remote and rural areas and industrial and scientific based sites. Sometimes these interests come together, for example in 2003 when she and a small project team prepared a conservation management plan for the Sarah Island convict settlement in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania; recording historic gold mining sites; or through current work developing management systems for the historic cultural heritage of Wellington Park, which is the backdrop to Hobart; or through being involved in a project such as the conservation of Mawsons Huts, Antarctica.

This year at the Mawsons Huts sites, Anne will be working closely with the materials conservator, Michelle Berry. The main task is to evaluate the work that has been done to date in terms of recording and analysing the site, primarily the artefacts inside and outside the five buildings left by Mawsons 1911-1913 Expedition, and to provide recommendations on the priorities and approaches to ongoing artefact excavation, recording and preservation. Although a considerable amount of work has been undertaken in the last 20 years and there is now a management plan for the Mawsons huts site, there are still many questions about how to best preserve the artefacts associated with the site, and because of the ice and snow cover inside and outside the huts there are still many artefacts that have not yet been documented. Since c.1997 a lot of the conservation work at Mawsons Hut site has concentrated on the preservation of the main buildings and now that this has been largely achieved, there is time to focus more on the artefacts associated with the site. As well as helping understand the Site and how Mawsons team lived and worked at Commonwealth Bay, the artefact recording and evaluation is useful in determining the sensitivity of the site. From this information, Anne will be zoning the main huts area into areas of various archaeological sensitivity which will be used to help guide tourism at the site, including by identifying those areas which are sensitive to trampling and other damage and which should be avoided. This is particularly important as visitors to the site (tourists, casual visitors and scientists) have the greatest potential to damage the site, and it is important that the impacts of visitation can be kept to a minimum to ensure the site survives for others to visit in the future.