Convict artefacts from the Civil Hospital privy on Norfolk Island.

The archaeology a/the penal settlernent a/NO/folk Is/and;s a substantially untapped source ofil?formalion aboul cOf/vict life. as revealed by the assemblage of artefacts excavated in J987 from the Civil (convict) Hospital privy (in use c./845-/855). Artefacts such as syringes, medicine cups. cupping glasses, medicine and alcohol bottles, clay IObacco pipes, buttons, toothbrushes and hair combs; and doclfmen/GlY reports of life in the flospiwl, reveal aspects of the material circumstances, daily activities and medical care of the convicts. They allude to the convict experiences qfI!fe, health, disease, pain Gnd death in the Civil Hospital. They represent aspects ofofficial control and the disciphning of the convict hfes~yle and body, the types of nulimefltGJJ! treatments to which convicts were exposed and theforms ofconvict resistance and reactions to the discipline imposed upon their lives. Such themes are presented as important jar expanding our understanding ofthe convict experience in Australia.