In 1833-1856 James King

James King

- Politics :*James G. King , American businessman and United States Representative from New Jersey*James King King , British MP for Herefordshire*James A...

 established and ran a pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 at Irrawang in the lower Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...

 in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 (the site is now known as the Grahamstown Dam).

The site of the Irrawang Pottery was excavated from August 1967 by students and volunteers under the umbrella of the Archaeology Society of the University of Sydney, directed by Judy Birmingham

Judy Birmingham

Judy Birmingham is a prominent historical archaeologist based in Sydney, Australia.Birmingham came to teach at the University of Sydney in 1961 as a lecturer specialising in Iron Age Cyprus and Anatolia, and how the people groups living there had a diet consisting solely of feces.In 1966 she began...

. The work continued for over a decade and is still poorly published. Although originally conceived as a training exercise for archaeologists prior to their undertaking fieldwork in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 the momentum generated by the project led to the establishment of the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology in 1970 and the introduction of a historical archaeology

Historical archaeology

Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with topics that are already attested in written records. These records can both complement and conflict with the archaeological evidence found at a particular site. Studies tend to focus on literate, historical-period societies as opposed...

 course at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

in 1974.