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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—9 News reports that well-preserved coffee beans were among the artifacts recovered from the site of a general store in Melbourne during archaeological investigations conducted as part of the Metro Tunnel project. When the store burned down during the Gold Rush in the 1850s, more than 500 coffee beans were carbonized, along with imported English biscuits, fruit, and other perishable goods. Deputy Premier of Victoria Jacinta Allan quipped that the coffee beans show that the beverage has long been important to Melburnians. To read about excavations of a nineteenth-century prison in the Melbourne suburbs, go to "Alone, but Closely Watched."
