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Preliminary report on graves disturbed in a trench at Greenpoint Kimberley

 

28 July 2004

 

It was discovered on 27 July that a trench for sewerage had been cut through the east end of an old pre-1886 cemetery north of Dutch Reform Road, Greenpoint, Kimberley.

 

The first inspection was conducted by Mr David Morris and Ms Johlene May after earth-moving equipment had been spotted near the known cemetery area. Human remains were found scattered on the dump alongside the western-most trench at the new housing development site. About a third of the trench had been completely filled in and the rest had been partially filled to cover the drain pipes that are already in place. The discovery was reported immediately to officials of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, SAHRA, and the Municipality. A follow-up visit was made by Mr David Morris and Mr Vincent Dinku (McGregor Museum staff) to assess the impact in more detail.

 

It was found that the graves extend about 150 m from Dutch Reform Road northwards. At least three graves were exposed 1.5 m in from a lamp post at the road. The next approximately 70 m of trench and presumed grave disturbances have been filled in completely. A distal femur and other bone fragments were located on the surface here.  Beyond this point the trench clearly cuts through about 26 graves that lie length-wise parallel with and on both sides of the trench. Loose skeletal material scattered on the adjacent dump was measured in and lifted. In two instances severed crania are visible in the sections, less than a metre from the surface.

 

Contact was made with Mr Christopher Anthony, Community Lands Officer, who provided details of project personnel. Mr Alex Philander, the contractor, was informed. On 28 July Mr Morris and Mr Willie Swiegers (Sol Plaatje Municipality) met on site and inspected the project plans. It had been believed that the proposed development lay well to the east of the historic burial ground. Burial grounds are indicated on a map of the area dating from 1886.

 

It was agreed that the eastern extent of the graves would have to be determined and the planned adjacent development might need to be changed accordingly. The investigation would not be able to proceed until SAHRA has issued a permit. Mr Gerrit de Bruyn of the Sol Plaatje Municipal Planning Department indicated that it was a matter that needed to be addressed by the Legal Department, but that the official concerned, Mr Billy Anderson, was out of town until later in the week.

 

It is anticipated that the following actions should take place:

 

  1. Mapping and assessing the extent of the disturbance of graves.
  2. Recovery of human remains from the dumps alongside the trench and on the surface where the trench has already been filled in, for dignified reburial.
  3. Rescue of human remains in the sides of the trench for dignified reburial.
  4. Assessment of the eastern-most extent of the cemetery by way of scraping the surface (the tops of the graves should show up clearly).
  5. Concurrently, a process of community consultation and participation in the rescue.

 

A contract would need to be concluded ahead of any work on this site that clearly spells out responsibilities and procedures.

 

 

 
 

 

FIRST REPORT ON THE RESCUE OF HUMAN REMAINS FROM BURIALS DISTURBED BY DEVELOPMENT WORK AT THE OLD BURIAL GROUND, GREENPOINT, KIMBERLEY

 

8 December 2004

 

David Morris and Elizabeth A Voigt

McGregor Museum, Kimberley

 

 

Introduction

 

During the excavation of trenches for services in Greenpoint in January 1995 a number of burials were revealed and some of the remains retrieved (see report by Voigt, Jonk and Barbour 1995). The remains were extensively damaged. They were re-interred at a ceremony at Greenpoint on 24 September 2004. Archival research  showed that the soccer field along Dutch Reformed Road where the trench was dug covered a cemetery dating from 1880 until 1913. Alignment of the old maps and the new plans was not easy. When work on the new phase of housing proceeded earlier in 2004, no impact assessment at this highly sensitive area was carried out, and a similar situation arose with a major trench cutting through a line of perhaps fifty or more graves. Half the trench was filled in again before it came to the attention of the Provincial Heritage Unit and the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), who halted development at the trench site at the end of July 2004.

 

In terms of the South African Heritage Resources Act (25 of 1999) the disturbance of burials that are older than 60 years and are outside a demarcated cemetery must be subject to investigation by an archaeologist and in terms of a permit issued by SAHRA. Upon advice of SAHRA, the McGregor Museum met with the legal representative of the Sol Plaatje Municipality on the procedure to be followed, and signed a permit application in the first week of August. After long delays at Sol Plaatje the permit application and contract agreement were signed by the Acting City Manager, and a permit was issued by SAHRA on 15 November. The Museum was given responsibility and authorisation for the investigation and rescue of the remains, and the second author, who is a qualified archaeologist, was contracted to supervise the undertaking.

 

A team of persons, mainly Kimberley community members, several of whom have previous experience in disinterments, began work on site in November.  Prior to this, Mr Morris had walked over the disturbed area and plotted and retrieved human bones from the surface of the dumps on the north eastern side of the trench.  It was therefore decided that the dumps would have to be sieved for remains at the same time that the graves were investigated and rescued, as necessary.

 

Procedure

 

The field team was put to work immediately sieving the dumps. This is an enormous and not very exciting task which requires trained eyes and a great deal of patience.  The dumps consist of large quantities of broken shale (the country rock) mixed with grave contents and the overlying soils.  A lot of animal bone has been retrieved from the transverse trench described below, and a small amount of human remains have been found in the dumps which have so far been processed.

 

In the week of 15th November the field supervisor (EAV) plotted the position of 25 graves visible in the section of the trench which had not been backfilled.  A long section of the trench had already been back-filled; graves there would have been disturbed and severely damaged, and some bones had been retrieved from the surface in that section. Work was then begun at the north western end of the trench, where the dumps were being sieved, systematically investigating and rescuing what remained of the damaged graves.

 

The grave fill was removed until bone was found, then trained excavators took over and uncovered the skeletons.  Once fully exposed, each skeleton or part thereof is measured three dimensionally and photographed before it is lifted and packed into a box for transportation to the Museum for further assessment and temporary storage prior to re-interment as per discussions with the community (community consultation on this cemetery has been under way since November 2003, mainly in relation to the reburial of the remains rescued in 1995). The excavation of the skeletons is extremely difficult as the bone is in a very fragile condition and breaks up into splinters as the skeleton is uncovered.  In addition, all the skulls found so far have been totally crushed.  This is not easy to explain, with one possibility being that a roadway ran above the graves at some stage. It could also be that the grave fill, being mainly broken shale with little in the way of clay or sand matrix was less inclined either trickle into bone cavities and/or to consolidate around the outside.

 

Preliminary findings.

 

The cemetery is not aligned as others have tended to be on an east-west axis, so that in this case the majority of graves lie south-east to north-west, with two crossing north-east to south-west. In the trench dug in 1995 all the graves lay north-east to south-west.

 

It was initially assumed that the majority of the skeletons had been extensively damaged and that complete skeletons would be the exception.  However, at the time of writing this report, only two of the graves were found to have been truncated to such an extent that the skeletons had themselves been impacted. In the rest, while the grave had been cut open down one side,  the skeletons survived almost intact.  The depths of the graves differs; so far most are less than a metre below the original ground surface.  This corroborates contemporary reports on the cemetery, in which comments were made concerning the shallowness of the graves.  It also correlates with what was found in 1995.

 

Nine graves have so far been examined and work on seven of them has been completed. Two of the graves on the south-western side of the trench each contained three skeletons.  One grave on the north-eastern side originally contained two skeletons, one of which was mostly destroyed by the trench digging operation.  One other skeleton on the north-eastern side has been mostly disturbed by the trench - only the left arm and leg remained in the grave.  Thus the nine graves have yielded the partial or complete remains of 14 individuals. 

 

Several of the skeletons have associated grave goods in the form of iron and copper bangles.  This is consistent with what was found at the excavations outside Gladstone Cemetery (2003) and is a strong indication that the burials are of Black persons, probably migrant mine workers. Old plans and maps (1886 and 1899-1900) show that the cemetery was divided into two, referred to as “Malay” and “Native” (terminology from 1899-1900 map).

 

A major concern is the need to define the northern edge of the cemetery.  To this end, a transverse trench three metres wide has been dug northwards from the trench in the vicinity of Grave N7.  The trench has been cleared to bedrock.  A lot of bone and glass was found in an ash deposit lying across one section, but no signs of any graves were found.   In addition, the remains of an iron fence post, set in concrete but corroded off at ground level, was found in the north-eatern wall of Grave N9.  We believe that this was probably one of the fence posts of a boundary fence of the cemetery (the fact that it intersects the edge of the grave is an indication that it was erected after the grave was dug and possibly when the cemetery edge was no longer clearly known). It is singularly unfortunate that the trench has gone through the last two lines of graves in the cemetery. At the south eastern end of the trench, at Dutch Reform Road, another two lines of graves were observed to run north-east of the trench. It is possible that the trench runs at a slight angle from the alignment of the rows of graves; or that additional rows of graves exist at that lower corner of the cemetery.

 

The higher than expected number of skeletons needing to be rescued, coupled with the very poor state of preservation of the bone (which necessitates extreme caution), is slowing down the excavation procedure. We have four excavators working on the skeletons with one field assistant opening up the grave to “bone level”.  The rest of the team of twelve is occupied in sieving the dumps.

 

Continuation of work

 

The investigation and rescue of the graves as required by the National Heritage Resources Act is going to take considerable time.  The operation will close down temporarily on 22 December until the beginning of the new year. In January, work will recommence and will concentrate on the dumps.

 

The material at the Museum will be examined by a specialist in order to define age, sex, population affinities, health status and any other information that would help restore dignity to the individuals whose remains and graves were disturbed by the trench. This work will begin in the new year and run concurrently with the excavations.  All fieldwork is subject to the weather; if we experience heavy rains in January and February this will affect the work programme.

 

McGregor Museum

8 December 2004
 

 

Skeleton smashed by vandals

 

An archaeological rescue of human remains at Greenpoint has been dealt a savage blow by vandals who climbed into the trench over the weekend (13 February 2005) and smashed a skeleton that had taken several days to painstakingly prepare for careful recovery.

 

The matter has been reported to the police, and the iron implement that was used to damage the bones has been removed to try to obtain fingerprints.

 

The remains, which were disturbed by development work in July last year, are being rescued in terms of the provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act. Public meetings concerning disturbances of old unmarked cemeteries took place in Greenpoint last year and in February this year. The latest vandalism shows that some people have scant regard and certainly no respect for human remains. McGregor Museum staff and community members who are part of the team are putting enormous effort into ensuring that human remains are afforded the greatest possible dignity.  

Once the investigation is complete they will be reburied. It is also important to ensure that these burial grounds are not disturbed again in the future. A memorandum from the community in September 2004 requested that the area be declared a protected provincial heritage site.

 

 

 
 
   
 

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