David Morris, Karen van Ryneveld and Elizabeth Voigt
April 2004
(Text from conference poster)
Trenching for storm water drainage in April 2003 inadvertently cut through 145 graves in an unmarked burial ground outside the present Gladstone Cemetery, Kimberley. There had been no prior impact assessment.
Not within a demarcated cemetery, and older than 60 years, the graves and displaced human remains were subject to the provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act.
The particular capacity of archaeology to elucidate the circumstances surrounding the unmarked burials, and questions of biography and identity at the individual level (though we shall never know names), has been underscored by this project. Preliminary findings will be greatly augmented once physical anthropological investigation has been completed.
Our investigation began in tandem with archival research and community/oral history inputs. Much information on the cemetery itself was obtained from Kimberley people, but little was directly relevant to the graves in question. (Some local community members had believed that the graves were of "Skotse soldate" - Scottish soldiers).
Archival sources gave important background information (some of it crucial for dating the graves), but the matching of incomplete cemetery records with particular graves and individuals was not possible (Swanepoel 2003).
Community participation
Community consultation is a requirement of the Act: the question here was - which community? Information was disseminated broadly via various media to the citizens of Kimberley and beyond. Response by people claiming knowledge of the cemetery was sporadic and in not a single instance was any direct link asserted.
Altogether more meaningful, however, was the drawing in of (mostly unemployed) members of the public from across the city to participate in the investigation. In the process those who lacked any specific skills were given basic training in archaeological fieldwork. Team members brought their particular perspectives to the investigation and contributed to communication (informed by personal experience of some of the methods and objectives of archaeology) with the many visitors to the site. The core group of community participants now forms a team which is called upon from time to time to help in CRM and research. In this way the Gladstone project has also resulted in a modest level of poverty alleviation. The attainment of these skills was recognised by the presentation of an appropriate certificate by the McGregor Museum.
Key dates
1883 Gladstone Cemetery officially proclaimed. For "some time" previously it was used for (approx 1500) "native" burials (Swanepoel 2003).
Size of cemetery in 1883: 7.2843 ha.
1900 Cemetery closed; 1902 Cemetery re-opened for "European Interments" (Swanepoel 2003).
1998 Survey plan of demarcated cemetery (Swanepoel 2003):
Size officially now only 3.6234 ha.
What happened to the remainder of the cemetery? In part, residential units were built over graves (residents confirmed this with reports of finding skeletal remains). Further unmarked graves (we now know) lay on the eastern side of the cemetery, and the original cemetery fence line has since been traced.
2003 Trench dug in municipal servitude on the eastern side of the cemetery, cutting through 180 m of unmarked burial ground. Earth from the trench (with human remains) dumped on old slimes dam site about 1 km away.
Preliminary findings
Once the permit was issued, two tasks were addressed:
* Trench contents had been removed to a dump about a kilometre away: human remains from there were retrieved.
* The major focus was the damaged graves within the trench, of which 15 were investigated in detail.
The 15 graves yielded more than 100 skeletons, while further remains of skeletons damaged by trenching machinery added to the sample. Although a few graves contained only one individual each, most had between six and ten skeletons, and as many as 14 were recovered from one of the graves.
At first it was thought the graves represented some disaster event such as an epidemic or a catastrophic mining accident. As work proceeded, however, the complexity and variability of the graves became apparent. It was realized that they represented many different kinds of individual events, reflecting both disease and accident trauma (and possibly also interpersonal violence), as might be expected from an early Kimberley context, where death rates were high by late nineteenth century standards.
A large proportion of the skeletons appeared to be of young mature males; their bangles, glass beads and copper ear-rings suggesting African cultural affinities. Many of them were probably migrant workers. In addition, the bones of two infants were found, and a still-born foetus.
Most of the corpses had been wrapped in sacking or blankets, while a small number were buried in coffins. There may have been some form of burial rite conducted at the graveside in some instances, but in the majority of cases, where bodies had been piled in carelessly one on top of another, it is hard to imagine much, if any, attendant ceremony.
There is evidence that many of the bodies had come to the cemetery via a hospital. Several skeletons showed surgical procedures, including amputations of limbs and some autopsies. Remains of medical dressings were also found.
Archival evidence suggests the graves may be quite tightly bracketed to the period between 1897-1900.
The graves had been dug through a thin veneer of surface rubbish midden, which should thus predate circa 1897.
Re-interment
In public meetings in 2003 it was proposed that re-interment be within the trench from which the skeletons had come. Support was given for physical anthropological investigation (commencing in August 2004) in order to obtain as much information about individuals as possible. The graves represent a part of Kimberley history that was all but forgotten.
Acknowledgements
Particular thanks to our team: principally, Koot Msawula, Kobus Saaiman, Bafana Ndebele, Petrus Wilson, Jane Joubert, Roger Bosch, Sandra Dodd, Bellin Hoffman, Abraham de Wee, Willem Eland, Stephen Seleku, Jacqueline Phetheni, Tanja Kruger, Vincent Dinku, Nomalinde Msuthu. Sunet Swanepoel conducted archival research. Sephai Mngqolo recorded consultation proceedings. We also thank members of the public who came forward with information and advised us in community meetings. We acknowledge the help of Sol Plaatje Municipality (the developer), McGregor Museum director and staff, SAHRA, De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd, and local press, radio and TV.
References
Morris, D. 2003. Salvage and investigation of graves disturbed outside Gladstone Cemetery, Kimberley. Second Interim Report, on behalf of the team working on this project. Unpublished report, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, July 2003.
Swanepoel, S. 2003. Gladstone Cemetery, 1880s to 1900s: archival report. Unpublished report, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, July 2003.
