Archaeology
New horrors unravelled in the story of the Batavia shipwreck

The story of the Batavia shipwreck is one of the most haunting tales of survival against a group of mutineers committing horrendous acts and atrocities.
The Batavia was the flagship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), built in Amsterdam in 1628 and launched on her maiden voyage that same year to obtain spices from Batavia (the ship’s namesake) in the Dutch East Indies.
The ship was commanded by Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as the skipper. According to an account written by Pelsaert, Jacobsz, along with Jeronimus Cornelisz and several men, plotted a mutiny to take the ship and steal the supply of gold and silver onboard.
Jacobsz is alleged to have deliberately steered the ship off course and had his men sexually assault a prominent passenger, Lucretia Jans, who was travelling to join her husband in Batavia.
Jacobsz had hoped that this would provoke Pelsaert into severely disciplining the crew causing an uprising, however, Lucretia was unable to identify her attackers and the incident was dropped.
On the 4th of June, 1629, the ship foundered upon the reefs of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off the western coast of Australia. Of the 322 aboard, most of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore to present-day Beacon Island, although 40 people drowned.
Pelsaert and Jacobsz left the marooned ship in the hope of reaching Batavia to form a rescue party. In their absence, Cornelisz was elected to lead and commandeered all weapons and food supplies.
He started to terrorise the remaining survivors, forming a gang of mutineers that murdered and raped, with Cornelisz using Lucretia as his own personal sex slave. In total, the mutineers murdered at least 110 men, women, and children.
Upon Pelsaert and Jacobsz reaching Batavia, Jacobsz was arrested for negligence, while Pelsaert was giving command of another ship to rescue the survivors. After arriving back at Beacon Island, he discovered that a bloody massacre had taken place.
Pelsaert conducted a trial and sentenced the worst offenders to be taken to Seal Island and executed, while Cornelisz and several of his henchmen had both their hands chopped off and were hanged.
Beacon Island burials – Image Credit : The University of Western Australia
An archaeological project led by archaeologists from the University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum has unravelled new horrors in the story of the Batavia shipwreck, revealing 12 of the victims buried in a mass grave, single and multiple burials, as well as evidence of the struggle between the survivors and mutineers.
The study, published in the journal Historical Archaeology, has used underwater findings in combination with archaeological evidence on land to understand the behavioural responses of survivors, including their initial movement from the wreck to nearby islands, the struggles they faced, and the shifting power dynamics among mutineers and survivors.
Lead author Professor Alistair Paterson, from UWA’s School of Social Sciences and the Oceans Institute, said: “The excavation of human remains reveals insights into the treatment and burial practices of victims. Notably, centrally located graves on Beacon Island suggest a functioning graveyard, potentially representing victims from the early days following the wreck.”
“Other islands within the vicinity, such as Long (Seals) Island and West Wallabi Island, provide evidence of makeshift weapons, the presence of resistance factions, and structures associated with the survivors. The landscape on Long Island contains a concentration of iron fastenings believed to be the gallows site where mutineers were executed, reflecting the company’s attempt to establish order,” added Professor Paterson.
Future research in a new ARC Project ‘Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories’ involves further forensic analysis of the human remains, including physical assessment, stable-isotope technology and DNA studies and new historical research.
The University of Western Australia
Header Image Credit : State Library of New South Wales – Public Domain
Archaeology
Clusters of ancient qanats discovered in Diyala

An archaeological survey has identified three clusters of ancient qanats in the Diyala Province of Iraq.
A qanat, also known as a kārīz, is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well over long distances in hot dry climates without losing water to evaporation.
Qanats use a sequence of vertical shafts resembling wells, linked by a gently inclined tunnel that serves as a conduit for channelling water. Qanats efficiently transport substantial volumes of underground water to the surface without requiring pumps.
The water naturally flows downhill by gravity, with the endpoint positioned at a lower level than the origin. When the qanat is still below ground, the water is drawn to the surface via water wells or animal driven Persian wells.
Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
Some Qanats are divided into an underground network of smaller canals known as kariz, functioning similarly to qanats by staying beneath the surface to prevent contamination and evaporation. In certain instances, water from a qanat is stored in a reservoir, usually with nighttime flow reserved for daytime usage.
The technology for qanat’s first emerged in ancient Iran around 3,000-years-ago and slowly spread westward and eastward.
A recent survey within the Diyala Province has discovered three clusters of qanats stretching between the areas of Jalulaa and Kortaba. Initial studies dates the clusters to around AD 1000, a period known as the “Iranian Intermezzo”, when parts of the region were governed by a number of minor Iranian emirates.
The first cluster consists of 25 wells on a linear alignment connected to an adjacent 10 metre deep water channel. The second cluster also has 25 wells and is connected to a 13 km long hand dug channel, while the third cluster consists of 9 wells connected to water canals dug on both sides.
Header Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeology
16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling found in La Garma cave
Archaeologists have discovered a 16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling in the La Garma cave complex, located in the municipality of Ribamontán al Monte in Spain’s Cantabria province.
The La Garma cave complex is a parietal art-bearing paleoanthropological cave system on the southern side of the La Garma Hill.
The cave complex is noted for one of the best preserved floors from the Palaeolithic period, containing more than 4,000 fossils and more than 500 graphical units.
A project led by Pablo Arias and Roberto Ontañón from the University of Cantabria has recently announced the discovery of a Palaeolithic dwelling within the cave system, described as “one of the best preserved Palaeolithic dwellings in the world.”
The dwelling is an oval space and is delimited by an alignment of stone blocks and stalagmites that supported a fixed structure of sticks and skins leaning against the cave wall. The total area of the space is around 5 square metres that centred on a camp fire.
Archaeologists also found vestiges of various daily activities associated with Magdalenian hunters and gatherers at the dwelling, including evidence of stone manufacturing, bone and antler instruments, and the working of fur.
In total, over 4,614 objects have been documented, such as dear, horse and bison bones, 600 pieces of flint, needles and a protoharpoon, shells of marine mollusks, as well as numerous pendants worn by the cave dwelling inhabitants.
Additionally, the researchers also found a number of decorated bones, including a remarkable pierced aurochs phalanx engraved with a depiction of both the animal itself and a human face—a distinctive artefact unique to the European Palaeolithic era.
Due to the national importance of the discovery, the team used innovative non-intrusive techniques in their study of the dwelling. This includes continuous tomography of the soils, 3D cartography, the molecular and genetic analysis of soils and Palaeolithic objects, mass spectrometry, and hyperspectral imaging.
Header Image Credit : University of Cantabria
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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