Archaeology, artefacts and archives
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Archaeology, artefacts and archives
The artefacts from Batavia reflect the life and times of an early seventeenth century Dutch East India Company ship, and provide important records of life at the time. They further our knowledge of the age of European expansion and trade patterns, including ship construction, seafaring and navigation. Artefacts found at a wreck site provide key information to archaeologists attempting to understand the cause of the wreck, and what occurred during and after the event. They can be used to formally identify ships, and archaeologists can also often determine the subsequent history of the site, even up to the present day.
Location and context
The specific locations of artefacts found on a wreck site can be important in understanding their function and who might have owned them. For example, a mortar and pestle could belong to the surgeon, the constable, the gunner, or the cook. Alternatively, they could be part of the ship’s inventory of supplies to be used by the Company in the Indies. The detailed archaeological site record may help determine an artefact’s purpose, particularly when studied in the context of other nearby artefacts.
Shipwreck artefacts can also be found on land. Taken ashore by survivors or as part of salvage attempts, these terrestrial contexts may also change the meaning of objects as archaeologists record how they were used in their new environment.
Diver on the Batavia wreck site holding a westerwald jug and a beardman jug.
Credit: WA Museum, BTA_0252
Westerwald jug, commonly used as a personal drinking jug, recovered from Batavia.
Credit: WA Museum, BAT2303
‘The Merry Drinker’, holding a westerwald jug, by J. Leyster, 1629.
Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Searching the archives
In 1628, the VOC was only just beginning to standardise its inventory documents, and there is less archival information than is available in the Company’s later years. Before VOC ships departed for the East Indies, a complete inventory (equipage list) was made of the material on board. Equipage lists were itemised accounts of everything required by the different groups of people working on the ship. The steersman would be supplied with charts and navigation equipment, the cook would be allotted cooking utensils and equipment to cater for the passengers and crew, and the constable would be responsible for the arms and ammunition necessary for the ship’s defence. Provisions for the duration of the voyage were also itemised separate to the ship’s cargo. These were supplies for the Company at the Cape of Good Hope and in the East Indies, and secondly, the goods to be traded by the Company. On the ship’s return to the Netherlands, the VOC would undertake a reconciliation of the inventory to account for every item put on board prior to departure.
The discovery of other archival records, such as Eijsch [requisition lists] sent from the Indies by the Governor General and the Council at Batavia back to Company headquarters in the Netherlands, outlining their requirements for the following year are also invaluable to archaeologists as they work through the wreck and artefacts remaining on a site.
Left: Majolica jars from the onboard apothecary of Batavia.
Credit: WA Museum
Above: Astrolabe from Batavia, used by the ship’s skipper.
Credit: WA Museum, BAT3720
