Human remains excavated from a property in Simon’s Town in 2019 have been reburied at the Old Burying Ground at Seaforth, last week.
The remains were discovered on a property, known to locals as Sayer’s Lane, after digging the foundations for a three-storey block of flats.
Sayer’s Lane is situated next to the old brewery and the national monument, Studlands, which was built in 1797 and is about 150 metres from the old Dutch East India Hospital, which treated crew members from the ships between 1765 and 1796 (“Let sleeping bones lie,” Echo September 5, 2019).
According to mayoral committee member for community services and health Patricia van der Ross, the remains spanning from 220 to 279 years ago were reburied in individual bags within six coffins.
The City’s recreation and parks department, she said, had prepared two graves in the Old Burying Ground to each accommodate three coffins, containing the remains.
During a public meeting hosted by the Simon’s Town Museum and the Phoenix Committee, which represents people displaced during the forced removals under apartheid, in November last year, the remains were identified as crew members from the 18th-century Dutch East India Company cargo ships.
The bones were stored at the Simon’s Town Museum until the burial on Tuesday August 23.
At the time, archaeologist Tim Hart, from ACO Associates, who was involved in the excavation, said the site was not a mass grave but a historical burial site associated with the hospital.
Following the excavation, half of the bones were sent to the Netherlands for analysis by the Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology of the University of Leiden, the Earth Science Stable Isotope Laboratory of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and the Centre for Isotope Research of the University of Groningen.
The project was funded by the Cultural Heritage Agency (“Origins of Sayer’s Lane bones traced,” Echo, November 12, 2021).
Ms Van der Ross said the graves would be unnamed as no records of the individual names had been found; however, she said, the Netherlands had provided funding for a memorial stone that will be unveiled at a later stage.
“‘An astounding amount of work and research went into this process, and, on behalf of the City, I would like to commend every person and organisation who had a hand in unlocking as much information as possible about the remains and securing their now final resting place. Apart from culminating in a very significant historical account, the reburial will bring dignity to the deceased, who lost their lives in Cape Town, thousands of kilometres away from home and likely without their family’s knowledge,” said Ms Van der Ross
Suzette Farmer, from the Phoenix Committee, said they were pleased that the remains had finally been laid to rest.
Ward councillor Simon Leill-Cock said the event, arranged by the Simon’s Town Museum and hosted by the curator, Cathy Salter Jansen, had been sombre and dignified.
He said Fish Hoek Dutch Reformed Church minister, Martin Barnard, conducted the service in English, Afrikaans, and Dutch and representatives of the Dutch consulate, the Western Cape government and the archaeologists involved in the excavation spoke at the ceremony.
“It has been a long road since the bones were found and there was a sense of relief in finally giving the bones a dignified resting place. These were ordinary people, poor sailors, forced to find employment at sea in difficult circumstances and living under harsh conditions. We can only imagine their longing for home and their loved ones on their deathbed alone, and far from home,” he said.
The museum added that it was happy that there had finally been a dignified burial.
