Archaeologists speaking to children about some of the artefacts they found at the Golden Rock site..ST. EUSTATIUS–Quite a few groups of schoolchildren in St. Eustatius have visited the Golden Rock 2021 archaeological site over the past few weeks. It took a little while for St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR) to figure out how best to engage them. Turns out the answer was simple: “Let them get dirty.”
In every area that is excavated, removed soil was dumped into buckets and sieved to find any small artefacts or bone fragments that may have been missed during excavation.
This is the perfect job for elementary and middle school children, the project leaders said, as there is almost always a small piece of ceramics, glass or a coffin nail to be found on the screen.
The children loved this activity as it kept them engaged. It also promotes a sense of connection to the project.
Archaeologists sieving dirt to find small artefacts or bone fragments
The last group was so excited about the prospect of finding things that children were scouring the access road adjacent to the site while awaiting their turn at the sieve. One child said, “I am looking for gold.”
The archaeologist said that seeing the delight in their eyes while learning about the site and archaeology was “priceless.”
The project will have Bethel Methodist School passing by on Friday, June 11, and Seventh-Day Adventist School on Monday, June 14, and Tuesday, June 15.
After this, the fieldwork winds down and laboratory work begins. Phase two of the project will start in January 2022.
The Department of Culture will be hosting a town hall meeting on Tuesday, June 15, to inform the community about the project. The meeting will feature a question-and-answer segment.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/schoolchildren-get-dirty-at-archaeological-site-in-statia
I wonder if the Statia Government is willing to pay for investigations into the identity of enslaved ancestors.
Archives in many countries could reveal more about the dead. And many Statians would like to participate in this really community based research.
We know that not all former enslaved stayed on Statia. And some came back after years on another island. The population of many Caribbean islands is intertwined for many centuries.
Statian descendants of the engraved people on Golden Rock Plantation were found on other islands, but also on Statia.
And we know also that the many enslaved who died with diseases like lepra of elephantiasis did so because of the poor conditions they had to live in, deliberately created by the white planters, slavers and colonial governments.
And to set the records straight, we also know that some of the wealth of present-day people was created by the slavery profits.
There is only one way forward, and that is to discover everything from our past and make the handshake to our ancestors.
So come on Alida Francis, these are also your ancestors! Do the right thing!
Does Secar know who were in the graves? Have they made some effort to trace names? And why not?
Why was there not much earlier a dna sampling in the population? What if people who can proof their ancestors were slaves on Golden Rock plantation organize together with the UN a process for compensions?
What if we would dig up the dutch ancestors in graves in Middelburg or Amsterdam? An eye for an eye.
Nobody of these white archaeologists told these kids that they break up the bones of their great-great-great-parents and are going to steal them from the island.
Community based archeology is when the participation of the population starts before any dig. And when the involvement includes the decision-making about strategy and tactics of the research.
Just talking with random people is not community-based research! Neither is it when the government and the white specialists organize a townhall meeting after the dig.
But, why do I hear nobody talk about the money involved? This is not any volunteering job. Archeologists must pay to participate. And who gets this money?