After an archaeological dig in the Netherlands more than 30 years ago, the bodies of nine native people were sent to the Netherlands.
Archaeologist Aad Versteeg found the bone fragments and other artifacts while digging at the F.D. Roosevelt Airport from 1984 to 1989 as part of a research project by the Archaeological Centre of the Leiden State University in the Netherlands and the Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles on Curacao. The project looked at a number of pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the Windward islands of the Netherlands Antilles, especially in Saba and Statia, to learn more about the way of life and organization of the islands’ original people.
Nearly everything that was dug up, including artifacts from the fifth century, was sent to the Netherlands. The results of the research were written up in a book called “The Archaeology of Sint Eustatius,” which came out in 1992. The Gold Rock.”
Now, after almost a year of work that included talks between Statia and Netherlands officials, the bodies are back on the island. Nasha Radjouki, the Statia Government’s program manager for culture, said that the Statia Cultural Heritage Implementation Committee will talk to people about how to bury their dead.
“It’s very important that we talk to the Statian community about how and where to respectfully rebury these human remains,” Radjouki said. “The Statian community needs to know that their history is more than what has been written, and they need to be a part of the new story.”
The agreement to return the remains was signed last month by Government Commissioner Alida Francis in the presence of Island Commissioners Derrick Simmons and Glenville Schmidt, Radjouki, and members of the St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research, a non-government organization that studies all aspects of the island’s rich and varied archaeological heritage.
Francis said, “The discovery of the indigenous people’s graves more than 30 years ago and the eventual return of their bodies show us that, in addition to the enslaved Africans, we also had an indigenous community with their own burial grounds.” “Our story is much bigger and more interesting than we ever imagined, and it’s up to us to tell it.”
The Department of Culture is working on a larger project to return people’s remains to their homes. The return of human remains is the first step in this project. The rest of the artifacts, including boxes of ceramic, lithia, coral, shell food remains, and artifacts, will be returned in the third quarter of this year. After that, steps will be taken to get William and Mary College, a public research university in the US, to give back a collection of Statian artifacts it has.
