THE 'INFORMAL' BURIAL GROUND AT PRESTWICH STREET, CAPE TOWN: CULTURAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL INDICATORS FOR THE HISTORICAL CAPE UNDERCLASS

• Published in: South African archaeological bulletin 2011-12, Vol.66 (194), p.136-148
• Main Authors: FINNEGAN, ERIN, HART, TIMOTHY, HALKETT, DAVID
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African culture; Antiquities; Archaeological methodology; Archaeological sites; Archaeology and history; Burial; Cape Town; Cemeteries; Chronology, Historical; Coffins; Conservation and restoration; Excavations (Archaeology); Funerary archaeology; Graves; Historical archaeology; Human remains; Human remains (Archaeology); Human settlements; Material culture; Methodology; Muslims; Slaves; Socioeconomic status; South Africa; Teeth; Under class; Urban archaeology
• ISSN: 0038-1969

Cape Town's urban redevelopment has exposed human remains at a number of construction sites in the Green Point and Victoria & Alfred Waterfront precincts over the past fifteen years. In May 2003, a substantial amount of bone emerged during the early works phase for a new residential development at Prestwich and Alfred Streets, Green Point (De Waterkant precinct). An initial assessment by the Archaeology Contracts Office (ACO), based at the University of Cape Town (UCT), established that the human skeletal material came from a dense and extensive burial ground. The existence of this unmarked burial ground, situated outside of historically formal burial grounds, underscores a distinct difference in the treatment of those buried in 'formal' (i.e. denominational or military) and 'informal' burial grounds during the colonial period. Social identities and processes of spatial negotiation among different cultural or class groups may be amplified through the analysis of burial patterns. Based on an initial site assessment, there was an expectation that this burial ground would be characterised by an unstructured or random placement of graves. An objective of this study was to test this assumption. In addition we present an overview of the archaeological evidence of cultural markers, such as: burial styles, dental modification and artefactual material, and discuss their implications for the cultural allegiances of the Cape's historical underclass. Plotting distribution has shown that particular cultural traits fall into discrete burial clusters. Attributes underpinning African origins, and an Islamic burial style are identified. It is suggested here that Islamic burials at Prestwich Street provide a glimpse into the consolidation of the Muslim community over the 18th century. In contrast, interpretation of the distribution of other burial clusters is cautioned, as they may be products of expedient burial events or shorter-term processes, as multiple scales of burial interment are likely to have existed concurrently. The interrogation of these historical burials makes a contribution towards the visibility of personal life histories of the Cape underclass, often difficult to 'see' in structural remains or domestic deposits, and demonstrates the success that archaeological methodology can have in laying open previously 'unseen' life histories, as well as larger trends within an evolving Cape Town.