Agreement reached on disposal of ancient bones

By Nicky Blatch

THE SA Heritage Resources Agency will issue a permit this week to allow for the removal and analysis of the remains of what is believed to be an ancient Khoisan skeleton.

The skeleton was mistakenly removed by police last month from an archeological site within the sand dunes between Papiesfontein Farm and the sea near Jeffreys Bay. Police yesterday offered to have the bones flown to Cape Town, where they will undergo dating tests and basic skeletal analysis to determine their origin.

It was reported last month that Jeffreys Bay police were accused of bungling after removing the bones from the site, believing them to belong to a drowning victim.

In an official visit to the site yesterday, along with Sahra, Kouga Municipality and members of the Gamktwa clan (from the Khoisan community), who had laid a charge of negligence against them, police said it appeared that “someone else had meddled” with the grave site both before and after police removed the bones.

Yesterday, the grave was marked by a white rock and several large sticks, carefully stacked near a small pile of bones. But spokesman Marianette Olivier said several rocks had been placed in the shape of a cross over scattered bones when police had visited the site, while Gamktwa tribal chief Michael Williams maintained that rocks had been stacked in a semi- circle around the intact skeleton to protect it from the elements, when clan members and Sahra first visited the site several weeks before the police.

Sahra archaeologist Mary Leslie said: “Hearing the bones may have been disturbed, maybe in the long term, it’s lucky they were rescued.”

But had the skeleton remained undisturbed, in the foetal position (traditional in Khoisan burials) in which it was discovered by local resident Kobus Reichart in August, researchers would have been able to determine how it was buried, Leslie said.

If “exposed carefully”, researchers could also be given clues about whether “grave goods”, such as beads and other artifacts, were associated with the burial, she said.

After walking through the sand dunes for several hours, inspecting other sites of apparent ancient civilisation, where shards of pottery were mixed with sea shells and broken rocks in the sand, Leslie said it was possible that the grave was a Khoi burial site.

But Christina Jikelo, from Sahra’s Eastern Cape burial site unit, said although the site was “rich in heritage”, the skeleton would still need to be thoroughly researched “to verify its identity”.

Sahra PRO Solayman Ebrahim said after the remains had been studied at the University of Cape Town’s department of archaeology, they would be sent to Grahamstown’s Albany Museum for storage. He said the Khoisan community would decide on a final resting place of the remains.

Johan Binneman, archaeologist at the Albany Museum, will exhume the rest of the remains.

The skeleton was the second found in that area by Reichart, who often walks through the dunes. The first was found nearby seven years ago.