Day Seventeen

Chen answering queries from Mr and Miss Banten finalists who came and paid us a visit

Today we continued on with our photo-taking of bones and earthenware. In the afternoon, we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from the finalists of the Mister and Miss Banten Lama competition. They were an inquisitive bunch who were interested in the work we were doing. Ibu Naniek gave them a little tour around our Mess which houses interesting finds and Chen answered all their queries.

At night, everyone came together to share their analyses as well as exciting future plans. It was certainly very insightful for us aspiring archaeologists!

For our unit, spit 10-13 was pre-fortifications, though not necessarily pre-Dutch. The artefacts from these spits were much bigger, and in greater quantity. There was also a pocket of dark, black sand from where the artefacts emerged, so next year they have plans to expand our unit so as to shed light on the pocket of dark, black sand.

Ibu Naniek shared about the artefacts from our unit she had identified, which were ceramics from the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty, Batavian ware, clay pipes, glass from the 1920’s, very few Vietnamese ware and possibly no Thai ware. What was surprising was that there was also no European ceramics at all, which is puzzling considering that the fort was inhabited by Dutch soldiers.

Pak Sonny shared that the flooring we had hit on the north side of our unit is perhaps not a flooring but simply a technique for filling to make the building higher. He deduced this from the fact that the tiles were very haphazardly placed and even the quality of the kitchen’s floor (which is another unit excavated) was much better.

He also further shared about the unit they have established to be the kitchen area, which is the unit surrounding the well. Although there were no artefacts such as ash, burnt areas or stoves to prove that it was the kitchen, there is structural evidence such as the well nearby that was in a corner, as well as the sloping pathways.

I certainly enjoyed this interesting and insightful sharing session!

Love,
Christabel