“The Archaeology of Crisis: The wreck and survivor camps of the VOC ship Batavia (1629)”
Martin Gibbs

9.30-10.30am Friday 27 February 2015
 
On 4 June 1629 the Dutch East India Companyvessel Batavia wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off the Western Australian coast.  The following several months saw a gripping saga of massacre and mayhem amongst the survivors, with the story becoming one of the classic tales of maritime tragedy. Although the extreme nature of the events is often discussed as a unique occurrence, as part of an archaeological study of the site in the 1990s the documentary and physical evidence was reconsidered within the framework of disaster response. From this emerged a model of the social and psychological factors behind shipwreck and survivor situations, as well as the archaeological signatures that might be expected from these.

Dr Martin Gibbs is Professor of Australian Archaeology at UNE, having arrived in November last year. Martin’s research interests are in historical and maritime archaeology, with current projects on a range of topics including the social processes behind shipwrecks and salvage, the convict system in Australia, failed 16th century Spanish colonies in the Solomon Islands, andWWII in the Pacific.  Martin currently has a book in Press with Dr Brad Duncan titled ‘Please God send me a wreck’: The archaeology of a community’s responses to shipwreck.

A3 theatre, Arts Building
followed by morning tea
ALL WELCOME
Enquiries to: Karin von Strokirch – kvonstro@une.edu.au