Excavating archives at Oudepost 1, Cape

Abstract

Read together, archival sources and archaeological data reveal more than either source standing alone. In this paper, we present the results of research at Oudepost I, a seventeenth/eighteenth century outpost on the Cape west coast. Here, a small garrison of Dutch East India Company soldiers guarded the Company's interests, particularly in the stock trade. Archaeological and documentary records agree on most details of daily life ‐ with one major exception. Faunal analysis of excavated samples shows that a large proportion of the garrison's diet was from wild species. This provides a new dimension to understanding colonial impact on the frontier: the effect of Dutch hunting and foraging on the ecological niche of Khoikhoi herder‐foragers.