Netherlands returns stays of 9 indigenous folks to Dutch Caribbean island

The Netherlands has returned the stays of 9 indigenous folks that archaeologists discovered greater than 30 years in the past on the tiny Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, officers stated.

The request for repatriation was made by the island’s Culture Department as a part of a brand new push to get better artifacts and human stays held by former colonial powers and others to focus on and protect St. Eustatius’ historical past.

Some artifacts discovered alongside the bone fragments on the island, generally known as Statia, date again to the fifth century, the island authorities stated in a press launch Monday.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN EGYPT UNEARTH SPHINX-LIKE ROMAN-ERA STATUE

“Our story is far broader and richer than even we thought, and it’s as much as us to inform this story,” authorities commissioner Alida Francis stated.

The repatriation course of took almost a yr, and officers stated {that a} native cultural heritage committee will seek the advice of residents about how and the place to rebury the stays.

A aircraft flies over the Island of Saba, St. Eustatius, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Patrick van Katwijk/WireImage)

The Caribs are believed to have lived on St. Eustatius earlier than the arrival of Spanish conquerors. The island later modified palms a number of instances amongst Britain, France and the Netherlands. It is now a particular municipality of the Netherlands with a inhabitants of about 3,200.

The bone fragments and artifacts together with bins of ceramic and shell meals stays had been discovered throughout an excavation from 1984 to 1989 on the airport within the capital of Oranjestad as a part of a analysis challenge, officers stated.

The stays had been flown in on a industrial airline and had been guarded by two professors with Netherlands’ Leiden University, authorities spokesman Johnson JohnRose instructed The Associated Press. Officials stated the remaining artifacts might be repatriated in coming months.

In 2021, archaeologists found dozens of skeletons throughout an enlargement challenge on the identical airport that they consider had been a part of an 18th century burial floor at a former sugar plantation.

The authorities additionally introduced that it’s searching for to get better different native artifacts at the moment housed at William & Mary, a U.S. college in Williamsburg, Virginia.