The Archaeology of Insurrection: An investigation into the subsistence behaviours of the Batavia survivors

The aims of this thesis are to investigate the how the two different groups from the Batavia survived the crises of shipwreck and mutiny through an analysis of archaeological faunal data and documentary sources. Two faunal assemblages were compared; one representing the survivors on Beacon Island and the other representing the survivors on West Wallabi Island. The documentary sources contain details on both groups, suggesting that the mutineers and other survivors on Beacon Island subsisted mainly on salvaged food and scarce native fauna, while the soldiers and other survivors on West Wallabi Island subsisted entirely on abundant native fauna. The crisis of shipwreck is defined as the transition from the relatively predictable social and subsistence conditions on board the Batavia to 'the difficult dynamics of individual or group isolation, and the necessities to salvage, adapt and survive in unfamiliar and potentially hostile environments' (Gibbs n.d.:1). In this context the crisis of mutiny is defined as the separation of the survivors into two hostile groups with different social organisations and potentially different subsistence resources.This thesis was submitted to the University of Western Australia in 1999 to fulfil the requirement of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours, First Class