Heritage Cases

Introduction When discussing labour migration in the late 1800s to the diamond (Kimberley) and gold (Witwatersrand) mines of South Africa it is important to keep in mind that the country was embedded in a regional network in which its labour demands made it the most significant player in the region, but it was hardly immune to events in neighbouring countries/territories. It is also important to keep in mind that South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century was part of an international network in which the Cape had played a significant role. The institutional memory from The Cape of both British (Cape, Natal) and Afrikaans (Vrystaat, Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek) administrations would affect their policies inland. The difference between earlier migration between the colonies compared to that during the mineral revolution is that in the early years of colonial contact, coercion of African labourers was not effective or even possible as they belonged to coherent societies and held wealth independent of the colonies in the form of land and cattle. If they did not like the conditions of their labour they could simply return to their communities and live as peasants. The rural economies of Southern Africa, however, were eroded by the ‘hut tax’ introduced in the mid to late 19th-century. Payment of the tax could only be made in cash, forcing the African peasantry to seek employment in colonial centres. In South Africa, the peasantry was further weakened by the ‘betterment program’ which introduced cattle culling and a reduction in the size of land available to Africans for farming, grazing and living (Delius, 2017). Besides coercion, mineral revolution labour was also characterised by high proportions of unaccompanied men on temporary contracts. This made political organisation difficult and was also cheaper for the mine owners and the government as limited infrastructure was required for lone men as compared to accommodating their nuclear families as well. Control of labour movement by the state and capital also characterised the labour migrant system. It is apparent that for the most part the state and capital worked for hand in hand to further their common interests. This was apparent again when the state facilitated the migration of indentured labourers from China to toil in the mines at the Witwatersrand. As can be seen, the industrialisation of South Africa went hand in hand with the dispossession of African societies. Moreover, local, regional, and international factors played a significant role in this industrialisation. Context The Koffiefontein Mine was the site of an epidemic in early 1896 that lasted several months which was caused by poor sanitary conditions. As a result of typhoid running rampant, 200 individuals were sick and 40 lay in hospital by May 10th. Mortality was particularly high amongst the majority black miners, and they were being buried at the “tailings” of the mine. They were already weakened by the fact that they slowly starved themselves in order to maximise remittances to their families. Aims The purpose of this project is to describe the demographics and health status of the Koffiefontein mine workers and to investigate their origins through morpho-phenotyping of the crania/postcrania. In order to map the demographics and general health status of these people, various methodological approaches including: standard techniques osteometric and morphological approaches for estimating sex, age, and if possible, stature (e.g., Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994, Kenyhercz et al. 2017, Boldsen et al. 2002; Raxter et al. 2007; FARC Manual, 2020), along with an evaluation of the skeletal remains for signs of pathology and trauma are to be performed (eg., Symes et al. 2012; L’Abbe et al. 2022; Ortner, 2003). A three-dimensional (3D) surface scanner [EinScan H Hybrid LED and Infrared Light Source and Handheld Colour 3D scanner (EinScan, n.d.)] is to be used to scan the grave (skeleton in situ) and the crania. The scanning of the grave in situ also acts as a form of documentation of the burial positions of the mine workers, which was not traditional or orderly, (see L’Abbe et al. 2003). The scanned data will be used to understand morpho-phenotyping of human anatomy using advanced 3D approaches and statistical analysis, including 3D anatomical landmarks for 3D shape analysis by applying geometric morphometric methods and 3D metric methods using Mahalanobis Distances (inter-landmarks distances). The data is then to be statistically compare using 3D anatomical morphology matrices to worldwide groups, including Modern Black South African and Khoisan 3D shape data acquired from a previous research study (Ridel et al., 2021; Ridel et al., 2022) and already available at the Forensic Anthropology Research Centre (FARC, University of Pretoria). This is to provide us with an understanding of origins from morphometrics of the crania. The use of photogrammetry as an alternative means of three-dimensional documentation will be explored on the Koffiefontein graves and individuals. For this Structure-from-Motion (SfM) will be utilised. This method makes use of overlapping two-dimensional images, captured by a DSLR camera, to reconstruct a three-dimensional surface model of the object being photographed. The use of photogrammetry has gained much traction in archaeology over the last two decades as it enables pin-point accurate reconstruction of archaeological sites, features and objects with relative minimum field time required (e.g., Howland et al., 2014; Chibunichev et al., 2018; Marín-Buzón et al., 2021; Van der Merwe, 2021). It also allows for spatial association of sites, features, and objects as surface renderings can easily be georeferenced (Van der Merwe, 2021). Texture rendering also seems to be more realistic compared to structure-from-light methods with photogrammetry making use of a digital photo-realistic assessment of texture. Accurate texture rendering is important in documenting soil colour differences (e.g., profile stratigraphy), deposition and bone taphonomy and accurate object colour rendering (Siebke et al., 2018; Donato et al., 2020). The use of photogrammetry and structure-from-motion is well-documented as a cheaper and more practical method compared to other surface rendering techniques (Randolph-Quinney et al., 2018; Siebke et al., 2018; Donato et al., 2020), and has been used towards applications of mass grave excavations and depositional taphonomy observations (Ruotsala, 2016; Carlton et al., 2018; Randolph-Quinney et al., 2018).