Search for more houses at Cas Abou
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The last time we went to Cas Abou we ended our search for remnants of houses to the North of the plantation house before we reached the last houses on the Werbata map, so we had to come back to complete our search. Also to the East of the road there are a few houses marked on the map in an area that is not cleared by bulldozers. So on Thursday October 8, 2015 the archaeology sleuths gathered once again at 8 AM at the parking lot of the plantation house Cas Abou. From there we walked over the asphalt road first to an area to the East of the road. where we hoped to find our first house. There we entered the vegetation. Rather close to the road we found a pile of small limestones, most probably parts of the wall of the house that was here in the past. In the same area we also found some artifacts, but not many.
Around plantation house Jan Kok
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On Thursday October 1, 2015 the sleuths went to Jan Kok. The Werbata map showed some waterworks to the West and South-East of the plantation house and also some houses to the East of the plantation house. Enough for a search in this area. We had permission from the owners to enter the area.
We parked our cars close to the Williwood snack at 7:45 AM and from there we entered the vegetation. Almost immediately we found a first tanki. One that is not marked on the Werbata map. The large circular tanki that is so clearly visible on the Werbata map was nowhere to be found. Maybe it filled up and is no longer recognisable as a tanki surrounded with earthen walls. Apparently there was a hofi in this area because we found several trunks of palm trees. The oblong tanki on the map was clearly visible as such. Close to it we found a large trunk of a felled mahogany tree. Also several slices of this trunk were lying around in this area. These would make nice side tables.
Two more visits to Cas Abou
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On September 17 and September 24 we went for two more visits to the area of Cas Abou. The visit on the 24th was a continuation of the one that we started on September 17 so I combined these two visits in this one report.
On September 17 we gathered once again at the plantation house Cas Abou. From there we wanted to walk through a roi in North-Eastern direction towards the border with Porto Marie. There we hoped to find a similar border gate as we found between San Juan and Cas Abou. On our way to the border we investigated the roi. According to the Werbata map there was nothing of interest in this roi, but to our surprise we found two small dams and one impressive dam in this roi. The two smaller dams were completely broken down in the roi itself but we could see the dam on both sides of the roi. So apparently the force of the water was too much for these two small dams.
Den Dunki and Jan Thiel
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On thursday September 10, 2015 the archaeology sleuths went for a trip on the Band'ariba (East) side of the island. Two targets: the area of Den Dunki (Parke Sorsaka) and an area with a lot of waterworks to the East of country house Jan Thiel.
For our first target we parked our cars close to the entrance of Den Dunki at 8 AM. There are several stories about Den Dunki. It should have been a slave camp where sick slaves could recuperate before being sold. That story is not supported by documentation or archaeological proof. Most slaves were sold from ship to ship because most slaves went to other regions in the Caribbean. In my opinion it is very unlikely that especially the sick and weak slaves would have to walk a large distance from the harbor to this area (and the same applies to St. Joris) to recuperate here and then walk back to the harbor to be sold. It is more likely that the sick slaves were sold immediately for a discounted price. And even if there was a place where sick slaves could recover then it would have been more likely that one of the WIC-plantations near the harbor would have been used for this. But for this theory there is no documentation either so everybody should reach his/hers own conclusion about the use of Den Dunki as a slave camp.
Cas Abou - well, car wrecks and former habitation
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On Thursday September 3, 2015, we went once again to Cas Abou. This time we had three targets: to investigate a peculiar well, looking for former houses to the South of the plantation house and also looking for a large builing and former houses to the North of the plantation house. We had a special guest for this hike, Frensel Mercelina was joining us. Also Karel Aster was back after his vacation in The Netherlands. And of course the regular sleuths, François, Fred, Hetty, Eddy and I.
The well was found during a previous hike in this area. It is peculiar because it has a strange ridge close to the bottom and it contains a pile of sand. To investigate this dry well, François had brought a 20 feet ladder. So for the first part of the hike we went through the vegetation with this ladder. The well was about 300 meters from the plantation house. Luckily the terrain was not too difficult to do with a ladder.
Arriving at the well we started by cleaning part of the rim from the overgrowth. We found out that we need an new tool for this. We already have a "Dirk pruner" but Frensel brought another useful tool, the "Frensel foldable saw". A good addition to our toolkit. After clearing the rim we positioned the ladder inside the well. It was just long enough.
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