ABORIGINAL SKULL PROJECT - Taken from theSt. Andrews Citizen
Dr Richard Bates of the School of Geography and Geosciences at the
University of St Andrews and Dr. Martin Bates of the Department of
Archaeology, University of Wales, Lampeter, have recently successfully
conducted a geophysical survey to locate a box containing the skull of
an aboriginal chief buried in a grave yard in Liverpool. Dr R. Bates is an
expert in the geophysical survey techniques that resulted in the final
exhumation of the skull and it's eventual return to the Bibulum tribe in
Western Australia.
Yagan (?-1833), Australian patriot Aborigine from the Perth region. Son
of the Beeliar chief Midgigoroo, Yagan led raids along the Canning and
Swan rivers, stealing settlers' provisions and killing their livestock.
During one of these raids, in May 1832, a labourer named William Gaze
was murdered. Yagan and two others were captured, identified as the
killers, and sentenced to detention on Carnac Island. After six weeks
they escaped and resumed their harassment of the settlers. In April
1833, while stealing from a Fremantle store, the raiders were fired on
and Yagan's brother died. As a reprisal, the Aborigines murdered some
cart drivers taking supplies to the Canning River settlement.
Subsequently, Yagan and Midgigoroo were proclaimed outlaws with a
price on their head. Midgigoroo was soon captured, tried, and shot but
Yagan remained at large until William Keates—a shepherd eager for the
reward—shot and killed him on July 11, 1833. Keates was in turn
murdered by the Aborigines shortly afterwards. (information from MS
Encarta)
As was the custom (?) in those days Yagans head was dried before
being presented to the Australian authorities. It finally found its way to
Liverpool's Royal Institution and was put on display at Liverpool
Museum, but in the 1960's a curator became concerned at its
deterioration and so in 1964 the head was buried in a local cemetery
together with a Peruvian mummy and a Maori head.
Subsequent to this burials were made around the grave and above the
box containing the museum remains. In a move to repatriate remains of
this nature, the British Home Office contacted Dr. M. Bates with the view
to exhuming the head. However, due to the other burials, the box
containing Yagan's head could not be simply exhumed in the typical
manner and a plan to dig down the side of the grave and tunnel
sideways to the box was formulated.
First the exact location of the box was needed and for this state of the
art electromagnetic and ground penetrating radar surveying equipment
was used to locate the exact position of the box from the surface. (See
figure 1) The archaeologists were then able to excavate six feet down
the side of the grave and a further geophysical survey was conducted to
refine the location of the remains.
Because of the sensitive nature of the geophysical survey equipment to
metal, only wood shoring could be used to hold open the excavation pit.
The lesser strength of the wood shoring meant that only a very short
period was available in which to accomplish the work safely in the
ground.
The remains were retrieved by tunneling horizontally into the grave
without any damage being caused to the remains or other burials. Dr
Bates said, "it was a delicate and risky operation, and we are delighted
that it was so successful. Due to the other burials in the area and the
potential of disturbing these with the unstable soil conditions, we only
had one shot at being able to recover the box so pinpointing it within the
grave became critical. The geophysical survey highlighted an
anomalous area that was consistent with the shape and size of the box
that was known to contain the remains. Once this had been identified I
just crossed my fingers while the tunneling was done. The first shovel of
dirt from the grave showed signs of the decayed box and the Peruvian
mummy came next followed by the Maori head and finally Yagan's head.
There were a lot of happy people when the head finally came out of the
ground and we were able to get out of there safely!"
Text taken from MS Encarta and University Press Office