The first stratigraphic column in South Africa, from Hondius (1652), and its modern correlatives
Keywords:
Haarlem shipwreck, 1647, Table Bay, water well, Pleistocene-Holocene sediments, History of Geology
Abstract
In 1647 the Dutch ship Haarlem, en route from Batavia to the Netherlands Republic, was wrecked in Table Bay. The survivors were encamped over the next year before they were rescued in a fort they constructed called Sandenburgh. Their successful sojourn in the Cape led directly to the establishment of the Dutch colony there in 1652. They survived by living on hunted cormorants and penguins, bartered cattle and sheep, and by drinking fresh water obtained from a well which they sank to a depth of 20 m. The sequence of sediments encountered in the well was recorded by Jodocus Hondius III, grandson of the famous mapmaker, in a book published in 1652, based on accounts given to him by the sailors from the Haarlem. A comparison of the stratigraphy recorded in the well (five sedimentary units) with the Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy known from modern studies of these coastal sediments, shows a very good correspondence in terms of lithologies and thicknesses, and attests to the veracity of the sources that provided Hondius with his information. This singular case of a detailed stratigraphic column is interesting in the light it throws on the rudimentary understanding of rock types, stratigraphy and hydrology by Dutch sailors in the mid-17th century, at the beginnings of South African colonial history, more than a decade before the study of stratigraphy was initiated by the work of Steno. The measurements recorded in the description of the well are some of the earliest quantitative data recorded in the history of South African science.References
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60. Lewis J. Of the several strata of earths and fossils, found in sinking the mineral wells at Holt, in Wiltshire. Phil Trans Roy Soc Lond. 1728;35:489–491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1727.0046
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65. Beattie JC. Report of a magnetic survey of South Africa. London: The Royal Society; 1909.
2. Hatch FH, Costorphine GS. The geology of South Africa. London: Macmillan; 1905.
3. Rogers AW. The pioneers of South African geology and their work. Trans Geol Soc S Afr. 1937:29;1–39.
4. Lister MH. Journals of Andrew Geddes Bain: Trader, explorer, soldier, road engineer and geologist. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society; 1949.
5. Haughton SH. The father of South African geology. Africana Notes and News. 1964;16;99–108.
6. Rogers AW. An old report on the copper field of Namaqualand. S Afr J Sci. 1917;14:146–152.
7. Barrow J. An account of travels into the interior of Southern Africa in the years 1797 and 1798. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies; 1801.
8. Burman J. The Cape of good intent. Cape Town and Pretoria: Human & Rousseau; 1969.
9. Hondius J. Klare besgryving van Cabo de Bona Esperanca [A clear description of the Cape of Good Hope]. Amsterdam: Jodocus Hondius; 1652. Dutch.
10. Hondius J. A clear description of the Cape of Good Hope. Facsimile of the text compiled by Jodocus Hondius and published by him at Amsterdam in 1652. Cape Town: Book Exhibition Committee, Van Riebeeck Festival; 1952.
11. Boxer CR. From Lisbon to Goa, 1500–1750: Studies in Portuguese maritime enterprise. London: Variorum Reprints; 1984.
12. Knox-Johnston R. The Cape of Good Hope: A maritime history. London: Hodder & Stoughton; 1989.
13. Bruin JR, Gaastra FS, Schöffer I. Dutch-Asiatic shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries. Part III: Homeward-bound voyages from Asia and the Cape to the Netherlands, 1597–1795. The Hague: Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatien; 1987.
14. Turner M. Shipwrecks and salvage in South Africa – 1505 to the present. Cape Town: Struik; 1988.
15. Thom HB, editor. Journal of Jan van Riebeeck, 3 volumes. Cape Town and Amsterdam: Balkema; 1952.
16. Bokhorst M. Haarlem (Haerlem). In: Potgieter DJ, Du Plessis PC, Hiemstra LW, Van Zyl JL, editors. Standard encyclopedia of Southern Africa, Vol. 5. Cape Town: Nasou; 1972.
17. Gribble J, Athiros G, editors. A fort in the dunes. In: Tales of Shipwrecks at the Cape of Storms. Cape Town: Historical Media, 2008; p. 18–23.
18. Janssen L. Letter to the Lords XVII of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Companij (VOC), dated 6 April, 1647, sent with the ships Eliphant and Schiedam. The Hague Archives: Codex 1067 bis (OD 1648 II); 1647.
19. Seeman UA. Fortifications of the Cape Peninsula, 1647–1829. Cape Town: The Castle Military Museum; 1997.
20. Janssen L. The Diary of Leendert Janssen. The Hague Archives: Codex 1067 bis (OD 1648 II), 1647; p. 166–170.
21. Penn N. Robben Island 1488–1805. In: Deacon H, editor. The Island: A history of Robben Island 1488–1990. Mayibuye History and Literature Series No. 60. Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1996; p. 9–32.
22. Janssen L, Proot N (or M). The Remonstrantie; 1649. In: Raven-Hart R. Before Van Riebeeck. Callers at South Africa from 1488 to 1652. Cape Town: Struik, 1967; p. 177–178.
23. Van Riebeeck J. Letter to Directors of the VOC. Cape Archives. Letters received, 1649–1660, 1649; p. 17.
24. Barend van Haeften M, Paasman B, editors. De Kaap: Goede Hoop halverweg Indië [The Cape: Good Hope halfway to India]. Hilversum: Verloren, 2003; p. 35ff. Dutch.
25. Ohlhoff H. Seventeenth century Dutch travelers in South Africa. South Afr J Medieval Renaiss Stud. 2008;18:147–172.
26. Burman J, Levin S. The Saldanha Bay story. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau; 1974.
27. De Jong C. The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies, 1595–97: The dawn of a new colonial era. Quart Bull S Afr Libr. 1994;49:176–183.
28. Raven-Hart R. Before Van Riebeeck. Callers at South Africa from 1488 to 1652. Cape Town: Struik; 1967.
29. Gehring CT. Council minutes, 1655–1656. New Netherland Documents Series. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press; 1995.
30. Millard NAH, Scott KMF. The ecology of South African estuaries. Part VI: Milnerton estuary and the Diep River, Cape. Trans Roy Soc S Afr. 1954;34:279–324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00359195409518989
31. Grindley JR, Rogers J, Pether J, et al. Holocene evolution of Rietvlei near Cape Town, deduced from the palaeoecology of some mid-Holocene estuarine Mollusca. Palaeoecol Afr. 1989;19:347–353.
32. Grindley JR, Dudley S. Estuaries of the Cape, Part II. Synopses of available information on the individual systems: Rietvlei (CW24) and Diep estuary (CW25). Report 25. Cape Town: CSIR Research Report. 1988;427:1–90.
33. Werz B. Diving up the human past: Perspectives of maritime archaeology, with specific reference to developments in South Africa until 1996. PhD thesis, Groningen, the Netherlands, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1997.
34. McLachlan AJ. Seasonal beach morphology variation and sediment transport around the wreck of the Oosterland in Table Bay between the estuaries of the Diep and Salt Rivers. BSc Honours report, Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 1991.
35. Werz B. The excavation of the Oosterland in Table Bay: The first systematic exercise in maritime archaeology in southern Africa. S Afr J Sci. 1992;88(2): 85–90.
36. Schalke HJWG. The upper Quaternary of the Cape Flats area (Cape Province, South Africa). Scripta Geologica. 1973;15:1–57.
37. Rogers J. The sedimentary succession at the Koeberg nuclear power station, Melkbosstrand [Abstract]. 18th Congr Geol Soc S Afr. 1979:310–322.
38. Rogers J. First report on the Cenozoic sediments between Cape Town and Eland’s Bay. Open-File Report. Pretoria: Geological Survey of South Africa, 1980; p. 1–136.
39. Rogers J. Lithostratigraphy of Cenozoic sediments between Cape Town and Eland’s Bay. Palaeoecol Afr. 1982;15:121–137.
40. Theron JN. The geology of Cape Town and environs. Explanation of Sheets 3318 CD and DC, and 3418 AB, AD and BA. Pretoria: Geological Survey of South Africa; 1984.
41. Theron JN, Gresse PG, Siegfried HP, Rogers J. The geology of the Cape Town area. Explanation of sheet 3318, Scale 1:250,000. Pretoria: South African Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs, Geological Survey; 1992.
42. Rogers J. Sedimentology of Late Cenozoic sediments, including the Pliocene Dynefontyn Member of the Varswater Formation, Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, Melkbosstrand, Cape Town. Afr Nat Hist. 2006;2:194–196.
43. Rowe CD, Backeberg NR, Van Rensburg T, et al. Structural geology of Robben Island: Implications for the tectonic environment of Saldanian deformation. S Afr J Geol. 2010;113:57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gssajg.113.1-57
44. Franceschini G, Compton JS, Wigley RA. Sand transport along the Western Cape coast: Gone with the wind? S Afr J Sci. 2003;99:317–318.
45. Kensley B. A Late Pleistocene raised beach from Milnerton, Cape. Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Recent Progress in Later Cenozoic Studies in Southern Africa; 1975 May 31 – Jun 3; Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town: South African Society for Quaternary Research, 1975; p. 8.
46. Kensley B. The faunal deposits of a Late Pleistocene raised beach at Milnerton, Cape Province. Ann S Afr Mus. 1985;95:111–122.
47. Roberts D, Berger LR. Last interglacial (c. 117 kyr) human footprints from South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 1997;93(8):349–350.
48. Tankard AJ. The marine Neogene Saldanha Formation. Trans Geol Soc Afr. 1975;78:257–264.
49. Paterson W. A narrative of four journeys into the country of the Hottentots and Caffraria, in the years one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, eight, and nine. London: Printed for J. Johnson; 1779.
50. Forbes VS. Pioneer travellers in South Africa. Cape Town: AA Balkema; 1965.
51. MacRae CS. Life etched in stone: Fossils of South Africa. Johannesburg: Geological Society of South Africa; 1999.
52. Kircher A. Mundus Subterraneus [The Subterranean World]. Amsterdam: Joannes Janssonius à Waesberge & Filios; 1665. Latin.
53. Steno N. De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertiationis prodromus [Forerunner to a dissertation on solids naturally contained within solids]. Florence: Ex typografia sub Signo Stellae; 1669. Latin.
54. Bandy MC, Bandy JA. Textbook of mineralogy. Translation of: Agricola G, De natura fossilium, 1546. Mineola, NY: Dover; 2004.
55. Hoover HC, Hoover LH. De re metallica [On the nature of metals]. Translation of: Agricola G, De re metallica, 1556. New York: Dover; 1950.
56. Bellers F, Hauksbee F. A description of the several strata of earth, stone, coal, etc. found in a coal pit at the West End of Dudley in Staffordshire, to which is added a table of the specific gravity of each stratum. Phil Trans Roy Soc. Lond. 1710;27:541–544. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1710.0072
57. Strachey J. A curious description of the strata observ’d in the coal-mines of Mendip in Somersetshire. Phil Trans. 1717;30:968–973. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1717.0054
58. Strachey J. An account of the strata in coal-mines, & c. Phil Trans Roy Soc Lond. 1725;33:395–398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1724.0073
59. Kelly J. An account of the strata met with in digging for marle, and of horns found under ground in Ireland. Phil Trans Roy Soc Lond. 1726;35:122–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1726.0019
60. Lewis J. Of the several strata of earths and fossils, found in sinking the mineral wells at Holt, in Wiltshire. Phil Trans Roy Soc Lond. 1728;35:489–491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1727.0046
61. Forbes VS, editor. Carl Peter Thunberg: Travels at the Cape of Good Hope 1772–1775. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society; 1986.
62. Master S. Plutonism versus Neptunism at the southern tip of Africa: The debate on the origin of granites at the Cape, 1776−1844. Earth Environ Sci Trans Roy Soc Edinburgh. 2009;100(1–2):1–13.
63. De Albuquerque L, De Sacro Bosco J, editors. Os Guias Náuticos de Munique e Évora, 1509 e 1516 [The nautical guides of Munich and Evora, 1509 and 1516]. Lisbon: Junta da Investigações do Ultramar, 1965; p. 196-197. Portuguese.
64. De Mesquita Perestrelo M. In: Fontoura da Costa A, editor. Roteiro da Africa do Sul e Sueste desde o Cabo de Boa Esperança até ao das Correntes (1576) [Rutter of South and Southeast Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Correntes]. Lisbon: Agência Geral das Colónias; 1939. Portuguese.
65. Beattie JC. Report of a magnetic survey of South Africa. London: The Royal Society; 1909.
Published
2012-01-10
Section
Review Articles