Archaeologists Discover New Mass Grave From Notorious Shipwreck
While other passengers of the Batavia were chucked overboard or beheaded, victims from the latest discovery met a gentler fate.
Body Count Rises on 400-Year-Old 'Murder Island' Shipwreck Archaeologists have discovered a new communal grave tied to an infamous and bloody 1629 mutiny of Murder Island.
By Michael Greshko
PUBLISHED December 7, 2017
On an island off the coast of Western Australia, archaeologists have found a mass grave associated with a shipwreck so nightmarishly gruesome, it makes Lord of the Flies look tame.
The grave contains remains of five passengers on the Batavia, a flagship of the Dutch East India Company that sank in 1629 on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands to Java. The bodies, interred neatly in a row and showing no signs of violence, likely died soon after the wreck of dehydration—before madness set in among some of the survivors.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/new-mass-grave-batavia-shipwreck-murder-australia-history/
