The background of the archaeology of the voc at the cape

The Company man was born in southern Germany around 1670 and in the manner of the landless poor at that time he had knocked about quite a bit, working on privateers, merchant ships, and warships that took him to England, Holland, France, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, and Malta. Martin Wintergerst had seen a thing or two by the time he signed on to the Zion, a trading ship of the great Dutch East India Company, bound for Ceylon. It had been a miserable voyage out but at last they had dropped anchor in Table Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope in October 1699. Spring was in bloom and the days were lengthening here at this, the “ best port of call for the East-India ships” where it seemed “ as if God had diligently set up such a Treasury there from which seafarers could reprovision themselves” (Raven-Hart 1971: 460).