Using cargo recovered from one of Australia\u2019s most infamous shipwrecks, new Curtin University-led research has revealed how surprisingly sophisticated global supply chains helped source and transport construction materials in the 17th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study analysed stone blocks, bricks and ballast from the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia<\/em>, which wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1629, revealing the materials came from multiple quarry sources in Europe \u2014 not a single site as previously assumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead researcher Dr Anthony Clarke<\/a>, from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group<\/a> within Curtin\u2019s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences<\/a>, said the team set out to solve the long-standing mystery of exactly where the ship\u2019s building stone came from, and whether it was sourced from one quarry or several.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHistorical records are incomplete, and after nearly 400 years underwater, these stones can look very similar, making them difficult to identify,\u201d Dr Clarke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe wanted to know if tiny mineral grains could give us a reliable fingerprint of where the stone formed, and help reveal how the Dutch East India Company sourced and transported materials across its global network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy analysing microscopic zircon minerals within the stone, we discovered that blocks which looked almost identical actually came from different quarry regions in what is now Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe found these stones were sourced from at least two different quarry areas, then brought together into a single shipment before being sent halfway around the world in a highly organised supply chain more than 400 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Batavia<\/em> was carrying prefabricated sandstone blocks likely intended for the Dutch East India Company\u2019s main fortified headquarters in Jakarta, along with thousands of bricks and other building materials, when it wrecked in the Abrolhos Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n