Snijtand van een dier uit het wrak van de Oost-Indiëvaarder Hollandia before 1748

This is an animal incisor, recovered from the wreckage of the Dutch East Indiaman Hollandia. The tooth would have been made by biological processes, of course, with layers of enamel built over dentin. But its recovery is owed to a complex of economic and social factors. The Hollandia sank in 1743, en route to Batavia, modern-day Jakarta. The ship was part of a vast, brutally efficient trade network, extracting resources from Asia to feed the consumer appetites of Europe. We don’t know what animal this tooth belonged to, nor its precise role on the ship. Perhaps a rat, which thrived in the dark recesses of the vessel; perhaps a domestic animal, intended for consumption. Whatever its origin, the tooth survived the shipwreck, a tiny fragment of a lost world. It serves as a poignant reminder of the human and environmental costs of global trade.