Category Archives: Slavery and Slave Life: Archaeological Studies

2009  Gizzard Stones, Wari in the New World, and Slave Ships: Some Research Questions.  African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. June. Argues that archaeologically recovered so-called gizzard stones were not utilized for playing wari, the African board game, by African descended populations … Continue reading →

2007  (J. Handler and N. Norman), From West Africa to Barbados: A Rare Pipe from a Plantation Slave Cemetery. African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. September. Discusses a distinctive short-stemmed earthenware pipe that was excavated in a plantation slave cemetery in Barbados … Continue reading →

2007  From Cambay in India to Barbados in the Caribbean: Two Unique Beads from a Plantation Slave Cemetery. African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. March.  In the early 1970s, archaeological investigations at Newton plantation in Barbados recovered the skeletal remains of 104 … Continue reading →

2006   (J.S. Handler and F.W. Lange), On Interpreting Slave Status from Archaeological Remains.  African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. June. An early colonial period church cemetery in Campeche, Mexico yielded the skeletal remains of persons who investigators identified as African born; some … Continue reading →

1998    Problematical Glass Artifacts from Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. African American Archaeology 20:1, 5-6. This paper discusses two virtually identical small translucent glass objects of apparent European manufacture that were found associated with two different burials in 1973. Similar … Continue reading →

1997    An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies. International Jl. of Historical Archaeology 1: 91-130. An adult male buried in the late 1600s or early 1700s and excavated from … Continue reading →

1996    A Prone Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies: Possible Evidence for an African-type Witch or Other Negatively Viewed Person. Historical Archaeology 30:76-86. Dating to the late 1600s or early 1700s, a burial excavated from a … Continue reading →

1994    Determining African Birth from Skeletal Remains: A Note on Tooth Mutilation. Historical Archaeology 28: 113-19. Tooth mutilation existed in sub-Saharan Africa, and was found among slaves transported to the New World. A small number of mutilation cases have been … Continue reading →

1989 (J. S. Handler, with M. Conner and K. Jacobi), Searching for a Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies. A Bioarchaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigation. Chapters 1-5, Chapters 6-7, Chapter 8 and Appendix. Southern Illinois University: Center for Archaeological Investigations, Research … Continue reading →

1985    (F. W. Lange and J. S. Handler) The Ethnohistorical Approach to Slavery. In T. Singleton, ed., The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life (New York: Academic Press), pp. 15-32. Drawing from experiences in the study of slavery in Barbados, … Continue reading →