Skeletons from the Medieval period provide new information on the horrors of the early slave trade.
M.T. Santos Ferreira
The skeletons come from the site of Valle da Gafaria, which was located outside the Medieval walls of the port city of Lagos along the southwest coast of Portugal. Used between the 15th and 17th centuries as a dumping ground, the site also offered up remains of imported ceramics, butchered animal bones, and a few African style ornaments.
Enslaved occupants of Medieval Portugal would not necessarily have been prevented from a proper burial. Many were baptized on arrival to Portugal and therefore had a right to a Christian funeral if the slave owner decided to do so. However, due to the poor conditions aboard the ships, many people arrived so weakened that they died without being baptized.
Biological anthropologist Tim Thompson at Teesside University praised the"sound research" but also told me that"it is difficult to truly assess the examples of tied individuals because there are so few, and no figures are presented." He suggests that comparing"the anatomical positioning with examples from modern mass graves would allow for deeper analysis.
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