Multidisciplinary investigation reveals an individual of West African origin buried in a Portuguese Mesolithic shell midden four centuries ago

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Authors	PEYROTEO-STJERNA Rita SIMOES Luciana G. NEVES FERNANDES Luis Ricardo LOPES Gonçalo GÜNTHER Torsten JAKOBSSON Mattias
Year of publication	2022
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Arts
Citation
Web	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X22000335?via%3Dihub
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103370
Keywords	Atlantic Slave Trade; Portugal; Shell midden; Biomolecular archaeology; Ancient DNA; Radiocarbon dating; Stable isotopes; Parish records
Description	Cabeço da Amoreira is a well-studied shell midden with a robust chronology based on a large number of radiocarbon dates on Mesolithic human burials. Surprisingly, we discovered one individual that lived about 400 years ago buried in this site. We employed a multidisciplinary approach integrating archaeology, historical records, genetics, radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis to investigate the biogeographic origins of this individual and burial circumstances. We could determine that this was a man of West African origin, probably from Senegambia, arriving in Portugal via the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Our study provides new insights into aspects of the life and death of a first-generation African individual in Portugal during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade period and highlights the power of multidisciplinary research to unravel unwritten history.
Related projects:	Archeologické terénní prospekce, exkavace a dokumentace II