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From burials to population identity: archaeological appraisal of the status of a Lesser Antilles colonial cemetery (Baillif, Guadeloupe)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

S. Kacki  and
T. Romon
S. Kacki
Affiliation:
1Inrap, Z.I. de la Pilaterie, 11 rue des Champs, 59650 Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France (Email: [email protected]) 2PACEA, UMR 5199, Anthropologie des Populations Passées et Présentes, bâtiment B8, avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France (Email: [email protected])
T. Romon
Affiliation:
2PACEA, UMR 5199, Anthropologie des Populations Passées et Présentes, bâtiment B8, avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence cedex, France (Email: [email protected]) 3Inrap, Dole les Bains, 97113 Gourbeyre, France
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Abstract

Settlements and cemeteries associated with a European colonial presence provide rich opportunities to gain insights into the character and composition of those populations, even in the absence of written records. The study reported here has the added fascination of a detective story, seeking to match an unknown burial ground to a series of known but long lost cemeteries. The systematic analysis of the graves and their occupants is carried out within a comparative framework which highlights the variable composition and distinguishing features of the different types of graveyard that are encountered within a colonial context. The authors conclude that the Baillif cemetery was a nineteenth-century military graveyard, and that many of the young men who were buried here were new recruits who fell victim to endemic diseases such as dysentery, yellow fever and malaria.

Keywords

Lesser AntillesGuadeloupecolonial periodnineteenth centurycemetery
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 337 , September 2013 , pp. 829 - 839
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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