Journal
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 105, Issue -, Pages 11-18Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2019.02.006
Keywords
African diaspora; Ancient DNA; Genetic ancestry; Historical archaeology; Slavery
Funding
- Rockbridge Academy
- Anne Arundel County
- Transportation Enhancement Program
- Federal Highway Administration
- Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration
- University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
- ERC Synergy Project NEXUS1492 [319209]
- HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) through the joint research programme Uses of the Past
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [649307]
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Archaeologists often struggle with the challenge of linking historic-period artifact assemblages with specific communities. In particular, small home sites discovered on historic plantations are often difficult to identify as an African American or white tenant house since the material culture appears similar. The discipline also struggles with how to identify the expression of specific West African cultures in their archaeological assemblages. Here, we discuss how DNA was successfully extracted and analyzed from a clay tobacco pipe stem collected from an African American slave quarter in Maryland, USA, and what this information can and cannot reveal about the people present at the site. We successfully identified DNA from a woman, and genome-wide analyses revealed she was closely related to Mende living in present-day Sierra Leone, West Africa. The ability to recover genetic data from personal artifacts now provides archaeologists a viable tool to address questions about communities and ancestral origins. Furthermore, these findings hold the potential to connect living descendants with their ancestors' homes.
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