[HN Gopher] Strontium isoscape of Angola and implications for ar...
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Strontium isoscape of Angola and implications for archaeology of
the slave trade
Author : Thevet
Score : 48 points
Date : 2023-10-02 22:38 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencedirect.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencedirect.com)
| i_am_jl wrote:
| Am I understanding this correctly?
|
| Someone did a plant survey in Angola in order to determine the
| ratios of bioavailable strontium isotopes in the region, and that
| data is to be used in comparison to the ratios of strontium
| isotopes found in "human enamel" (teeth? bones?) in the skeletons
| of slaves? And this data can suggest to researchers the origins
| of individual slaves, and at a larger scale can tell us about the
| mechanics of the slave trade?
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Correct. Radioisotope surveys are a powerful tool for
| archaeologists that's used for dating both human and material
| remains (e.g. obsidian/ceramic sources), but the global
| coverage is pretty low.
| i_am_jl wrote:
| Thanks for the confirmation that I wasn't in the grips of a
| fever dream.
|
| I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the
| existence of a study that incorporates fields as distant as
| anthropology and nuclear physics.
| JasonCEC wrote:
| For anyone looking into this, the field is (usually) called
| "organic geo-chemistry" and/or "paleo-isotope ecology"; the
| two fields are interwoven to get results like these, or the
| diet of early mammals. It's generally a collaboration
| between anthropologist and paleontologist.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| The term "isotopic analysis" is a bit more specific to
| what's going on here. There are dedicated labs
| specializing in it that will do samples for (relatively)
| cheap, especially for the fancier methods.
| Paleontologists aren't necessarily any more skilled here
| than anthropologists/archaeologists. Those three are
| fairly similar roles with a lot of skill overlap that
| doesn't necessarily include analytical/nuclear chemistry
| stuff. The labs tend to be staffed by specialists from
| non-historical departments at the institution they're
| associated with in my experience.
| muricula wrote:
| It's actually a very common class of techniques. Carbon-14
| dating relies on the ratios of carbon atoms, and is widely
| used for dating younger stuff. However, its relatively
| short half life means that for older stuff archeologists
| need to rely on other elements rarely found in organic
| materials like the uranium-lead decay path or in this case
| strontium.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Carbon dating is good up to 50kya, i.e. anything an
| archeologist is likely to be involved with. There's a
| separate issue dating things around 2500 BP called the
| Hallstatt plateau, but the slave trade this paper is
| looking at happened more recently than either of these
| (400 BP max). The problem is that carbon dating doesn't
| give you very good localization because it's generated by
| atmospheric sources. Strontium is almost exclusively of
| geological origin and the ratio varies a lot, so you can
| build a good map with it.
| nathancahill wrote:
| Really fascinating methods. Visiting the Slavery Museum in Luanda
| shows some of the origin pathways too. Interesting to compare the
| exhibits in the musuem in Angola with the (incredible) exhibits
| in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in
| Washington DC. Both approach the subject from opposite angles.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| here in Coastal California we definitely hear about the
| historical topic as social stress rises generally.. given the
| museum exhibit in DC and the history of commercial slavery in
| North America.. it strikes me as profound that many (most?) of
| the active slave owners and traders in the USA were actually
| killed in a short time span, called the US Civil War. The anger
| and resentment and race hate culminating in literally shooting
| and killing on such a mass scale. The literal, physical
| brutality of entire cycle seems so distant in the modern time.
|
| Since so much of the literate, conscious slave trade comes from
| societies of Central Asia (apparently also elements of Sweden
| and England, and of course the Portugese).. I was curious and
| asked an observant Muslim here about slavery.. he just looked
| calmly and replied "it was time for it to end" .. I got the
| feeling that the Muslim world had some kind of internal
| reckoning, and did (mostly) end the slavery trade at a certain
| time, similar time frame to the Civil War.
|
| From the outside, not a specialist here.. it seems like the
| remaining modern slave trade is mostly driven by raw commerce..
| like the fishing boats for example.. Zooming out, it seems like
| selling known-addictive drugs has similar drives..
| muricula wrote:
| Where did you learn that most of the slave owners were killed
| in the war? Most of the South's slave owning political
| leadership including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis lived
| long and healthy lives after the war.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| ". it strikes me as profound that many (most?) of the
| active slave owners and traders in the USA were actually
| killed in a short time span"
|
| what is not clear about that question mark?
| Exoristos wrote:
| You have a very-colorful impression of the Civil War.
| charlescearl wrote:
| I can testify that most of the enslavers did not perish
| during the Civil War - my great grandfather's family - most
| likely from Angola/Congo and brought via Charleston - was
| enslaved in a small farm along the route taken by Sherman.
| His father was also the "slaveowner" and served in a small
| defense unit (equivalent of national guard). This is not a
| unique story, there are many Black families that managed to,
| for a time, hold onto land passed from those who enslaved
| them. Most of it was illegally taken back by 1900 - by the
| slaveowning families.
| misja111 wrote:
| Nope, in the Muslim world slavery ended much later. Mostly
| halfway the 20th century. Mauretania was the last country to
| abolish slavery, in 1981. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo
| ry_of_slavery_in_the_Musl...
| mistrial9 wrote:
| got it - long read.. many new items for me there
| inemesitaffia wrote:
| There's still slavery, and I don't mean "modern day" or
| "Socratic" slavery. In Mauritania.
|
| I'm sure Al Jazeera has a documentary.
| jjk166 wrote:
| I'd be curious to know how stable these isotope ratios are over
| long periods of time. For example I could imagine as a river
| changes course and erodes different sediments, that would change
| the ratios for plants growing downstream. Likewise an increase in
| rainfall in an area might dilute the amount of groundwater it
| consumes.
|
| I'd also be curious about patterns of human consumption. In the
| modern day, sea food is the primary source of strontium in
| people's diets, with dairy and meat products also being large
| contributors. Agricultural trade could easily lead to people
| eating animals raised in a different region which might have an
| outsized effect on a specific dietary mineral.
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