The Non-Adult Cohort from Le MorneCemetery, Mauritius: A Snap Shot ofEarly Life and Death after Abolition

8/13/2019 The Non-Adult Cohort from Le MorneCemetery, Mauritius: A Snap Shot ofEarly Life and Death after Abolition

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The Non-Adult Cohort from Le Morne

Cemetery, Mauritius: A Snap Shot ofEarly Life and Death after AbolitionJ. APPLEBY, a T. K. SEETAH, a,c,d,g,h * D. CALAON, b S. CAVAL, c A. PLUSKOWSKI, d

J. F. LAFLEUR, e,f A. JANOO f AND V. TEELOCK f,ga McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom b Universit Ca Foscari, Venezia, Italy c ZRC, SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia d Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, UK e Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund, Le Morne, Mauritius f University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius g Truth and Justice Commission, Port Louis, Mauritius h

School of Forensic and Investigative Science, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT The cemetery of Le Morne in Mauritius dates from the 1830s and is thought to contain the remains of slaves,freed slaves or potentially free Madagascans, which in itself has economic and social implications and makesthe cemetery all the more intriguing. During 2010, excavations recovered the remains of 11 individuals, ofwhich six were children. Although a small sample, the burials of the non-adults show several interestingfeatures. Two neonates were buried contemporaneously and may have been twins, while a late term foetusin a grave with a young woman may represent an incident of cof n birth. This sample has the potential to castlight on the burial practices of the slave/ex-slave community in Mauritius, about which little is currently known.Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key words: diet and health; emancipation; Mauritius; neonatal; non-adult; slavery

Introduction

The region of Le Morne forms a peninsula on the mostsouth-western tip of Mauritius (Figure 1). It is mostfamous for the Brabant, an inselburg that rises to some545 m directly from the shoreline, with an outlook,and sheer drop, to the Indian Ocean on its western facet.The inselburg itself, noted to have one very precariousaccess point, forms a plateau at its summit. This combin-ation of a single entrance and an area of at terrain madethe Brabant an ideal retreat for runaway slaves and cameto be known as the Maroon Republic. The maroonagemovement, exemplifying the spirit of resistance toslavery, was commemorated with the inscription ofLe Morne as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008,rmly establishing the role of the island as a crucial

region for investigations of slavery and maroonage.

While historical records have revealed much regard-ing slavery and resistance on Mauritius (Allen 19992001; Teelock 1998, 2009; Vaughan 2005), archaeo-logical research has lagged behind. For numerousreasons, most notable being the dearth of materialcultures deriving from slave communities and the veryreal need for systematic archaeological investigations(which to date have been lacking within the contextof slavery and indenture) (Seetah 2010), history hasprovided the main narrative, relying on careful investigation of existing archives. However, given the typesof records kept on slaves, only specic aspects can bestudied from this source of evidence, with little chanceof gaining a true understanding of life ways or resistancefrom archival records alone. For this reason, the inscription of Le Morne as a World Heritage Site was uniquein that it was the rst site to be dedicated based largelyon intangible evidence.

The aforementioned situation is effectively reversedwith emancipation. Freed slaves literally disappear fromthe historical record (Teelock, 2005); however, these

* Correspondence to: School of Forensic and Investigative Science,University of Central Lancashire, Preston. PR1 2HE, United Kingdom.e-mail: [email protected]

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 11 October 2011

Revised 6 June 2012 Accepted 17 June 2012

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2012)Published online in Wiley Online Library(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.2259


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communities start to develop their own material culture.While, as slaves, they would have had material goodswithin a limited capacity, the scale of expression withinthe context of identity would have greatly increased once free. In Mauritius, emancipation resulted in a migra-tion away from inland sugar estates to coastal shingcommunities, and the post-emancipation settlement thatdeveloped at Le Morne typies this move. Within theshadow of the Brabant, a small cemetery, which withinlocal oral tradition had been known as the MalagasyCemetery, revealed a rst for Mauritius: the nal restingplace of a potential post-emancipation slave community.The article focuses on the rst generation of free borndescendents in Mauritius, with an exploratory studypresented here thatcentres on burial practice and diseasein order to reveal aspects of early life for a small group ofindividualsthat didnot enjoy the freedomtheir ancestorshad fought for.

Archaeological investigations at Le Morne

Since 2009, archaeological work has focused on theexploration of a number of sites that fall within thebuffer zone of the Le Morne UNESCO WHS. An initialsurvey of the cemetery itself revealed approximately vestructures, delineated by basalt blocks, and clearlyidenti ed as graves; geophysical survey uncovered afurther 16 structures. In 2010, a concerted clearance of a

largerarea surrounding that investigated in 2009 identied 45 structures in total and revealed that two smaller satellitburial areas ostensibly orbited the main cemetery.

During the 2010 campaign, a total of 11 skeletonswere recovered from eight graves (Figure 2). Of thiskeletal sample, six individuals were non-adults: threperinates and three young children. The perinates wereall in double graves: one was buried in Structure 1, thgrave of a young adult female (perhaps its mother), antwo were placed within a single wooden cofn in agrave of their own (Structure 6).

Although the precise date of the cemetery has not yetbeen determined by 14 C dating, a relative date in the1830s is suggested by coins associated with one of thadult graves. This period encompasses the last years oslavery and the rst few years after abolition, which tookplace in Mauritius in 1835. There is the potential thatthe cemetery was in use before this; however, we canbe reasonably condent of this date as the cemetery rstappears on regional maps in 1880 (Descubes, 1880), anthe region itself only became a stronghold for runawayslaves in the latter part of the 18th century (Allen 1999).

Materials and methods

Thenon-adultskeletal remains were analysed in December2010 by JA according to the recommendations of

Figure 1. Upper inset: Mauritius and surrounding islands in relation to eastern Africa; lower inset: Mauritius, capital starred, and location of Main: outline of Le Morne and regions mentioned in the text.

J. Appleby et al.

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2012)


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Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994). Measurements were takenaccording to the criteria of Fazekas & Ksa (1978).Long bones and dentitions were X-rayed in order toassess the presence of periods of growth interruptionand to assist in ageing. Because thebiological background of this population is not clearly understood, no attemptwas made to sex the non-adult remains (for example bymeasurement of the emergent permanent dentition).Age categories are those suggested by Lewis (2008).Preservation was recorded according to the criteria setout in McKinley (2004), with grades 0 1 recorded asgood , grades2 3 asmoderate and grades 4 5+aspoor .Fragmentation was recorded as moderate where at least25% of surviving long bones were fragmented and assigni cant when at least 50% of surviving long boneswere fragmented.

Results

Preservation

Bone surface preservation and fragmentation showedconsiderable variability. In general, the perinate skele-tons were better preserved than were those of thechildren (Table 1). All three perinate skeletons wereat least 75% complete with generally good surfacepreservation, although in some cases, the long bonesand in all cases the crania were highly fragmented.In contrast, the skeletons of the three slightly older non-adults were at best moderately well preservedand two were substantially incomplete. Surface damagewas often more marked on the posterior surfaces ofthe bones, and the ends of long bones were frequently

Legend

N

Subadult,3-5 years

Late term Foetus, 37-41 weeks

Subadult,3-4 years

Subadult,2-4 years



Figure 2. Site plan with position of excavated burials. This gure is available in colour online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/oa.

Table 1. Preservation, fragmentation and completeness of non-adult skeletons from the Le Morne cemetery

Structure Age group Preservation Fragmentation Completeness (%)

1 Perinate Good Moderate 75+6/7 Perinate Good Moderate 75+6/8 Perinate Moderate-good Signi cant 75+25 Child Moderate Signi cant 50 7529 Child Moderate Moderate 10030 Child Poor Signi cant 25 50

The Non-Adult Cohort from Le Morne Cemetery, Mauritius



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damaged. Together with frequent breakage of the longbones, this limited the measurements that could betaken, which has implications for the calculation ofskeletal age.

The most poorly preserved skeleton was from

Structure 30. While most graves had a depth of around 90 cm, Structure 30 was 120 cm deep. This meant thatthe skeleton was below the level of the present day highwater at spring tides, and it seems likely that this had contributed to the destruction of the bone.

Perinatal individuals

Ageing techniques were designed to maximise theinformation that could be gleaned from the samplegiven the fragmentary nature of most of the skeletons.For the perinates, long bone diaphysis lengths werecompared to the charts produced by Fazekas & Ksa(1978). In addition, both linear and logarithmic regres-sion equations were used, according to the recommen-dations of Scheuer et al.. (1980; Table 2).

Ageing by both linear and logarithmic regressionequations produced consistent results, both for differ-ent bones using the same technique and for the samebone using the alternative technique. The Fazekasand Kosa method tended to overage in comparison tothe regression techniques by a week or two, a differ-ence that is not signicant given the degree of variationencompassed by each.

Most of the applied age calculations for the perinate

from structure 1 gave an age of between 33 and 35weeks gestation, making it approximately one monthpremature (Table 2). At this stage, it is possible thatit could have been born alive, although to survive itwould have required very careful care, something thatwas probably an impossibility in rural 19th -centuryMauritius. A stillbirth is the most likely explanation,but it is also possible that the foetus underwent cofnbirth due to the decomposition process of the mother.This might explain its position between the legs of thefemale skeleton (Figure 3), which exactly mirrors a caseof cof n birth from 1930s Poland (Panning 1940).

The perinates from Structure 6 both representalmost full-term or full-term pregnancies (different agingmethods gave results between 36 and 40+ weeks, withthe majority falling between 38 and 40 weeks; Table 2).Their placement in the same grave and within a singlecof n gives rise to the interesting possibility that theymay have been twins. Twin burials have only rarelybeen reported within the archaeological record: a twinburial dating to the Upper Palaeolithic has been iden-ti ed at Krems-Wachtberg in Austria (Einwger et al.2006), while later prehistoric examples have recently T a

b l e 2

. A g e s i n g e s t a t i o n a l w e e k s o f p e r i n a t a l s k e l e t o n s c a l c u l a t e d f r o m t h e l i n e a r a n d l o g a r i t h m i c r e g r e s s i o n e q u a t i o n s o f S c h e u e r e t a l . ( 1 9 8 0 ) a n d f r o m l o n g b o n e

l e n g t h s a c c o r d i n g t o t h e c r i t e r i a o f F a z e k a s & K s a ( 1 9 7 8 ) . A l l m e a s u r e m e n t s w e r e t a k e n f r o m t h e l e f t s k e l e t a l e l e m e n t , e x c e p t t h o s e m a r k e d w i t h *

, w h i c h w e r e t a k e n

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S t r u c t u r e 1 / C

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J. Appleby et al.



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been reported from Olrdola in Spain (Crespo et al.2011) and Ochtendung in Germany (Flohr 2012). Inorder to determine whether the two infants from LeMorne were also a twin burial, or merely represented the burial of two unrelated infants, it was necessaryto investigate both the skeletons themselves, and their positioning within the grave (cf. Duday, 2009).

Measurements of the two foetuses were compared to determine the amount of difference between them(Table 3). In order to provide a direct comparison,these were only included where bones from the sameside were available from both individuals. There wasgenerally very little difference between the two indi-viduals. Individual 6/8 was slightly larger in all of thepostcranial measurements taken, but very slightlysmaller on the size of the occipital. This latter differ-ence is so small (0.4mm in width and 0.1mm inlength) that it is unlikely to be meaningful. In thepostcranial elements, the smallest difference was0.9 mm (both femoral and tibial diameters) and thelargest 2.4 mm (tibia length). There is an apparent

relationship between the size of the measurementand the degree of difference. Thus, the largestdifferences are between the longest measurements(femur and tibia lengths).

Table 3. Comparative measurements in mm for the perinatesfrom Structure 6. * = slight imprecision caused by either erosionor the need to reconstruct the bone not considered suf cientlysevere to prevent the measurement from being taken.

Structure 6/7 Structure 6/8 DifferenceLength of basilar part

of occipital12.0 11.9 0.1

Width of basilar partof occipital

14.5 14.1 0.4

Ilium width (left) 28.4 30.2 1.8Humerus width (right) 15.1 16.5 1.4Humerus diameter (right) 5.1 6.1 1Femur length (right) 73.2* 74.6 1.4Femur diameter (right) 6.3* 7.2 0.9Tibia length (left) 63.1 65.5 2.4Tibia diameter (left) 5.8* 6.7 0.9

Figure 3. Inset: recovered foetal bones from Structure 1. Main: skeletons in situ. This gure is available in colour online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/oa




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usually be expected (difcult environmental conditionstypically leading to retardation of long bone growthcompared to the dentition (Smith 1991)). Black and Scheur s study of the growth of the clavicle included a number of age groups with very small numbers inthe reference sample (for example, only two individualsaged ve to six were included; Black & Scheuer, 1996:Table 3). This means that it is likely that Black and Scheur s results do not include the full range of normalvariation for each age group. On this basis, the claviclewas not included in the calculation of assigned age for this sample. For the remaining individual (Structure 29),the three ageing techniques matched well.

The close relationship between dental development

stage and postcranial measurements other than theclavicle suggests that the children buried at Le Mornewere not subject to reduced growth caused by illness or disease. Further analysis of the skeletons for evidenceof periods of growth interruption conrms this picture:there were no hypoplastic lesions on the teeth, and noHarris lines were visible on the long bones. Given theyoung age of these children, it is not likely that anyHarris lines would have been remodelled. Cribra orbita-lia and porotic hyperostosis, which have been linked with anaemia due to dietary deciency (although thisis now thought to relate to vitamin B12 and not iron-de ciency as has previously been suggested), disease or genetic conditions (Walker et al. 2009), are also absentin the Le Morne child skeletons.

The often-quoted osteological paradox (Wood et al.,1992) states that skeletons may be free of pathologicalconditions either where individuals were healthy, or where they were so stressed that death followed illnessbefore skeletal lesions could develop. The Le Morneskeletons are likely to belong to slaves or ex-slaves,and as such, it is tempting to speculate that they died before diseases/non-specic stress factors could show

up on the skeleton; however, it is difcult to argue thatthe skeletons from Le Morne represent a systematicallystressed population, given that dental ages are youngerthan ages derived from postcranial measurements. Ifthe population was subject to serious nutritional

de ciency and/or morbidity, it is unlikely that thatwould be the case (especially as this seems to be a shorpopulation in adulthood; Seetah et al., in prep). Themost parsimonious explanation, therefore, is that thesechildren had an adequate diet and died from infectiousdiseases. Although there were no major epidemics inMauritius in the 1830s (repeated outbreaks of choleraand malaria were a fact of life only from the 1850s an1860s, respectively), infectious diseases such as dysentery would have been a constant presence.

The only skeletal pathologies observed on the child skeletal remains from Le Morne were carious lesions othe upper central deciduous incisors of the 1.5 2.5 year old child from Structure 29 (three anterior mandibularteeth were lost post mortem, but caries were absentfrom the rest of the deciduous dentition). No evidencefor either hypoplastic lesions or hypocalications could be observed on the teeth of this individual. In theabsence of such defects, this is a young age for theteeth to be affected by caries, especially the incisors.In modern populations, early childhood caries of themaxillary incisors have been linked to feeding practicethat increase the exposure of the teeth to simple carbo-hydrates (Hallet & ORourke 2006). The identicationof carious lesions in the anterior teeth of such a young

individual here may therefore indicate a weaning diethigh in simple carbohydrates. There were no sugar plantations in the area around Le Morne during the1830s, and sugar cane is unlikely to have been availablto poor communities such as this (slaves could bepunished for consuming sugar cane). A large part ofthe slave diet was, though, made up of carbohydrate-rich food such as maize and manioc (Telfair, 1830),and the use of these as weaning foods may explainthe presence of caries on such a young child.

Discussion

Perinatal and child skeletons are present in the LeMorne sample at a higher ratio than adults, though asFigure 2 illustrates, many more structures remain tobe excavated. Although this is a very small sampleand therefore not amenable to statistical analysis, thisis an interesting pattern, given the tendency of infantsand children to be under-represented in archaeologicalcemetery assemblages (Lewis, 2008).

Table 4. Ages in years of child skeletons calculated fromindividual long bone (Maresh, 1970) and clavicle (Black &Scheuer, 1996) lengths, from the development of the dentition(Ubelaker, 1978) and from the degree of vertebral fusion(Scheuer & Black, 2000)

Structure 25 Structure 29 Structure 30

Clavicle 4 6 23 46Ulna 2 2.5Radius 2Femur 1.5 2.5Tibia 1.5 2Fibula 2Dentition 4 12 months 2 8 months 4 12 monthsVertebral fusion 3 4 2 35Assigned age 3 5 1.5 2.5 3 5




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During the early 19th century at Le Morne, anumber of factors are likely to have contributed to highinfant and child mortality. It is unlikely that motherswould have had access to good standards of medicalcare, and access to doctors may have been neither

available nor desired. In the later period of indentured labour in Mauritius, there were huge problems inproviding medical treatment on plantations: often therewere no hospitals, it was difcult for doctors to travelto many parts of the island and even when health carewas provided, indentured labourers often preferred toavoid it in favour of folk treatments (Boodhoo, 2010).Such problems would have been equally, if not more,likely under slavery. Without medical assistance, therisks associate with childbirth would have been great,especially amongst malnourished mothers. Cramped and dirty living conditions are also likely to havecontributed to disease and death amongst non-adults.

The presence of twin neonates may be related to thedif culties associated with both giving birth to and caring for two infants in a slave context; however, thereis another, more sinister possible explanation behind the double burial of twins. In parts of Madagascar,and Africa (Piontelli, 2008), it is believed that twinsare the incarnation of evil spirits, and that to allowthem to live risks bringing harm to the entire commu-nity. Twin infanticide on Madagascar has been described in various anthropological texts from the time of vanGennep (1904) to the present day (Piontelli, 2008).Given this possibility, the perinate skeletons were

examined for evidence of violence in the form ofperimortem fractures. Many of the long bones werefractured, and the skulls were fragmentary; however,the fracture surfaces were usually rough, and thefracture margins lacked the sharp margins of perimortemfractures. It is therefore most likely that the bones werefractured when the cofn decayed and the surroundingsediment collapsed into the burial space.

Finding direct evidence of infanticide on perinatalskeletal remains is notoriously hard (Lewis, 2008). For example, strangulation may be identied on adultbones from the fracture of the hyoid, but in neonatesthe hyoid has only commenced ossication (Lewis,2008). Drowning is another possible method of disposalthat would leave no trace on the skeleton. Both ofthese techniques have been recorded in Madagascangroups practising twin infanticide. Van Gennep (1904)reports that amongst the Antambahoaka of SoutheastMadagascar, when a woman gave birth to twins, theywere immediately given to a local sorcerer who strangled them and threw the bodies into a swamp. The familywere then able to mourn the loss of the children. In adiscussion of twin infanticide in an unspecied social

group in Madagascar in the 1990s, Piontelli (2008) statethat women would frequently give birth next to canals othe sea.The motherwould kill twins: either by drowning,abandoning them or placing them into a containerthat was launched out to sea. In contrast, stillborn and

miscarried babies were placed in water-lled jars.The lack of formal burial afforded to twins inMadagascan communities practising twin infanticide iclearly not paralleled in the careful disposal of the twinat Le Morne, placed within a cofn in a well-constructed grave. Furthermore, the possibility that the twins, ifpremature, survived for a short period of a week otwo would again suggest that these were not thevictims of infanticide.

Conclusion

The remains of the non adult cohort from Le Mornealthough small in number, give us an opportunity fothe rst time to directly investigate living conditionsand cultural practices amongst the rural, possibly slavecommunities of 19th century Mauritius without the dis-torting lens of accounts written by either slave owneror abolitionists. Historical sources suggest that life mahave been extremely hard; while this is not borne ouby the non-adult skeletons, which show no evidenceof dietary insufciency or other ill health, one cannotescape the fact that these individuals died in earlylife, seemingly supporting the textual accounts. The

presence of twin perinates within one of the graves irather enigmatic: they may represent natural neonatalmortality or, an arguably less probable alternative, theresults of a culturally determined practice of infanticide

Despite its limitations, this assemblage has alreadyenriched our current understanding of the region andassociated communities. Clearly, as so often the casemore questions arise than are answered; however, thenarrative now has another line of evidence from whicto draw inference regarding a group that has much tooffer in term of understanding past human interactionat a crucially important global transition: from slave tfree labour. Perhaps most important is the fact that wenally have useful material to study; numerous buria

and cemetery sites exist on Mauritius that hint at thenuanced and complex social relationships evident indeath. Slaves are at times buried with their master, oon the periphery of the master s cemetery, in somecases with decorative tombs. Our understanding ofthe relationship between slave and master, indeed, theconcept of slavery, needs careful evaluation through thelens of osteoarchaeology and associated burial practiceEqually important is the dynamic between forced and

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free labour as exemplied in the ways slaves, indentured labourers and free / freed peoples treated their dead.Mauritiusservesas a valuable regionfor such investigationsand the small cohort outlined in this article potentiallyhas much to contribute within a comparative dimension

in future research.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support ofthe Truth and Justice Commission (TJC), particularlyProf. Alex Boraine, Mr Benjamin Moutou, Mrs ColetteLe Chartier, Mr Allan Charlot and Mr SatyendraPeerthum. From the Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund (LMHTF), our sincere thanks to theActing Chairperson,Mr Mathieu Lacle, and to Mrs Nelly Ardill and Mr

Thierry Le Breton from SOS Patrimoine, for

nancialand logistical support. Our thanks to Mr Beebeejaunof the Mauritius Museum Council, Ms Sheila Thanooof National Heritage Fund and Mr Choonee, Minister for Arts and Culture. Our grateful thanks to Prof.Konrad Morgan, VC of UoM, for providing logisticalsupport and facilities to study the remains. RoseFerraby provided geophysical expertise in 2009; stu-dents from the UoM, UCLan and local participantsfrom Le Morne provided essential site support, for which we are very grateful. Funding for this researchhas been provided by, and gratefully received from:the TJC, LMHTF, SOS Patrimoine, the UniversityofMauritius, the USState Ofce (Mauritius),TheBritishAcademy (SG-54650 / SG-10085), The British Council(Darwin Now Award), The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the University of CentralLancashire (UK).

The authors thank three anonymous reviewers whocontributed to improving an earlier draft of thisarticle.

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