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

Publisher： Cambridge University Press

E-ISSN： 1745-1744|87|337|829-839

ISSN： 0003-598x

Source： Antiquity, Vol.87, Iss.337, 2013-09, pp. : 829-839

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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.