New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1
Site Name Keywords
African Burial Ground
Site Type Keywords
Funerary and Burial Structures or Features
Culture Keywords
Historic •
African American
Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview •
Data Recovery / Excavation
Material Types
Human Remains
Geographic Keywords
New York County (County)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-16 of 16)
- Documents (16)
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Bibliography (2004)
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Bibliography for the skeletal biology report.
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 1. Introduction (2004)
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The New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) was “rediscovered” in 1989 in the process of preparation for the construction of a proposed 34-story Federal office building by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at 290 Broadway in New York City (Ingle et al. 1990). The site for the proposed building was once part of the African Burial Ground (ABG) that extended “from Chambers Street on the south to Duane Street on the north and from Centre Street on the east to Broadway on the west”...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 10. Osteological Indicators of Infectious Disease and Nutritional Inadequacy (2004)
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The present chapter investigates the prevalence of infectious diseases and nutritional inadequacies in the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) sample, as represented in bone. A broad range of skeletal indicators of pathology was assessed in the Cobb Laboratory. Diagnoses of specific diseases represented by skeletal indicators were usually attempted, as per the long-standing standards of paleopathologists. Data were also gathered in accord with the more strictly descriptive criteria of the new...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 11. Skeletal Indicators of Work: Musculoskeletal, Arthritic and Traumatic Effects (2004)
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The types of bony changes studied in association with mechanical stress include: osteoarthritis, pressure facets, cortical thickness, fracture, and hypertrophy of tendinous and ligamentous attachment sites. While age is one component in the development of many of these markers, we believe that they mainly reflect the cumulative effects of mechanical stress rather than senile degeneration alone. This influence is supported by extensive experimental evidence of bone remodeling with increased...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 12. Subadult Growth and Development (2004)
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Growth and developmental status is often used as an indicator of general health status at the population level. A brief review of literature regarding human skeletal growth and development indicates there are several methodologies for assessing these processes in human skeletal remains (Albert and Greene 1999; Flecker 1942; Goode et al. 1993; Gruelich and Pyle 1950; Hoppa 1992; Hoppa and Fitzgerald 1999; Hoppa and Gruspier 1996; Johnston and Zimmer, 1989; Livshits et al. 1998; Miles and Bulman...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 13. The Political Economy of Forced Migration: Sex Ratios, Mortality, Population, Growth and Fertility among Africans in Colonial New York (2004)
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The number of Africans imported into the New York colony between 1700 and the eve of the Revolutionary War has been estimated to range between 6,800 and 7,400. The higher estimates are based on under counting of captives due to smuggling from New Jersey, and possibly other states, to avoid tariffs. According to Lydon (1978:382-383), the minimum estimate, based on extant records for the eighteenth century, includes approximately 2,800 people or 41 percent brought directly from Africa and 4,000...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 14. Discussion (2004)
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The explanatory frameworks of this study are heavily influenced by our understanding of the historical expediencies of European economic exploitation and power, and the ways these imperatives came to be played out in the condition of Africans in the Atlantic World. Of course, imperatives of safety, profit, moral legitimacy and so forth were negotiated as Europeans wrestled with conditions they could not entirely control, including the needs and responses of Africans themselves. The “hows” and...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 2. History and Comparison of Bioarchaeological Studies in the African Diaspora (2004)
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This chapter surveys the full range of bioarchaeological studies conducted on African diasporic sites in the Americas, thus providing a comparative context for the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG). Skeletal data on people of African descent living under diverse conditions throughout the Americas are described to serve as a basis for comparisons with the burials that are researched in the African Burial Ground Project. (ABGP). These earlier studies used theoretical approaches different...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 3. Theory: An Ethical Epistemology of Publicly Engaged Biocultural Research (2004)
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The approach taken to the organization and interpretation of data from the African Burial Ground (ABG) involves four main elements. The ways in which these elements have guided the research are discussed this chapter. These theoretic principles can be generalized and extended to a broader range of research projects than our study of the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG).
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 4. Laboratory Organization, Methods, and Processes (2004)
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This chapter describes the organization of skeletal recordation in the laboratory. This work requires specialized personnel, task teams, and processes that convert fragile fragments of soil-encased bone into skeletal elements that reveal accurate anatomical structure and observable effects of physiological processes that can be assessed for genetic, demographic, and pathologic information. That information is then coded and entered into a computer database where all information on each...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 5. Origins of the New York African Burial Ground Population: Biological Evidence of Geographical and Macroethnic Affiliations Using Craniometrics, Dental Morphology, and Preliminary Genetic Analysis (2004)
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Origins are central to understanding the past and present identity of a people. Origin studies provide, under optimal conditions, a context for all other assessments, such as archaeological, biomedical, and nutritional evaluations. Characterizing the phenotypic status and determining the origins of the eighteenth century New York African population and those individuals interred in the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) were among the project’s major goals. Towards that end, our...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 6. Isotopic and Elemental Chemistry of Teeth: Implications for Places of birth, Forced Migration Patterns, Nutritional Status, and Pollution (2004)
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Concerns about individual and group origins are central to the study of the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG). A key goal of the project is to provide scientific insights into the geographic origins of individuals. Enslaved Africans came from different regions of Africa. Can we determine more precisely the geographic area where individuals and groups come from and what were their ethnic affinities? At what ages were enslaved individuals forced to involuntarily leave their homelands? Which...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 7. Demographic Overview of the African Burial Ground and Colonial Africans of New York (2004)
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The origins of Africans in colonial New York, and some conditions encountered upon their arrival, have been explored in the two preceding chapters. The objective of the current chapter is to reconstruct who these diverse Africans became as a single population/community (that used a common cemetery) once in New York City. This chapter serves as both an historical demographic (based on documents) and paleodemographic (based on skeletal assessments) overview of the structure of the African...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 8. Childhood Health and Dental Development (2004)
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Dental enamel hypoplasias are defects in crown development that appear as a transverse groove or series of pits that are partially or entirely around the circumference of the tooth. Hypoplastic defects, while they manifest in the teeth, result from metabolic disturbances of malnutrition and disease elsewhere in the body. Enamel hypoplasias thus provide evidence of general stress that may have been brought about by many different kinds of stressors. Like other “general stress indicators” such as...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Chapter 9. Odontological Indicators of Disease, Diet and Nutrition Inadequacy (2004)
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The dentition is usually the best-preserved element of the skeleton. Hydroxyapatite, an inorganic calcium matrix, comprises approximately 97 percent of the chemical composition of enamel (Carlson, 1990). This crystalline structure makes dental enamel hard and dense and useful to resist the abrasive nature of mastication. Also, as a result of their hardness, teeth are often all that remains of a long-deceased individual. The abundant presence of dentition in archaeological contexts has led to the...
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New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Final Report, Volume 1. Front Matter and Table of Contents (2004)
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Cover page, table of contents, acknowledgments for volume one of the skeletal biology report.