Using LiDAR to Reconstruct 19th-c. Plantation Landscapes in French Guiana

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Plantation landscapes in French Guiana are almost entirely obscured by the dense rainforest vegetation that overtook the region in the decades following emancipation in 1848 when the search for gold and other economic initiatives gradually replaced plantation agriculture. While remote sensing has revolutionized archaeological research in recent years, especially in Mesoamerica, it has been less commonly used to reconstruct historical landscapes of slavery. This paper presents an analysis of LiDAR data for one region in French Guiana, which reveals an extensive and highly structured 19th century built environment and an agricultural signature that likely corresponds to two forms of plantation agriculture: the production of commodities for export and of food to support the enslaved population. Initial findings counter prevalent narratives about slavery in this circum-Caribbean and Amazonian space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology