ABOVE: Slave row
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A 200-year-old broken pipe pulled from the ground of an old Maryland plantation holds the DNA of an enslaved woman who was probably related to a specific group of people living in what is now modern-day Sierra Leone, researchers reported March 11 in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
This is possibly the first time an artifact links an American slave with his or her origins in an African people group, according to The Washington Post.
“In this particular context, and from that time period, I think it’s a first,” paper coauthor Hannes Schroeder of the University of Copenhagen tells the Post. “[I]t’s exciting for descendant communities . . . Through this technology, they’re able to make a connection not only to the site but potentially back to Africa,” he says.
The pipe, made of clay and used for smoking tobacco, carried the woman’s DNA all ...
