African Slaves in Colonial Mexico

Last week the NY Times had this article on colonial era burials excavated in Campeche, Mexico. Researchers were able to identify some of the individuals as African slaves brought to Mexico by the Spanish as their teeth had been filed, showing evidence of an African cultural pattern. Also high levels of the trace element strontium in the tooth enamel indicate that those people grew up in West Africa.

Documentary evidence exists that African slaves were brought in soon after the conquest of the Aztecs. As this cemetery dates to the middle of the 16th century, this is the earliest physical evidence we have of those slaves.

This is interesting and innovative work, but I was struck by the fact that apparently no DNA analysis was conducted. That would have been another easy and independent line of confirmation for the study.