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Colonial iron in context: the Trianon slave shackle from Mauritius

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Abstract

In 2009, part of a ‘slave shackle’ was recovered from archaeological investigations at Trianon, an indentured labourer site on Mauritius dated from the beginning of the nineteenth century. This paper presents the results of a metallurgical assessment of the artefact, thought to represent colonial ironwork, a category that has hitherto remained understudied. The results are incorporated into the wider archaeological and historical evidence from Trianon, highlighting the value of studying colonial ironwork in context.

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Notes

  1. The unpublished field report can be obtained from the author or from the Aapravasi Chat Trust: Seetah, K (2011) Trianon: Archaeological Investigations of an Indentured Barrack. Report commissioned by and prepared for the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Port Louis, Mauritius

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research has been provided by and gratefully received from the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund (AGTF), The British Academy, The British Council, The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the University of Central Lancashire (UK). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. Vijaya Teelock, Ms. Corinne Forrest, Mr. Renganaden Andiapen and Mr. Satyendra Peerthum from the AGTF; Dr. Anwar Janoo and students from the University of Mauritius; and to Rose Ferraby, Branko Mušič, Igor Medarič and Matjaž Mori for their geophysical reconnaisance. The work was conducted with the help of technician John Still at the University of Aberdeen. The authors also wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, which has been incorporated into the final version of this article.

Author contributions

The analysis and metallographic study of the Trianon shackle were conducted by Thomas Birch, who drafted the manuscript jointly with Krish Seetah. Diego Calaon and Saša Čaval led the fieldwork and excavations at Trianon as part of the MACH project, led by Krish Seetah, and provided commentary and illustrations for the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Main Quad, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Krish Seetah, Diego Calaon & Saša Čaval

  2. Instittut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Abt. II, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, 60629, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas Birch

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze Amientali, Informatica e Statistica (DAIS), Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Dorsoduro 3246, 30123, Venezia, Italy

    Diego Calaon

  4. Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies, Scientific Research Centre, Novi trg 2, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Saša Čaval

Authors
  1. Krish Seetah
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  2. Thomas Birch
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  3. Diego Calaon
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  4. Saša Čaval
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Birch.

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Seetah, K., Birch, T., Calaon, D. et al. Colonial iron in context: the Trianon slave shackle from Mauritius. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 419–430 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-015-0295-7

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