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News Release 06-019

Excavated Teeth Likely Came from First Africans Brought to the New World

Europeans may have imported slaves in the 1500s

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Teeth recovered in a Campeche graveyard show evidence of the African practice of filing.

Upper incisor teeth recovered from the grave in Campeche, Mexico, show evidence of filing, a distinctive practice of some 16th-century Africans.

Credit: Courtesy T. Douglas Price


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Scientists believe these are the oldest remains of slaves brought from Africa to the New World.

Digging in a colonial-era graveyard in Campeche, one of the oldest European cities in Mexico, archaeologists found and researchers chemically analyzed what they believe are the oldest remains of slaves brought from Africa to the New World.

Credit: Courtesy T. Douglas Price


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Evidence from Campeche, Mexico, places Africans in the New World in the late 1500s.

Digging near the central plaza of the port city Campeche, located on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, archaeologists have uncovered evidence that suggest Africans were brought to the New World as slaves as long ago as the late 1500s.

Credit: Barry Carlsen


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