The archaeology of settler farms and early plantation life in seventeenth-century barbados

This article presents methodologies employed in, and initial interpretations of, an archaeological study of a pre-sugar and sugar era Barbadian plantation. A close examination of a 1646 map reveals a pre-sugar landscape in transition as the island was in the midst of the transformative sugar revolution. The map directed archaeological investigations that recovered materials associated with pre-sugar labourers, including European indentured servants and enslaved Africans. This data is then compared to material collected from undisturbed villages for the enslaved. We discuss the significance of these findings as well as their implications for understanding the onset of early capitalistic modes of production and how they affected the lives of labourers on the Barbadian landscape.