A glimpse into the body shape and limb proportions of enslaved Africans from Lagos, Portugal (15th–17th centuries)

Abstract

At the beginning of the Portuguese maritime expansion (15th century), ships loaded with various goods, including sub-Saharan enslaved individuals, began to arrive in Portugal. In 2009, osteoarchaeological remains of these individuals were recovered for the first time in Valle da Gafaria, Lagos. Attending to their African origin and given that several studies have shown that the human body generally conforms to Bergmann's and Allen's rules, in this study, the physique of 63 adult individuals from the Valle da Gafaria site is tested against ecogeographical predictions. For that purpose, body shape (assessed by the femoral head diameter to femoral length index) and intralimb proportions (brachial and crural indices) were compared with those of 200 identified Portuguese skeletons. Results showed that the Lagos females' body shape and intralimb proportions differed significantly from those of the Portuguese, being more ‘tropically adapted’ (i.e., more ‘linear’ body shape with elongated distal limb segments). For the Lagos' males, the reduced sample size advises caution in the interpretation of the results. Although the specific origin of the Lagos individuals is not yet known, and different individuals may have come from relatively different regions of sub-Saharan Africa, with specific climatic adaptations, the results generally agree with the ecogeographical expectations. This study not only allows for the first glimpse into the body shape and limb proportions of enslaved Africans arriving in Portugal but also confirms that morphometric analyses of the long bones may be a valuable complement to investigate the latitude origin of an osteoarchaeological assemblage.