About The Repository
The Gorée Island Archaeological Digital Repository includes both artifacts and associated excavation records and reports from the years of work on Gorée Island. The project uses KORA (kora.matrix.msu.edu), an open source digital repository platform intended specifically for cultural heritage materials developed by Michigan State University’s MATRIX: The Center for the Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online. The digital repository will be housed at MATRIX, and will be completely open access and accessible to both scholars and the interested public. MATRIX will provide the cyberinfrastructure for this project as well as the vital preservation layer.
Gorée Island archaeological collections at IFAN
In addition to conventionally digitized materials (digital photography, scanning, etc.), the repository will feature 3D materials, digitized using stereo-photogrammetry, a technique that is far quicker, more cost effective, accurate, and less labor intensive than 3D scanning. For more details on the process of stereo-photgrammerty, see MATRIX’s recent blog post about the project).
While there are digital projects that focus on historical slave archaeology (one noteworthy example being the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery), few (if any) feature archaeological materials from African sites and none are based on a foundation of established digital archaeology data standards and with an ethos of sharing and open data. As such, the Gorée Island Archaeological Digital Repository project is uniquely positioned to make a significant contribution not only to the scholarly study of slavery within an archaeological context, but also the development of a rich digital archaeology information ecosystem. In addition to access, a central aim of the Gorée Island Archaeological Digital Repository is to preserve a important archaeological collection for future scholars and members of the public. Further, the Gorée Island Archaeological Digital Repository project will provide both a technical and methodological foundation upon which future Senegalese digital archaeology projects can be built, such as mobile applications for cultural heritage outreach and engagement, digital mapping projects, and meaningful play & serious game experiences.
Goree Island archaeological artifact
More About Gorée Island
Located to the west of the port of Dakar, Gorée Island represents one of the most compelling locations at which to explore the nature and trajectory of culture interaction in one of the earliest transnational communities of the Atlantic world. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1978, Gorée Island has been the focus of intense scholarly debate as to its place in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. Archaeological work on the island began in 2001 under the direction of Dr. Ibrahima Thiaw, Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal. The goal of the work was to explore Gorée’s role in Atlantic history through the lens of archaeological survey, testing and excavations and to provide preliminary insights on material culture, mortuary practices, refuse disposal, and site layout that could be compared to documentary sources. The data recovered was used to explore historical silences and develop hypotheses on how identity, power, gender, and class relations were regulated in the quotidian life of Goreans over the past five hundred years. In addition to the work carried out by Dr. Thiaw, several archaeological fieldschools from Rice University were carried out on Gorée Island.
The results of the excavations on Gorée Island are housed at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) and include locally manufactured pottery and metal artifacts (predominate in the pre-18th century context) and imported European trade goods including glass objects (mainly beads and glass bottles), metal objects, imported ceramics (which become important in the post 18th century context), cauris shell buttons, architectural remains, and military artifacts (shotguns, pieces of shot, gunflints). In addition, the collection includes all of the records, maps, reports, and grey literature from the various excavations.