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Stable carbon and nitrogen
isotopic analyses of the
underclass at the colonial Cape
of Good Hope in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries
Glenda Cox , Judith Sealy , Carmel Schrire & Alan
Morris
Published online: 05 Nov 2010.
To cite this article: Glenda Cox , Judith Sealy , Carmel Schrire & Alan Morris (2001)
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses of the underclass at the colonial Cape of
Good Hope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, World Archaeology, 33:1, 73-97,
DOI: 10.1080/00438240126647
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Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic
analyses of the underclass at the
colonial Cape of Good Hope in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Glenda Cox, Judith Sealy, Carmel Schrire and Alan
Morris
Abstract
Analysis of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of burials in a colonial cemetery in Cape
Town, South Africa, reveals life histories of the underclass there. We are able to distinguish foreign
from local-born people, and to infer social status, speciŽcally slavery, by linking bone chemistry and
somatic modiŽcation. This is the Žrst use of bone chemistry to reconstruct the life histories of a
mixed population of diverse origin, buried in a cosmopolitan colonial city. As such, it may be used
as a guide for future work in other colonial sites.
Keywords
Stable isotopes; dental modiŽcation; slavery.
Introduction
This is an analysis of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of a series of burials
from a colonial cemetery of the underclass in Cape Town, South Africa (Fig. 1). The
remains were interred sometime between 1750 and 1827, a time that spans the transition
of power from the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or
VOC) to full British rule, and encompasses also the period of slavery, which lasted here
from 1652 until abolition in 1834. We present a brief overview of the political and social
context followed by the isotopic analysis of the remains and the interpretation of their
signature.
The Žrst European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope was established in 1652 by
the Dutch East India Company (VOC), as a refreshment station for shipping between the
World Archaeology Vol. 33(1): 73–97 The Archaeology of Slavery
© 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online
DOI: 10.1080/0043824012004764 5

74 Glenda Cox et al.
Figure 1 Map of the south-western Cape showing archaeological sites mentioned in the text.
Netherlands and the Indies, at the site of present-day Cape Town. The VOC remained in
command of the Cape until 1795, when the British took over. It reverted to the Dutch in
1803, as the Batavian Republic, only to be ceded back to Britain in 1806. Renamed the
Cape Colony, it remained under British rule until 1910 and, together with the land as far
north as the Limpopo River, the country achieved independence in the 1930s as the Union
of South Africa.
The initial settlement lay squarely in the path of the VOC shipping route midway
between its European homeland and its Eastern trading realms. It soon became clear that
the indigenous Khoekhoe pastoral foragers would not provide enough fresh food to fulŽl
the Company’s needs, and consequently European farms and trade posts expanded
inland. Since neither the VOC employees nor the indigenous folk constituted an adequate
workforce, a solution was sought in VOC practice elsewhere. A few slaves were already
present in the Žrst Commander’s household, but the Žrst signiŽcant shipments of slaves
arrived at the Cape in 1658 from Dahomey and Angola, which were controlled by the
Dutch West India Company. They were practically the only West Africans at the Cape,
and thereafter most slaves originated in VOC possessions further east (Armstrong and
Worden 1989: 111–12). Slaves came in almost equal proportions from Africa and Asia:
Africans were shipped in from Madagascar and East Africa, and Asians from India, Sri

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 75
Lanka and the Indonesian archipelago (Armstrong and Worden 1989; Ross 1983; Shell
1994a), to constitute ‘a broad palette unparalleled in any other recorded slave population
anywhere in the world’ (Shell 1994a: 46).
From the inception of the Cape settlement in 1652 until the ban on the oceanic slave
trade in British realms came into effect in 1808, about 63,000 slaves were imported into
the Cape (Armstrong and Worden 1989; Shell 1994a: 40). This Žgure pales alongside
11–12 million Africans sold into slavery in the Žfteenth to nineteenth centuries, of whom
some 10 million reached the Americas (Lovejoy 1989: 373). Numbers aside, the impact of
slavery at the Cape was deeply consequential and many argue that it profoundly shaped
today’s South Africa (Ross 1983; Shell 1994a; Worden 1985; see Shell 1994b for a masterly
historiographic review). Where homelands were concerned, 26.4 per cent came from East
Africa, 25.1 per cent from Madagascar, 25.9 per cent from India and 22.7 per cent from
Indonesia (Shell 1994a: 41). Until 1692 the Company owned most of the slaves, but, by
the end of VOC rule in 1795, most of the 16,839 slaves at the Cape were privately owned
(Armstrong and Worden 1989: 129). In addition, as the colony expanded, there was a shift
from a dominantly urban to a rural slave population. The period with which we are
concerned saw a drop from 40 per cent of all slaves living in Cape Town in 1767 (Shell
1994a: 138), to a mere 15 per cent there on the eve of abolition (ibid.: 140). An estimated
6,222 of the total 33,000 slaves were living in Cape Town when the Cobern Street burial
ground was no longer in use in 1827 (Banks 1994: 80). After the oceanic slave trade in
British realms ended around 1807–8, apart from ‘prize negros’ (ex-slaves released from
captured slave ships), the slave population was augmented by natural increase. The Žrst
moment of creolization was achieved between 1760 and 1769 when local-born slaves
outnumbered foreign imports, and on the eve of emancipation, in 1833, around 60 per
cent of the roughly 38,000 slaves were locally born (Armstrong and Worden 1989: 132;
Shell 1994a: 47).
Under VOC rule the urban centre was an international port, a military outpost and
penal colony, whose eclectic mix of people included indigenous Khoekhoen, Company
employees, free burghers, slaves, free blacks, Chinese convicts, political prisoners and
bandieten (criminals sentenced to hard labour) (Elphick and Shell 1989: 217; Yap and Man
1996; Worden et al. 1998). English-speaking colonial settlers and administrators later
joined this cosmopolitan society. In Cape Town slaves and servants worked for the
Company, for townsfolk including European merchants and market farmers and, on
occasion, for free blacks and manumitted slaves. African slaves, especially those from
Mozambique, generally worked as labourers, while Indians, Indonesians and free blacks
operated as craftsmen, artisans, builders, coachmen and hawkers. Women worked as laun-
dresses, wet nurses and household servants. In religious matters, VOC adherence to the
Dutch Reformed Church and its exclusivity encouraged the growth of Islam among slaves
and political exiles from the East Indies (Armstrong and Worden 1989: 148–9; Elphick
and Shell 1989: 191–2). Active proselytizing by Muslim priests or imams, who came to the
Cape as political prisoners, engendered a ourishing Muslim community among slaves
and free blacks that reached a good third of Cape Town’s population between 1730 and
1750 (Da Costa 1985: 72; Elphick and Shell 1989: 191–4).
Colonial sites excavated over the past twenty years include the VOC Castle of Good
Hope, outposts and shipwrecks in the greater Cape Town area, as well as British town and

76 Glenda Cox et al.
frontier sites there and in the Eastern Cape (see Cruz-Uribe and Schrire 1991; Hall 1991a,
1991b; Hall et al. 1988; Hall and Markell 1993; Hall et al. 1990a, 1990b, 1993; Markell et
al. 1995; Schrire 1995; Schrire and Deacon 1989; Schrire et al. 1990, 1993; Werz 1992, 1993;
Winer and Deetz 1990). The material identity of the colony’s underclass is inferred from
the residues at the Old Granary of the VOC Castle (Hall 1992: 389–90). Current excava-
tions in the courtyard of the Old Slave Lodge (Abrahams-Willis 2000) and prospective
old farms and washhouses of the Upper Table Valley (Grzymala and Schrire pers. comm.)
all hope to address this issue. To date, the only indisputable evidence of slavery comes
from the slave lodge at the 1699 farm of Vergelegen (Markell 1993; Markell et al. 1995),
where a cofŽn buried below the oor in the late eighteenth–early nineteenth century
contained the remains of a woman whose isotopic proŽle revealed a change of diet consist-
ent with the life history of an imported African slave (Sealy et al. 1993, 1995). Readings
similar to her childhood diet also appeared in a number of individuals buried in 1818 on
the shore of Table Bay after the shipwreck of a Portuguese slaver bound for Brazil (Cox
and Sealy 1997).
The Cobern Street burial ground
Discovery
The Cobern Street burial ground was discovered during construction in 1994, and lies to
the west of the central business district and the harbour of modern Cape Town (Fig.1).
Archaeological rescue work was initiated by Alan Morris (Department of Anatomy,
Medical School, University of Cape Town) and led to the systematic excavation and recov-
ery of sixty-three intact graves and various scatters of bone, representing a total of 121
individuals (Apollonio 1998; Constant and Louw 1997; Morris 1999).
Age of the Cobern Street graveyard
Our estimate of a date of graveyard use between c.1750 and 1827 is based on a number
of things. First, the site lies in between a number of ofŽcially mapped graveyards dating
from 1755–1840 (Fig. 2). Contemporary observers, such as Johannes Schumacher, illus-
trated grave markers outside the ofŽcial burial grounds of the eighteenth century
(Hallema 1951, see Fig. 3) and Robert Jacob Gordon identiŽed a slaaven begraafplaats
(slave burial ground) lying north-west of the Burgher Kerkhof and the Soldaten Kerkhof
in a map of c. 1790 (Cape Archives (CA): AR TOPO 120F, AR TOPO 1585). Second,
an initial date of c.1760 is suggested by a reference to the granting of new land for a ceme-
tery after the Dutch Reformed Church burial ground Žlled up following a smallpox
epidemic in 1755 (Alphabetical register of ‘Kerkraadsnotule’: 77). Four sets of associ-
ated grave goods provide a more direct age estimate (see Table 1). First, a terminus post
quem for Burial 61 is provided by the associated silver snuffbox engraved ‘MHK 1764’.
Second, three matching silver buttons in Burial 52, bearing the crown and initials of
George III probably signify a military jacket (Plate 1). Although George III reigned from
1760 to 1820, this garment is likely to have reached the Cape sometime after the British

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 79
Table 1 Burials with grave goods and associated attributes.
#
Sex
MT Type CofŽn Shroud Personal items
Diet during
youth
3
12
M
M
F
–
–
–
B
B
B
*
*
*
–
–
*
Shackle, buttons
Buttons
Cane tube and rounded beads
Pipe stem
Local
C3
C3
14A
14B Infant
15
18
21
24
27
28
36
41
M
F
F
M
M
F
Infant
M
–
–
–
–
–
–
B
B
B
D
B
B
*
*
*
–
*
*
–
–
*
–
*
–
Buttons, cufinks
Pipe, shells
Cane tube beads, shells
Iron strap
Razor, buttons, beads, sherd
Glass fragment
Thimble
Iron razor blade, pipe, tobacco
plug, tinderbox, int, strike-a-light,
chain, wire circlet, fabric, metal
disc
C3
C4/C3
C4
Local
Local
Local
–
B
?
–
Local
49
50
51
M
M
M
*
*
–
B
B
B
*
*
*
–
–
–
Tinderbox, strike-a-light, fabric, pipe C4
Metal loop
C4
Button, pipe, earthenware pendant
fragment
52
54
61
F
M
F
*
–
–
B
B
B
*
–
*
–
–
–
Buttons, fabric, penknife, pipe, int C4
Pipe stem, bone handled knife C3
Buttons, needle case, snuffbox 1764, Local
shell
Notes
# Burial number allocated during excavation
MT ModiŽed teeth
* CofŽn is present inferred from wood, nails, etc.
Shroud is inferred from copper pins
C3: <–17‰, C4/C3: –14 to –12‰, C4: > –12‰
occupation of 1795. Given that its last wearer was a female, and therefore unlikely to
have acquired it when new, the interment is ascribed to the early nineteenth century.
Third, four clay tobacco pipes associated with various burials were manufactured
between 1727 and 1843 (Apollonio 1998: 76–7; Graf 1995) and have bowl shapes typical
of the eighteenth century (Duco 1987: 43–8). The Žnal date of the burials is linked to a
deed of 1827, when the Cobern Street lot became the development property of one G.
H. Meyer, thus ending its use as a burial ground (Deeds OfŽce (DO): Grant, Vol. 1 no.
79, 2.2.1827; Diagram 15/1827).
Status and class of the people buried
The extent to which the Cobern Street ground may be termed ‘informal’ depends on the
conditions that pertained in the formal, walled cemeteries alongside, which we do not
know. It may be considered ‘informal’ in the sense that it is absent from ofŽcial maps, and

80 Glenda Cox et al.
Plate 1 Buttons from Cobern Street Burials 52.
contains irregularly placed burials of various forms, some of which were disturbed by
subsequent ones. Informal yards were generally the province of the poor, unbaptised
underclass, whether free or not. Aspects of the morphology of the bones indicate that
people buried at Cobern Street worked as manual labourers (Ledger et al. 2000). The
poor, including slaves and free blacks, had untidy and unkempt graves (Backhouse 1834:
81). They were often buried unceremoniously (Anon 1806: 248; CA, BR 19: 2430), especi-
ally in times of heavy mortality, such as pertained during the 1755 smallpox epidemic
(Laidler and Gelfand 1971: 56). Poor widows sometimes dug their husbands’ graves (De
Kock 1950: 145), and owners occasionally buried their slaves illegally (Plakaatboek
27/12/1793; 11/1/1794), even in their own gardens (Shell 1989: 59). Religion also dictated
burial practice. The VOC issued an injunction in 1770 that Christians, speciŽcally adher-
ents at the Cape of the ofŽcial Dutch Reformed Church, must educate and baptise their
slaves. This was, however, largely ignored, because it posed a threat to property, since
Christian slaves could not be sold (Elphick and Shell 1989: 190–1). As a result, slave
baptism was rare. Unbaptised slaves and free blacks, being barred from the ofŽcial walled
burial grounds of the Dutch Reformed Cemetery in Cape Town (DRC, G1 3/1: 169) were
interred in informal yards in the general area around Somerset Road. After the British
granted religious freedom in 1804, all denominations were gradually allocated their own
demarcated graveyards (Fig. 3). By then the fruits of the VOC failure to baptise and
convert the underclass to Christianity were patent in the rise of Islam among slaves and
free blacks.
Burial patterns
Four different burial placements – Types A–D – were found at the Cobern Street site.
Type A were pre-colonial Later Stone people whose date and context suggest that the
people who subsequently dug the colonial graves did not know they were there. The other
burials, whether in cofŽns or not, were all of colonial age. Type B was the most common
form, with individuals lying on their backs, arms extended at the sides or folded over the

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 81
Plate 2 Cobern Street Burial 57: Type C, Žnal exposure. Scale in 50cm. (Apollonio 1998: 131).
pelvis. There were three multiple Type B graves: Burial 14 contained a woman and a child,
Burial 20, a man, woman and child and Burial 27 was a male buried in a cofŽn; the burial
shaft contained human bone (Apollonia 1998: 63). Type C burials were dug deeper and
hence may be earlier than Type B ones, have no evidence of cofŽns, and the bodies lay
on their right sides, oriented at right angles to most of the Type B burials. Three had niches
cut into the shaft for the head and feet (Plate 2). Finally, Type D were bone scatters such
as might result from hasty burials in an unmarked yard or burials disturbed by subsequent
interments (Apollonio 1998).
The cultural practices attendant on the burials are listed in Table 1. CofŽn burial was
patent in 56 per cent of all burials and 79.5 per cent of the Type B ones. Although many
of the burials were badly disturbed (Apollonio 1998), seven cofŽns retained special
features such as legs and handles. One (Burial 60) had iron brackets, another (Burial 50),
a white painted surface, and a third (Burial 52) was stained green, either by paint or
copper sheeting. Many Type B burials included artefacts such as buttons, pins and other
items, suggesting the presence of clothes, shrouds and cultural practices relating to iden-
tity and afterlife (Table 1). In dramatic contrast, Type C burials lacked cofŽns, burial
shrouds and grave goods.
An important cultural marker is patent in seven individuals whose teeth were chipped
or Žled into artiŽcial shapes (Plates 3 and 4). Six of them were buried in Type B pattern
in cofŽns (Burials 20A, B, 49, 50, 52, 60); two of them shared a single cofŽn (20A, B) and
the last (No 40), had no apparent cofŽn. Similar teeth were noted among slaves from
Mozambique, who drowned at the Cape after their ship was wrecked en route to Brazil
in 1818 (Cox and Sealy 1997).

82 Glenda Cox et al.
Plate 3 Cobern Street Burial 49 showing modiŽed teeth, and associated grave goods, including
tinderbox and English pipe (1748–70) (Apollonio 1998: 77).
Isotopic analysis
Isotopic measurements of human skeletons
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of the skeletons was done to investigate the
origin and diversity of the individuals buried at Cobern Street. Stable carbon and nitro-
gen isotope ratios in bone vary according to the foods the person ate during life. 13C/12C
variations depend mostly on the photosynthetic pathways of plants at the bottom of the
food chain; these are different in tropical and temperate areas. Thus people in temper-
ate areas such as Western Europe, where plants use the C3 photosynthetic pathway, typi-
cally have bone collagen d13C values of around –21‰ (see caption to Figure 4 for a
deŽnition of d13C). Important C3 crop plants are wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice and virtu-
ally all fruits and vegetables. Eating large quantities of seafood leads to more positive
d13C values for bone collagen, up to about –11‰. In tropical regions, grasses use the C4
photosynthetic pathway, and people who eat diets based entirely on C4 plants (and
animals that also eat C4 plants) have bone collagen d13C of about –7‰. Important C4

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 83
Plate 4 Cobern Street Burial 50: dental modiŽcation.
crop plants include maize, millets, sorghum and sugar cane. Using carbon isotopes alone,
it is not possible to differentiate seafood and C4-based foods, but both are clearly distin-
guishable from C3-based diets. People who eat mixtures of C3- and C4-based foods have
isotope values intermediate between the endpoints given above (Van der Merwe 1982;
Katzenberg and Harrison 1997).
Nitrogen isotope ratios are not inuenced by photosynthetic pathway. In most parts of
the world, 15N/14N ratios are lower on land than in the sea, offering an additional means
of discriminating between terrestrial foods and seafoods in diet. Consumers of terrestrial
foods generally have bone collagen d15N values of 10‰ or less, while people who eat a
great deal of seafood may have values up to 20‰. In arid areas, where rainfall is less than
about 400mm. per annum, terrestrial systems, too, may yield elevated d15N values
(Schwarcz et al. 1999).
Bone turnover
Different calciŽed tissues in the skeleton have different histories of formation. Tooth
enamel forms during childhood and is not replenished in later life. Tooth dentine forms
mostly during childhood. Bone, on the other hand, is a much more dynamic tissue, and is
continually being resorbed and re-deposited throughout life. The rate of this bone
‘turnover’ is faster for cancellous than for cortical bone. Thus different parts of a human
skeleton consist of tissue laid down at different stages of life, and record the diet eaten at

84 Glenda Cox et al.
that time. Stable isotope analyses of teeth compared with cortical and cancellous bone
have been used to trace changes in diet and place of residence during life, where people
have moved from (say) an area where foods are predominantly C4, to regions where diets
are C3-based, or include more seafood (Sealy et al. 1993, 1995; Cox and Sealy 1997;
Richards et al. 1998; Cox 1999). Thus, isotopic studies of the people buried at Cobern
Street may help to ascertain whether they were immigrants to the Cape or had lived there
all their lives.
Sampling
Fifty-three of the sixty-three burials excavated at Cobern Street were sampled for isotopic
analysis. Neonates, pre-term babies and children under the age of 10 were excluded, with
two exceptions. The most complete individuals were chosen, so that samples could be
taken from multiple skeletal elements, including cortical and cancellous bone and teeth,
to assess diet at different stages of life. Composite burials including more than one indi-
vidual were avoided unless individuals could be clearly distinguished. Priority was given
to burials with contextual information, including distinctive burial patterns, associated
grave goods and unusual physical features, e.g. modiŽed teeth.
Results
The range of variation in diet among the individuals buried at Cobern Street is shown in
Figure 4 (see Table 2). The tooth dentine values represent the diets of these individuals
during youth, whereas the cancellous bone values represent the diets consumed later in
life. Cortical bone values represent an average value for the diet over at least Žfteen to
twenty years.
Where childhood diet is concerned, isotopic values for the teeth of the Cobern Street
skeletons show a considerable range of values. The most enriched d13C values (those
closest to zero) reect diets that included tropical C4 plants, such as maize, sorghum or
millets. Skeletons in which both d13C and d15N are enriched ate marine foods. The most
negative d13C values result from diets based on temperate C3 plants, such as wheat, oats
or rice. The range of d13C values for cortical bone is only slightly smaller than that for
tooth dentine, and there is greater clustering of points for the cancellous bone. The widely
scattered values for the teeth attest to the diverse origins of the people buried at Cobern
Street.
Nine individuals from Type B burials have teeth with positive d13C values but relatively
low d15N values and appear as outliers on the right hand side of Figure 4. These include
all seven individuals with modiŽed teeth, and two individuals (Burials 21 and 58) with
unmodiŽed teeth. This group ate tropical (C4-based) diets in childhood with little, if any,
seafood. On the other hand, four out of Žve of the Type C burials have very negative d13C
values, and appear as outliers on the left-hand side of the graph. Their diets were based
on C3 plants from temperate environments.
Animals raised on controlled diets show inter-individual variation in isotope values of
up to 2‰ (DeNiro and Schoeninger 1983). This is not an entirely satisfactory way to esti-
mate baseline variability in human isotope ratios, but we will focus here on skeletons with

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 85
Figure 4 Plot of d13 C and d15 N results from all skeletons on tooth dentine and cancellous bone.
Isotopic ratios are expressed as delta (d) units as follows:
13 C/12 Csample
13 C =
- 1 1000
‰
13 C/12 Cstandard
15 N/14 Nsample
15 N/14 Nstandard
15 N =
- 1 1000 ‰
intra-skeletal differences in isotope ratios of 2‰ or more. This degree of variation is likely
to be the result of behavioural (dietary) changes, rather than normal physiological vari-
ation. In Figure 5, d13C and d15N for dentine have been subtracted from the rib values of
the same individual in order to show the amount of change in the isotope ratios. Fifteen

88 Glenda Cox et al.
individuals show a change of more than 2‰. They include Žve of the seven Type B burials
with modiŽed teeth (Burials 20B, 49, 50, 52 and 60), and four of the Žve Type C Burials
(32, 57, 59 and 65). Burial 40, who was only 12 years old at death, shows a strong C4 signa-
ture in all skeletal elements and might have joined this group had he lived longer at the
Cape. Other dietary shifts are seen in Žve more Type B burials: d13C values become more
positive in later life in burials 14 and 54, and more negative in burials 18, 21 and 58. Finally,
Type B burial 44’s d15N shifts to lower values in later life (Fig. 5).
In other words, eleven Type B and four Type C burials show substantial intra-skeletal
variation in isotopic values. Type B burials show some clustering of points for the rib
values, suggesting that this group ate a more uniform diet before death. There are,
however, a number of outliers, which suggests that, although these people were buried in
a similar style, they did not necessarily share a cultural afŽnity. This is most obvious in the
readings from the Žve individuals with modiŽed teeth (Burials 20B, 49, 50, 52 and 60) and
two without (Burials 58, 21), all of whom ate diets in early life based on C4 foods, then
changed to C3-based diets in later life. The d13C and d15N of teeth from the individuals
with dental modiŽcations suggested heterogeneity within this group. Diets included
almost exclusively tropical C4-based foods with no marine intake for some individuals and
diets with both C4 and marine food for others.
The Type C burials, interred on their sides (Burials 32, 57, 59, 64 and 65), show a rather
different pattern. 13C-depleted values for their teeth suggest diets in early life based
mostly on C3 plants such as rice or wheat and their low d15N values indicate that they ate
little seafood. The d13C values are not as depleted as those found in Western Europeans
(Kennedy 1988; Schoeninger 1989) and at least two individuals, Burials 59 and 65, ate
Figure 5 Change in diet: difference between rib and teeth values ( 13C refers to the difference in
D
d13 C between rib and dentine samples from the same individual, similarly for 15N. Numbers are
D
burial numbers).

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 89
detectable amounts of C4-based foods as children. The others may have eaten smaller
quantities. For those individuals in whom dietary changes during life can be seen (32, 57,
59 and 65), these changes led to more positive d13C and d15N values. This is most likely to
result from the addition of seafood to the diet; 32, 57 and 64 followed a similar trajectory
during their lives. Burials 59 and 64 have different life histories from one another and
from the rest of the group.
Isotopic values and life histories
When burial practice and stable isotopic ratios are combined, three major patterns emerge
to reveal the life histories of Žfty-three burials from the Cobern Street graveyard, namely
Type B burials that show dietary shifts over time, Type B burials with no major dietary
shifts over time and Type C burials with varied histories (Table 2).
Eight Type B burials, six with modiŽed teeth and two without, are of people who relied
on tropical foods during their youth and had dietary shifts over time. The pattern of a
tropical diet in early life in the Cobern Street series is similar to that of people from a
slave ship from Mozambique who died near the old Fort Knokke on the coast near Cape
Town in 1818 (Cox and Sealy 1997; Fig.1). The dental modiŽcations of people from this
slaver show four distinct patterns of modiŽcation that can be directly related to particu-
lar African populations targeted by slavers, namely the Makua, Yao and Maravi people
(Alpers 1975; Cox 1995; Cox and Sealy 1997). The presence of similar dental modiŽ-
cations, together with the evidence for a tropical diet in childhood of seven of the Cobern
Street burials, conŽrms their identiŽcation as imported African slaves. A similar identity
may be ascribed to the Cobern Street individuals without modiŽed teeth, but with a similar
dietary history. The slave woman from Vergelegen also ate a childhood diet based on C4
foods but did not have modiŽed teeth (Sealy et al. 1993, 1995; Fig. 1).
The linkage between dental modiŽcation and tropical childhood diet strongly conŽrms the
identiŽcation of these people as Žrst-generation imported African slaves. There are no
records of dental modiŽcation having been practised at the Cape, or elsewhere in the African
diaspora. Dental modiŽcation in New World skeletons has long been thought to indicate Žrst-
generation imported slaves in places like Barbados (Corrucini et al. 1982: 450; Handler 1994,
1996: 77, 1997: 98 Handler et al. 1982), Louisiana (Orser 1994: 38; Orser et al. 1986, Owsley
et al. 1985) and the African Burial Ground in New York City (Epperson 1999: 91–2). To date,
newspaper records and high levels of lead associated with rum consumption on sugar plan-
tations are the only conŽrmations of the immediate African origin of New World people with
dental modiŽcation (Corrucini et al. 1987: 236–7; Handler 1994, 1996: 77–9; Handler et al.
1986). Given that empirical conŽrmation is currently limited to plantation slaves who drank
rum, we suggest that the analyses that have been done at Cobern Street be applied to New
World skeletons in order to pinpoint imported slaves there.
The second pattern includes twenty-six Type B burials whose stable carbon and nitro-
gen isotope values do not suggest any substantial dietary change during life. Whether or
not these people shifted their residence, they continued to eat foods with isotopic values
similar to those found in and around colonial Cape Town. They may therefore have been
locally born people.

90 Glenda Cox et al.
Figure 6 Plot of d13 C and d15 N results from all skeletons on tooth dentine, individuals with modi-
Žed teeth (rounded rectangle) compared to Type C burials (circled).
The last pattern relates to the Type C burials of people lying on their right sides, with
niches for their extremities, and no cofŽns or associated grave goods. The niches resem-
ble those found with acculturated indigenous Khoisan people in the northern and western
Cape (February 1996; Morris 1992), but indigenous origin at Cobern Street is dispelled
by the isotopic signatures. Four out of the Žve people interred in Type C burials show
isotopic proŽles suggestive of a temperate environment during childhood with a C3-based
diet (such as rice) and small quantities of C4 foods (see Figure 6 which shows the Type C
individuals). This points to temperate and sub-tropical countries of origin, different from
the homelands of individuals with modiŽed teeth. Given all these features – burial pattern
(speciŽcally absence of cofŽns (Davids 1985: 86)), isotopic history and the singular fact
that the burials are oriented facing a local feature called Signal Hill, which has always
been a place of consequence for local Muslims – we suggest that these four were Žrst-
generation immigrants from Indian Ocean realms, with a religious adherence to Islam that
might have been made before or after they reached these shores (Davids 1980: 62–84; Du
Plessis 1944: 31–3; Shell 1994c: 288–9).
Conclusion
The isotopic analysis of the Cobern Street burials can now be contextualized, in relation
to associated grave goods, and hence social class, as follows:

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses 91
The origin and cultural associations of eighteen Type B burials appear in Table 1. Ten
individuals have changes in isotope ratios and may have been foreign-born. Five have
tropical signatures for their teeth suggesting African origins and were probably brought
to the Cape as slaves. With the possible exception of trade beads (Burial 21), there are
no distinctly African markers such as occur in the New World, such as the West African
pattern of nail heads in the African Burial Ground in New York City (Epperson 1999:
97–8) or the beads, necklace and cowries in the grave of a probable medicine man in
Barbados (Handler 1997: 114–21).
The Type B burials that were sampled for isotope analyses speak to no organized
religious practice, other than that which may have attended in their early lives in the
dental mutilation of certain African-born people. They lack a patent sign of organized
religion, such as may be seen in the inclusion of a Western religious object in the form of
a rosary found in a slave cofŽn in Louisiana (Orser 1994: 38; Owsley et al. 1985). They do,
however, speak to rituals attendant upon burial. All but twelve feature deŽnite evidence
of cofŽns, painted white in one case (Burial 50) and green stained in another (Burial 52).
Pins signify the presence of a shroud in three cases. Both males and females have buttons
denoting clothes, smoking paraphernalia (pipes, ints and tinderboxes), beads, razors,
knives and one earthenware pendant (Burial 51). Some graves are particularly evocative:
Burial 3, probably a locally born felon, still carries a shackle on his leg; Burial 61, a young
woman, has two valuable silver objects such as were unlikely to have been legally owned
by a poor person. Another woman (Burial 52) was born in tropical Africa according to
her isotopic proŽle and modiŽed teeth. She died after a short while at the Cape, and was
buried in a hand-me-down British military jacket. And, Žnally, there is the little family in
Burial 20, of two newly landed African slaves and a child, who may have died on board
ship or shortly after arrival.
In contrast to the Type B burials is the patent evidence of religious adherence in the
Type C ones. The total lack of grave goods, their deep graves and positioning on their
right sides facing towards Signal Hill, combined with the fact that four out of Žve of these
burials have an isotopic signature consistent with origins in and around the Indian Ocean,
constitutes a constellation of traits that concur with the prescriptions of Islam (Davids
1980: 62–84; Du Plessis 1944: 31–3; Shell 1994c: 288–9).
The isotopic analysis of the Cobern Street graves provides strong conŽrmatory evidence
for the presence of both Žrst-generation slaves from Africa and the East and locally born
people. The cultural association of Western elements in the graves of both patent foreign-
ers and local folk points to the swift incorporation of strangers into the existing cultural
world at the Cape. This was the world of the underclass, whose stamp is echoed in ceme-
teries in the New World, where cofŽns, shrouds, trade beads, pipes, as well as objects for
making Žre, sewing and cutting, speak to aspects of leisure and necessity in daily life. Over
and above the details of teeth and age, sex, race and gender, our isotopic work conŽrms
the association of people from widely different parts of the world – Muslims from the East,
Africans from the North, slaves and possible freemen from the Cape, innocents and a
felon – all united in death in a common yard. It is a picture that is emerging clearly in slave
contexts elsewhere (Epperson 1999; Singleton and Bograd 1995) and it is one that over-
rides the speciŽcities of race to reveal, instead, the emergence of an underclass and the
roots of the working class in the old colonial world.

92 Glenda Cox et al.
Acknowledgements
The excavation at Cobern Street was funded by a grant from the National Monuments
Council, now the South African Heritage Resource Agency. We thank Tim Hart and Dave
Halkett, of the Archaeology Contracts OfŽce at UCT, and many volunteers who helped
to excavate the Cobern Street burials. Debbie Constant, Graham Lowe, Lucy-May
Holtzhausen and C. Slater of the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape
Town assessed the ages and sexes of the skeletons. Antonia Malan did original archival
work and took photos of the artefacts. We are very grateful to John Lanham for over-
seeing the measurement of the isotope ratios on the mass spectrometer. The laboratory
work was funded by grants from the Foundation for Research Development (now the
National Research Foundation) of South Africa, and from the University of Cape Town,
to Judith Sealy.
Carmel Schrire is grateful for Žnancial support from the Centre for Human Evolutionary
Studies (CHES), and the Research Council, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Glenda Cox
Department of Archaeology
University of Cape Town
Judith Sealy
Department of Archaeology
University of Cape Town
Carmel Schrire
Department of Anthropology
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Alan Morris
Department of Human Biology
University of Cape Town
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Deeds OfŽce (DO)
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