Barbadian Gothic: The Moving Coffins of the Chase Vault in Socio-Cultural Context

Abstract

The Chase family vault (Oistins, Barbados) is widely known as the setting of a macabre nineteenth-century story of moving coffins. On several occasions between 1812 and 1821, on opening the sealed vault to add a new burial, the neatly stacked coffins were found scattered. This legend has never been examined within its contemporary setting, including the Gothic literary and cultural movement. This article seeks to show that the episode reveals much about the negotiation of power in an island society on the edge of slave rebellion, where the planter class were fearful of the enslaved peoples’ continued practice of the banned spiritual and healing rituals known as Obeah. The article further examines how the story reflects notions of otherness, death, materiality, and memory in early nineteenth-century Barbados, where the ordered Protestant world of the planters clashed with what they perceived as the elemental worldview of the enslaved African and Afro-Barbadian population.     

On the provenance and manufacture of red-slipped fine ware from ancient Cassope (NW Greece): evidence by X-ray analytical methods

Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to characterize red-slipped pottery (2nd–1st century BC) from ancient Cassope, north-western Greece. The compositional data were statistically treated by principal component analysis and chemical groups were established, representing locally produced and imported items. Mineralogical investigation by X-ray diffraction indicated firing temperatures in the range from 850 to 1000 °C for most of the sherds, while one group consisted of over-fired items, possibly in excess of 1050 °C. The morphology and elemental composition of the ceramic bodies and surface slips were examined through scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The analyses revealed that different pottery groups exhibit surface slips of different nature, in terms of thickness, degree of vitrification and elemental composition. Overall, the diversity in technological characteristics of the examined sherds is indicative of the socio-economic conditions prevailing in Cassopaea during the late Hellenistic period.     

Evidence for size increase in an exploited mollusc: humped conch (Strombus gibberulus) at Chelechol ra Orrak,Palau from ca. 3000–0 BP

Past research has suggested that the humped conch (Strombus gibberulus), a species common in many prehistoric archaeological sites in the Pacific, declines in size and/or abundance over time. Explanations for this phenomenon largely revolve around the possibility that they were overharvested by human populations. In this study, we measured the length and width of over 1400 individual specimens of S. gibberulus shells recovered from the site of Chelechol ra Orrak in Palau, western Micronesia, in deposits dating from ca. 3000 BP to the present. Statistical analysis indicates that in contrast to previous reports, there is a significant size increase for this taxon through time which may be the result of a combination of anthropogenic and environmental factors. We discuss variables influencing mollusc size and suggest that, given the complexities of their interactions and the data limitations of archaeomalacological assemblages, unambiguous determination of the cause(s) of molluscan size change may not always be possible.     

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

Ohne Zusammenfassung