Campeche was one of the first Spanish settlements in Mexico. This important port was founded in the Yucatan in 1540, just two decades after the troops of Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire. And little by little the enclave grew. First some little houses, then a church, later a colonial cemetery...
In little more than a century, the church gave way to an imposing cathedral in 1680. The city was already fortified at that time, to face the constant attacks of pirates. Military architecture alongside a walled historic district and baroque-style buildings.
It was also around 1680 that the first cemetery ceased to be used, spending 300 years forgotten underground. Until in the year 2000 archaeologists rediscovered both the parish and the cemetery with up to 129 early colonial burials.
To study the remains, the researchers decided to extract DNA samples, but failed. The techniques of the moment were not effective enough. But the latest advances have changed the landscape and experts from Harvard University have managed to collect genetic data from up to 10 individuals from this important site.
Their surprise when analyzing the results, as they explain in an article published in the journal Antiquity, was that, although Campeche was a multi-ethnic place from its beginnings, the different indigenous, European and sub-Saharan African populations apparently did not mix with each other.
“We expected to find individuals with mixed genetic ancestry. However, our analysis found no evidence for this”, states Dr Jakob Sedig, “This seems to indicate that, although they were buried together, the different groups maintained a certain degree of separation in life”, he adds.
Previous works had pointed out that the mestizaje process in America originated with the arrival of European colonizers (Spanish and Portuguese, especially) together with the African slaves who traveled with them, giving birth to new ethnic groups and new genetic phenotypes. But the process took longer than was believed.
"Ancient DNA extraction methods have improved to the point where we can generate robust data from hot and humid environments," said Sedig, co-senior author of the research, "Using the petrosal bone (a portion of the temporal bone of the skull), we were able to generate great data from up to 10 people,” he says.
There were six women and four men and none of them were close relatives. Most were local Native Americans, but people of European and sub-Saharan African descent were also identified. What was missing was evidence that people from different backgrounds had children together, pointing to the segregation of these groups.
"Early colonial Campeche had a multi-ethnic population, where previously disparate groups first mixed under Hispanic rule," says Professor Vera Tiesler of the Autonomous University of Yucatan. "The distribution around the cemetery, both of local people and immigrants of different origins, confirms the rapid forced integration of all communities into this new way of life."
Many of these details discovered from paleogenetic data are not found in historical records, as these focus primarily on inhabitants of European descent. "These results add a new 'human' layer to our understanding of a crucial era and location in the history of New Spain," Tiesler concludes.
