| Summary: | The archaeology of the colonial period allows us to gain a better understanding of how enslaved Africans on sugar plantations in the French Caribbean survived and to track changes in practices and use of artefacts which mark the beginning of Creole culture. In this context, archaeology can give a voice to “people without history” – those who are often absent from the written record, by studying the material record of their lives: architecture, spatial manipulation, artefacts. Archaeology can also reveal differences between the written record and every day conditions. The study of sugar plantation slave villages in the Martinique and Guadeloupe (with their divergent historical trajectories), reveals differences and similarities, and provides a basis for comparison between other plantations, rural and urban settings, islands (Anglophone, Francophone) and crops (indigo, coffee, sugar).
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