Skeletons of slaves found in the Caribbean are now being examined by researchers and may provide clues about their genetic lineage.

Three sets of bones were examined using a new genetic technique to determine where exactly in Africa the slaves came from. These ancient remains were uncovered from the island of Saint Martin in 2010 where the slaves died more than 300 years ago.

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Archaeologists are still uncertain where the slaves originated from in Africa since there are no records of their identities. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Stanford University School of Medicine carefully examined teeth found in the skeletons and extracted DNA for further analysis.

Genetic data this old is considered too decayed for traditional analysis and techniques but researchers found a new method to locate the native lands of these slaves, however.

Barbarism in the middle passage brought millions of people from Africa to the Americas, according to Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist from Stanford University. Researchers have been hoping to use DNA from these remains to understand who they were, where they came from and who their descendants are today.

This study used human RNA to attract DNA segments and complete them despite their damaged state.

The African slave trade thrived when farms and plantations across the southern U.S. needed huge amounts of manual labor. This slave trade is the largest forced human migration in history and displaced and removed 12 million people from their homelands.

During this time, only a few records were available that detailed the capture and mass movement of Africans from their communities.

The findings revealed from analysis between two of the three specimens examined who were originally from a region now covered by Ghana and Nigeria. The third specimen was apparently a member of a Bantu speaking people from northern Cameroon

The individuals taken from their homelands were between the ages of 25 to 40 and died during the late 17th century.

This new DNA analysis method is specifically developed for this study to reveal important information about old human remains from centuries ago. Further analysis of these genetic codes of the slaves can also provide links of how human trade occurred across the Atlantic Ocean that ended 150 years ago.

According to Hannes Schroeder of the University of Copenhagen, these findings show genomic data can be used to determine the genetic ancestry of long dead and poorly preserved people, especially when historical information is missing.

This study was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

TagsDNA analysis african slaves, DNA, 17th century african slaves DNA, Africa