Scott Hussey is an ABD doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at UF. His dissertation project investigates a network of captivity and ransom of European Christians during the Early Modern period (1500-1800) in the Mediterranean. For his doctoral research, he excavated a sealed and well-preserved subterranean dungeon associated with Christian servitude in North Africa: the Mazmorras of Tétouan, Morocco. Estimates of European enslaved captives in North Africa during the Early Modern period have been a source of contention among scholars, in part because of a lack of archaeological evidence.
Scott’s archaeological research is the first to corroborate historical accounts of Christian captives, prisoners, and slaves by identifying a locus where Christian captives were actually kept. His historical research builds on these findings to demonstrate the Mazmorra’s position within small-scale networks of capture and ransom within a North African interfaith frontier between Spain and Morocco. As part of this project, he also collaborated with Moroccan authorities to create a heritage management plan to preserve the Mazmorras. Scott adopted a holistic vision of digital humanities which led me to create of a digital reconstruction of the dungeons. The information gathered during his dissertation and the virtual tour of the Mazmorras will be made available in an online museum accessible to international audiences.