The Facts
Getty Scholar Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann and Getty Graduate Intern Tom Keep are collaborating to reimagine research and storytelling around the transatlantic slave trade through 3D digitization of artifacts from Christiansborg Castle in Ghana. Engmann, a Ghanaian researcher and associate professor, is the first scholar granted access to the UNESCO-recognized castle, a former 17th-century Danish trading post and site where captive Africans were trafficked to what is now the U.S. Virgin Islands. She is conducting its first archaeological excavation. Keep, a trained archaeologist, used photogrammetry and photometric stereo imaging to digitize artifacts including European clay pipes with unique makers' marks, creating detailed digital reconstructions and 3D-printed replicas.
The Signal
The collaboration, supported by the Getty Scholars Program's 2025-2026 theme of "Repair," aims to democratize access to archaeological materials and counter traditional power dynamics in academia. Engmann's manuscript in progress, "Slave Traders in the Family: An Autoarchaeology of the Slave Trader at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana)," explores "descendant epistemologies"—understanding the past through descendants' lived experiences. Keep's digitization allows fragile artifacts to be handled virtually, increasing accessibility for researchers, descendant communities, and the visually impaired. In response to Engmann's project, the Ghanaian Traditional Authority and government are developing plans to transform Christiansborg Castle into a museum and heritage site, which would display their work and center community engagement.
- People: Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Tom Keep, Taylor Carr-Howard
- Locations: Los Angeles, Ghana
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