Abstract:

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the historical archaeology of Venezuela, marking the first time such a detailed study is available in both English and Spanish. It compiles the work of leading Venezuelan archaeologists and includes recent fieldwork and unpublished research, covering a wide range of case studies from precolonial times to the republican period.

Structured in five parts, the book starts with a thorough review of the history of Venezuelan historical archaeological research, highlighting its contributions and future directions. The first section explores precolonial and contact period indigenous realities, while the second examines the indigenous experiences of colonialism, missionization, and landscape changes. The third section investigates the production of key Venezuelan commodities: coffee, sugar, salt, and contraband activities. The fourth section focuses on the archaeology of foundational cities like Coro, Santo Tomé, Maracaibo, and the development of Caracas. The fifth section looks at everyday life, including the rise of consumerism and the social practices surrounding death. An afterword emphasizes the importance of a critical historical approach in anthropology and archaeology.

Richly illustrated and well-referenced, this book highlights the extensive and diverse historical archaeological research in Venezuela, offering new insights to both Spanish and non-Spanish-speaking scholars. It aims to influence historical archaeology in Latin America, the Caribbean, and globally with its bilingual presentation.

This title is also available in Spanish

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Foreword
Sandra Montón Subías

Introduction: Tracing the Development and Charting the Future of Venezuelan Historical Archaeology
Konrad A. Antczak

PART ONE. THE EVE OF EUROPEAN INVASION AND EARLY SPANISH COLONIALISM

Worlds in Collision: Assessment and Perspectives on the Anthropology and Historical Archaeology of the System of Orinoco Regional Interdependence (SIRO)
Rafael A. Gassón P.

“Indios buenos”, “Indios malos”: Historical Archaeology of Early Colonial Indigenous Identities Processes in the Southeastern Caribbean
Andrzej T. Antczak, Ma. Magdalena Antczak, and Oliver Antczak

PART TWO. LANDSCAPES, INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, AND MISSIONIZATION

San Antonio de Mucuñó: Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Pueblo de Doctrina in the Andean Mountain Range of Mérida, Venezuela
Lino Meneses Pacheco and Gladys Gordones Rojas

The Formation of Rural Landscapes in the Quíbor Depression, Northwestern Venezuela (1530–1994): An Archaeological Perspective
Lilliam M. Arvelo B.

Spatial Dimensions of Contact in the Middle Orinoco: Colonialism and its Aftermath
Franz Scaramelli and Kay Tarble de Scaramelli

Metallurgy and Colonization in the Eighteenth-Century Jesuit Missions of the Middle Orinoco Basin, Venezuela
Ana María Navas Méndez, Franz Scaramelli, Anna Di Prinzio, and Kay Tarble de Scaramelli

An Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Approach to the Processes of Ethnic and Territorial Recomposition of the Central Venezuelan Littoral During the Colonial and Republican Periods
Pedro Rivas

PART THREE. HACIENDAS, COMMODITIES, AND TRADE

Salt and Contraband: Historical Archaeology of Foreign Seafarers in the Venezuelan Caribbean, 1638–1800
Konrad A. Antczak

Archaeology of Workplaces. Sugarcane-Mill Haciendas in Venezuela. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Luis E. Molina

La Guairita: Historical Archaeology of a Coffee Hacienda on the Periphery of Caracas, 1830–1930
Luis A. Lemoine B. and Konrad A. Antczak

PART FOUR. SETTLEMENTS, CITIES, AND URBANISM

An Archaeological, Historical, and Architectural Approximation to Santa Ana de Coro: The First Emplacement of the Colonizing Process in Venezuela
Marcia López, Josennya Noroño, and Egla Charmell Jameson

An Archaeological View of Early Urbanism in Venezuela. Three Case Studies
Iraida Vargas-Arenas and Mario Sanoja Obediente

Caracas: An Archaeological Window onto the Conformation of Its Space
Isabel De Jesús and Yadira Rodríguez

PART FIVE. SOCIETY AND EVERYDAY LIFE

Yesterday You Were Thriving and Proud: Power, British trade, and à la Carte Service in Barcelona, Venezuela, during the Nineteenth Century
George I. Amaiz M.

Cemeteries, Tombs, and the Treatment of Death in Venezuela
Alberta Zucchi and Maura Falconi

Afterword: History Adrift
Rogelio Altez Ortega

Acknowledgements

Author Biographies