Puerto Rico (U.S.) (Geographic Keyword)
1-12 (12 Records)
This paper presents the preliminary findings of a research project that uses the registries of vessels(Relación de Navíos) from the Royal Treasury of Puerto Rico to study the quantity of people that arrived to the island during the first half of the 16th century, at the height of the Spanish colonization. The main objective of this research is to quantify the passengers and vessels that arrived at the two main ports in Puerto Rico: San Juan and San Germán. The incorporation of this documentary...
Cattle management, Archives, and Geoarchaeology: Using Documentary Data to Understand the Role of Cattle Management in Transforming Puerto Rican Environments (2018)
Livestock have been an important component of Puerto Rican subsistence since European colonization to the present. Raising cattle to produce hides, meat, dairy, and other products was envisioned and exploited as an alternative source of income during periods of economic instability in the island, particularly during the period between 1660 and 1750. While in many parts of the Americas grazing caused significant changes to the local ecosystems through soil erosion and fertility loss, the role of...
Females in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in 1910. (2018)
This research concentrates on reconstructing the identity and roles of females living in the city of Arecibo, Puerto Rico in the early 20th century. Using data from the 1910’s Puerto Rico census as primary source, I intend to identify the jobs and professions reported for the arecibeñas (female from Arecibo) living in urban blocks close to the main city square. The documentation consulted also provides information on their age, marital status, and family role. The objective of this investigation...
History and Research Potential of the Hale Smith Collection from Castillo San Felipe del Morro, San Juan National Historic Site, National Park Service (2016)
This presentation reconstructs the history of the archaeological collection resulting from the 1961 excavations at the Castillo de San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico carried out by Dr. Hale Smith, from a collections management perspective. A chronological timeline of the field and laboratory work will allow understanding the type and amount of analyses that has been completed for this collection. Particular consideration is given to the current location of the artifacts, notes and...
Introduction (2018)
Introduction to the session.
Land use and evolution of Castillo San Felipe del Morro's Esplanade (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Military Sites Archaeology in the Caribbean: Studies of Colonialism, Globalization, and Multicultural Communities" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Construction of Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico began in 1539 and completed by the end of the eighteenth century. This massive fortification, located on the northwestern side of the islet, safeguards the entrance to the bay, and still...
Puerto Rico’s Cook Books: Recipes of a History (2016)
Puerto Rico’s history is a blend of the different ethnicities that settled in the island after the Spanish Conquest. This ethnogenesis can be studied through the culinary traditions that conform what we now refer to as criollo. Using the works of Mary C. Beaudry and Elizabeth M. Scott as a sounding board, this research consists of two parts. First, an analysis of cooking books available in Puerto Rico during the 19th century in order to establish the different methods and tools available at the...
Reassessing the 1898 U.S. assault on Asomante through battlefield archeology (2016)
Military confrontations during the first half of August of 1898, between Coamo and Aibonito, Puerto Rico, were the last known developments of the Spanish-American War. Historically, this area has been listed as the last battlefield of Spain in America. There are several factors about these military events, such as scarcity of historical resources, political conflicts of interest, and the unseemly lack of archeological research, that have kept them from being defined in the academic literature....
Reassessing the Ballajá Archaeological Collection (2018)
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, archaeological research was undertaken in urban blocks of the Santo Domingo and Ballajá wards producing one of the largest collections from within the city walls of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Part of the collection was transferred to the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. This presentation explores the contents of the collection in terms of artifacts, documents, drawings, and photographs. The objective...
A Reflection Of Society: 19th Century Mark-Making, Engravings And Inscriptions In The Caves Of Isla De La Mona. (2016)
This paper presents archaeological evidence on Isla de la Mona relating to periods of intense activity during the 19th century. Material remains inside many caves include evidence of guano extraction and mining-related. However, this is not the only evidence that can be obtained about the history of the 19th century in Mona; engravings, inscriptions and intentional marks abound in the caves. Various historic documents indicate that the island was visited by different individuals and communities,...
The use of photography to contextualize archaeological finds from the Holocaust (2016)
Studying the Holocaust from an archaeological perspective is a relatively new line of investigation, yet it is very important as many of these camps were hidden by the Nazis to conceal incriminating evidence. There may be knowledge of them, perhaps a few documents or survivors, but what happens when they die? What evidence will we have left concerning their resources, activities, or life conditions? The work done by archaeologists that study the material culture can help put the pieces together...
Women’s Occupations in Early 20th Century San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its Relevance to Archaeological Research (2018)
Women are one of the many groups which had been traditionally excluded from social science studies. Because of this, when retelling historical events many of them have become invisible and/or silenced even though they played an important role in society. My investigation concentrates on women living in San Juan, Puerto Rico as reported in the 1910 census, in two distinct areas: urban blocks from within, and outside the walled city. Through primary documents, this research will present...