Entanglement and Colonial Power: A Geophysical Case Study of Settlement Patterns at Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As the Spanish entered Guatemala in AD 1523, they did so with the aid of thousands of Indigenous warriors. Though often ignored in history, the role of these Indigenous allies was fundamental in colonizing and maintaining new territories for the Spanish Crown. These Indigenous conquistadors settled alongside the Spanish in the peripheries of their newly constructed towns. Town planning and spatial organization were forms of social control utilized by the Spanish to exert and create social hierarchy in their towns (Soja 1989). The organization of Indigenous space in Spanish towns illuminate the degree in which these cultural groups were entangled in Spanish policy. With the use of remote sensing, specifically testing for magnetic susceptibility, I surveyed the peripheral communities of Ciudad Vieja, the archaeological remains of the first villa de San Salvador, El Salvador (AD 1528). Geophysical survey illuminated the settlement patterns of these peripheral communities and demonstrated the ways in which Indigenous allies maintained a semblance of autonomy or negotiated power in their communities during the conquest era.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33534