Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

4 / Historical Archaeology in Cuba
Lourdes S. Domínguez
Compared to many other countries, Cuba was early to adopt Historical Archaeology
as a signi¤cant sub¤eld within the discipline. I had the honor of
playing a part in its humble beginnings. My ¤rst work was in the Casa de la
Obrapía in Old Havana in 1970 (Domínguez 1980, 1981), the ¤rst controlled
and systematic excavation conducted in the colonial part of the city. That
same year, I conducted a study on the majolicas from this and a few other sites
in Old Havana, the ¤rst study on Spanish majolicas since the work of Goggin
(1968) and Fairbanks (1972) from the University of Florida. It was because of
our studies on these ceramics that Kathleen Deagan visited the island in 1970
to examine our collections. Eventually, these collections were mentioned in
her book on early Spanish ceramics in the Caribbean and Florida (Deagan
1987).
Later, I had the opportunity to work on the slave cemetery of the Ingenio
Taoro, in the town of Cangrejeras (Province of Havana), to the best of my
knowledge the ¤rst cemetery of its kind excavated in the Caribbean. Between
1972 and 1974, I worked on the ruins of cafetales (coffee haciendas or plantations)
in the hilly region of Pinar del Río, west of Havana. Interestingly, because
of the in®uence of plantation owners ®eeing the Haitian revolution,
these sites have architectural features distinct from those of others found in
Cuba. Some lack slave quarter areas because slaves apparently lived in their
own houses scattered throughout the property.
During the more than 30 years that I have been working in Historical
Archaeology, this discipline has evolved markedly, to where it is now an inte-