Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

70 / Domínguez
since many of these sites ranked high in historical value and were destined to
house the Museos del Complejo de la O¤cina del Historiador de la Ciudad in
Havana (Suárez del Portal 1997). Numerous excavations have been conducted
within Old Havana, especially after 1990, when excavations were conducted
at the houses of Reveros de Vasconcellos and Condes de Santovenia. The topics
addressed by these two studies have ranged from diet to their signi¤cant
ceramic assemblages. In addition to the pioneering work at Convento de Santa
Clara and La Casa de la Obrapía, there are many other examples of investigations
at religious sites, among them the Convento de San Francisco de Asís or
Basílica Menor, which are representative. An extraordinary ¤nding during the
structural excavations was that the pendentives (triangular architectural features
formed by the intersection of a dome and its supporting arches) of the
central nave were ¤lled with glazed ceramics of the ¤rst third of the eighteenth
century. Other examples of religious sites are the Capilla del Loreto
of the cathedral of Havana, the Capilla de la Fortaleza de la Cabaña, the
Convento de Belén, and the Iglesia y Hospital de Paula (Vasconcellos Portuondo
2001).
Military contexts have also been the subject of several historical, architectural,
and archaeological studies. The ¤rst restoration work of this type was
conducted in the Castillo del Morro de Santiago de Cuba, but it is in Havana
that the greatest number of projects have taken place, such as the Garita de la
Maestranza. There were discovered the oldest cubilotes (an oven for the second
smelting of iron) in Cuba, as well as foundry molds for artillery pieces. Signi¤cant
archaeological studies have also been executed within the large forti¤cation
complexes that ®ank the entrance to Havana’s bay. Two of these are
the Cortina de Valdés in the Fortaleza del Morro and the foundations of the
Baluarte de San Tomás, a bastion. In recent years, the Castillo de la Punta
has been excavated, with the use of the most modern technology, as well as
the oldest fortress of the Americas, called Castillo de la Fuerza Real de La
Habana, and the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña (Romero 1995).
From a regional perspective, the contribution represented by the study of
Old Havana arises from the fact that the city walls de¤ne a time-space context
in which a sociocultural process has been developing up to the present
through a continuous occupation. This is what makes La Habana Vieja an
intriguing area for research. As a scienti¤c discipline, Historical Archaeology
in Old Havana is not subordinated to the process of restoration; rather, both
aspects are united and complement each other. It has resulted in a valuable