Columbus' foundation of Hispanic America.

Columbus' foundation of Hispanic America. KATHLEEN DEAGAN & JOSE MARIA CRUXENT. Columbus' Outpostamong the Tainos: Spain and America at La Isabela La Isabela in the Dominican Republic is considered the first formal European settlement in the New World. The first settlement regardless of other factors is La Navidad in neighboring Haiti. It was founded by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493. , 1493-1498. x + 294pages, 101 figures, 3 tables. 2002. New Haven New Haven,city (1990 pop. 130,474), New Haven co., S Conn., a port of entry where the Quinnipiac and other small rivers enter Long Island Sound; inc. 1784. Firearms and ammunition, clocks and watches, tools, rubber and paper products, and textiles are among the many (CT): Yale UniversityPress; 0-300-09040-4. Hardback 25 [pounds sterling]. KATHLEEN DEAGAN & Jose MARIA CRUXENT. Archaeology at LaIsabela, America's first European town. xxxii + 377 pages, 164figures, 44 tables. 2002. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press;0-300-09041-2. Hardback 45 [pounds sterling]. Archaeology at La Isabela and Columbus' Outpost among theTainos are arguably two of the most important volumes in historicalarchaeology to be published in decades. Resulting from the multi-yearcollaboration of Kathleen Deagan and Jose Mafia Cruxent, these companionpublications detail the Columbian enterprises that forever changed theworld. Although both volumes stand alone, they are complementary andtogether provide a thorough examination of the Old World preconditionsand precedents of Columbus's endeavour, and the genesis of aHispanic American social and material order. On 4 August 1492, Christopher Columbus set forth to establish awestern trade route to the Orient. In October, he made his firstlandfall land��fall?n.1. The act or an instance of sighting or reaching land after a voyage or flight.2. The land sighted or reached after a voyage or flight. on San Salvador, named for the Holy Saviour. Two months later, on Christmas Eve, while surveying the north coastof Hispaniola, the Santa Maria ran aground a��ground?adv. & adj.1. Onto or on a shore, reef, or the bottom of a body of water: a ship that ran aground; a ship aground offshore.2. . Columbus and some of hiscrew went ashore and were greeted by seemingly timid Taino Indians andtheir Guacanagari. Using lumber salvaged from the wrecked ship, theybuilt a fortification fortification,system of defense structures for protection from enemy attacks. Fortification developed along two general lines: permanent sites built in peacetime, and emplacements and obstacles hastily constructed in the field in time of war. adjacent to the Indian village and called it Villade la Navidad--Town of the Day of Christ's Birth. Columbus left 39men at la Navidad with orders to find the source of the gold he hadseen. He returned to Spain to report his findings to the Catholic Kings,and to secure settlers and provisions for a permanent New Worldsettlement. This endeavour was to lead to one of the greatest socialexperiments in human history and signalled the beginning of complexEuro-Indian cultural relations that would endure through the colonialperiod. Upon his return to Hispaniola, Columbus found that his entire crewat La Navidad had been killed. Distraught and exhausted, Columbusreconnoitred Hispaniola's north coast until he reached a bay in themodern-day Dominican Republic where he established the first intentionalSpanish community in the New World, La Isabela. Named after the Queen ofSpain, it was also the site of the first sustained contact betweenSpaniards and Indians in the Americas. As stated by the authors inArchaeology at La Isabela (p.2), the site `provides us with an extremelyimportant reference point from which to study the development of thepost-1500 Americas. It is also an essential datum The singular form of data; for example, one datum. It is rarely used, and data, its plural form, is commonly used for both singular and plural. from which to measurethe direction and intensity of changes of the material worlds of bothEuropeans and Native Americans as they made cultural adjustments to oneanother." One of the most interesting findings of this study wasColumbus's approach to spatial organisation. The arrangement of thesettlement was pragmatic and responsive to local geography andtopography. There is no evidence that a gridded town plan was imposed onthe landscape, despite the fact that Columbus was undoubtedly aware ofthis neoclassical movement in Europe. In an area removed from the publicbuildings and residential area (poblado) a European style updraft up��draft?n.An upward current of air.updraft?An upward current of warm, moist air. With enough moisture, the current may visibly condense into a cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. Compare downdraft. kilnand pottery wasters were found, revealing the establishment of a ceramicproduction centre at La Isabela. Thus the settlement was not only largerthan previously thought, but also suggests that Columbus had a moresophisticated master plan than he had historically been credited with.Deagan and Cruxent convincingly argue that La Isabela was skilfullyarranged to take advantage of the coastal promontory promontory/prom��on��to��ry/ (prom��on-tor?e) a projecting process or eminence. prom��on��to��ryn.A projecting part.promontorya projecting process or eminence. for its imposingfortified fortified (fôrt´fīd),adj containing additives more potent than the principal ingredient. structures, the protected inland for the main residential areaand a riverine riv��er��ine?adj.1. Relating to or resembling a river.2. Located on or inhabiting the banks of a river; riparian: "Members of a riverine tribe ... location near sources of water, waterpower waterpowerPower produced by a stream of water as it turns a wheel or similar device. The waterwheel, probably invented in the 1st century BC, was widely used throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times for grinding grain, operating bellows for furnaces, and other and clay foran industrial area. These findings, particularly the immediateestablishment of a ceramic production area, also reveal the level ofself-sufficiency and permanence initially sought by these earlycolonists. Architectural evidence from La Isabela reflects an essentiallyMediterranean walled community that integrated a limited number oflocally available materials. Most of the public buildings--including achurch, fortified storehouse/customhouse and powderhouse, as well asColumbus's house--were constructed with stone foundations and tapia(rammed earth) walls, following traditional European designs.Commoners' residences in the poblado were less formal wood orthatch buildings, but nevertheless reflected a standard size andconfiguration not unlike that found in contemporaneous rural Spanishvillages. Although the importation of European domesticates is welldocumented for La Isabela, subsistence has been difficult toreconstruct. Plant and animal remains were almost invisiblearchaeologically, despite controlled excavation and processingtechniques. The authors offer several alternate hypotheses for thepaucity of biological remains, including postoccupational disturbance,throwing food refuse directly into the sea, and the use of animal bonein the production of crucibles, but the mystery is unresolved. Soilacidity does not appear to be a factor since human skeletal remains inthe cemetery are well preserved. It is also unclear why, in such afertile setting with tremendous agricultural potential and rich marineresources, the Spaniards began complaining of hunger after a few shortmonths. In addition to the documentary record, the ceramic assemblagefrom La Isabela suggests that the Spaniards were preparing and servingtheir meals in a very traditional manner. In fact, virtually allmaterial remains from La Isabela are remarkably unchanged from those inIberia, with relatively little incorporation of local Taino goods. Both imported and locally made pottery vessel forms, representingactivities ranging from lighting to personal hygiene to cooking, werecomparable to assemblages recovered from sixteenth-century sites inSpain. Similarly, non-ceramic items related to clothing, jewellery,medicine and military activities were highly conservative andtraditional. Interestingly, several types of artefacts, ubiquitous inlater Spanish colonial sites--olive jars used for shipping and glassbeads used for Indian trade--were absent from the archaeological recordand religious paraphernalia was scarce, despite the over proselytisingobjectives of the Crown and deep religiosity re��li��gi��os��i��ty?n.1. The quality of being religious.2. Excessive or affected piety.Noun 1. religiosity - exaggerated or affected piety and religious zealreligiousism, pietism, religionism of the Spaniards. The authors carefully detail their sampling and recovery methods,and examine the proportions of materials recovered from the variousareas of La Isabela. They also contextualise their findings indiscussions of military activities, health and sanitation, religiouslife, metallurgy, commerce and domesticity. Using their historicalresearch as a backdrop against which to project these data, Deagan andCruxent present a compelling assessment of life, adjustment and death atthe settlement. The findings at La Isabela are enhanced by Deagan's extensiveinvestigations of other early sixteenth-century sites on Hispaniola overthe last two decades. Puerto real (1503-78) and Concepcion de la Vega de la Vega is a common surname in the Spanish language meaning "of the plain" and may refer to: People(arranged by date of birth) Garcilaso de la Vega (1501-1536), Spanish poet and soldier Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1496-1562) were two of Nicolas de Ovando's original 15 settlementson the island. Data from these sites provide critical bases ofcomparison against which to evaluate change during the earliest decadesof Spanish, presence in the Caribbean. Although established just a fewshort years after La Isabela, these later colonies reveal momentouschanges from the approach documented at the initial settlement. It isduring this period that colonial towns first appear to be organised onthe Roman and classic-inspired gridded pattern that was formallycodified cod��i��fy?tr.v. cod��i��fied, cod��i��fy��ing, cod��i��fies1. To reduce to a code: codify laws.2. To arrange or systematize. for the Spanish colonies by Philip II. These towns were larger,not enclosed by walls, and constructed primarily of locally manufacturedbrick. There is also a marked shift from almost exclusively Spanishmaterials (imported and locally made) at La Isabela to the regularintegration of Indian and African goods and foods during the post-1500period. Furthermore, the archaeological assemblages at Puerto Real andConcepcion de la Vega are comparatively diverse and cosmopolitan,apparently reflecting an increase in Spanish shipping and mercantileactivity, as well as illicit trade with the upsurge of internationalactivity in the Caribbean. Archaeological research at the two later stages also vividlydocuments the annihilations and replacement of labourers and the role ofnatives and Africans in Spanish colonial society. Longstanding Indianpottery traditions were replaced by those of non-local natives and,eventually, Africans. Large quantities of this pottery were associatedwith Spanish households, reflecting demographic and social adaptationsas Indian and African women were integrated into Spanish householdsthrough marriage, servitude servitudeIn property law, a right by which property owned by one person is subject to a specified use or enjoyment by another. Servitudes allow people to create stable long-term arrangements for a wide variety of purposes, including shared land uses; maintaining the and concubinage concubinageCohabitation of a man and a woman without the full sanctions of legal marriage. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the term concubine has been generally applied exclusively to women; Western studies of non-Western societies use it to refer to partners who are . As Deagan revealed in someof her earliest work in St Augustine, Florida, native women were theprimary agents of change in Spanish colonial society. The present studyreaffirms these findings and reveals that the pattern was established inthe very first years of colonisation. Deagan and Cruxent offer an unprecedented study of Spanishcolonisation in the Caribbean, referred to by historian Herbert Boltonas the nursery of Spanish culture in the Western Hemisphere. Based onmeticulous documentary and archaeological investigations, detailed datapresentation and thoughtful interpretation, Columbus's Outpostamong the Tainos and Archaeology at La Isabela represent an exemplaryapproach to studying the past. The authors have demonstrated that,despite the rigid ideals that informed the initial approach to New Worldcolonisation, Spaniards rapidly adapted to their new physical and socialcircumstances. While the town, individual households and material lifeat La Isabela closely mirrored that of contemporaneous communities inSpain, within a few short years a distinctly American pattern emerged.Through pragmatic adjustments, Spanish colonial culture rapidly evolved,following a unique and predictable trajectory. Deagan's andCruxent's provocative findings on the genesis of New World Spanishcolonialism at La Isabela offer a new window on the past, and a welcomeperspective on contemporary Hispanic American society. Bonnie G. McEwan, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research,Mission San Luis, 2021 Mission Road, Tallahassee FL 32304, USA