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The Caribbean archipelago is a hotspot of biodiversity characterized by a high rate of extinction. Recent studies have examined these losses, but the causes of the Antillean Late Quaternary vertebrate extinctions, and especially the role of humans, are still unclear. Current results provide support for climate-related and human-induced extinctions, but often downplaying other complex bio-ecological factors that are difficult to model or to detect from the fossil and archaeological record. Here, we discuss Caribbean vertebrate extinctions and the potential role of humans derived from new and existing fossil and archaeological data from Cuba. Our results indicate that losses of Cuba’s native fauna occurred in three waves: one during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, a second during the middle Holocene, and a third one during the last 2 ka, coinciding with the arrival of agroceramists and the early Europeans. The coexistence of now-extinct species with multiple cultural groups in Cuba for over 4 ka implies that Cuban indigenous non-ceramic cultures exerted far fewer extinction pressures to native fauna than the later agroceramists and Europeans that followed. This suggests a determinant value to increased technological sophistication and demographics as the most plausible effective extinction drivers.

This paper is about the research on the Historical Archaeology we have carried out for over more than a decade at Vuelta de Obligado Site, San Pedro, northeast of the Province of Buenos Aires. Our objectives are to know the dynamics of the strategy followed in the battlefield by the two groups who fought: Anglo-French and Argentine, and the results produced by a set of agents of formation and transformation of the archaeological record. To compare the stated expectations, we have used several sources of information: archaeological record, written documents, Argentine and European plans and sketches as well as the data provided by the present inhabitants. We have considered several, which are specified and used in our research. Finally, we have taken into account various perspectives, with regard to the objectives and stated hypothesis.

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