Community Archaeology in Los Roques Archipielago National Park, Venezuela

Abstract

Convinced that archaeology as a past‑ oriented discipline should exert a transformative impact on the present, we discuss a series of initiatives that aim at interweaving the past of the Los Roques Archipelago, located 135 km off the central coast of Venezuela, into its present‑ day community life. Pioneering archaeological research carried out on these islands since 1982 revealed an unexpectedly rich volume of diversified artifacts and contextual information on the Amerindian seamen who seasonally exploited the local natural resources between A.D. 1200 and 1500. We are confident that despite the historical discontinuity between the pre‑ Hispanic seamen and the current population of the archipelago, the vibrant and colorful archaeological past will reach the present‑ day inhabitants, enriching their socio‑ cultural identity and influencing their way of life that currently oscillates entrapped between fishing and tourism‑ oriented activities. We discuss the aims and methodology of community archeology activities that include talks, exhibits, publications, documentary films and – above all – archaeological workshops that bring together the archaeologists and Los Roques schoolchildren in experiential archaeological events.

Re-thinking the Migration of Cariban-Speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to North-Central Venezuela (AD 800)

“…Upon their arrival, the immigrants entered into interaction with the locally established populations, the Barrancoid/Saladoid pottery makers in the Lake Valencia Basin and the Ocumaroid along the coast. The Ocumaroid were purportedly Arawakan-speakers and their pottery emerged through a process of sociocultural interactions that blended tangible and intangible traits of Archaic Age, Tocuyanoid, Saladoid, and Barrancoid traditions, somewhere after 1750-1650 BP (AD 200-300) (Sýkora 2006;Rivas 2001;Antczak and Antczak 2006). It is noteworthy that, contrary to scholars who supported the hypothesis of the Cariban-speaking origin of the Valencioid culture bearers, Alfredo Jahn (1932, pp.…”

“…Evidence of burnt villages, violent skeletal trauma and population displacement is lacking, while control of regional chronology is extremely weak . Antczak and Antczak (2006) presented an alternative perspective on the Valencioid trajectory, arguing that after a few centuries of development, largely within the confines of the Lake Valencia Basin (1150-850/750 BP [AD 800-1100/1200]), factions of Valencioid society migrated north to the coast and entered into direct inter-lingual interaction (intermarriage, cohabitation, joint fishing expeditions, ritual assistance) with the purportedly Arawakan-speaking Ocumaroid. The linguistic correlate to the archaeologically-defined Ocumaroid culture is hypothetically based on an assumption that the Ocumaroid ceramic series (as defined by Rouse and Cruxent 1963) might have been the 'result' of incursions of Arawakan-speaking Saladoid from eastern Venezuela onto the Caribbean coast, and their subsequent interactions with the local Archaic Age populations and Tocuyanoid culturebearers of the north-central coast, during the first centuries AD (see Sýkora 2006).…”

“…1, 161, 178;Arroyo 1999;Antczak 1999;Boomert 2000). However, no systematic study of the nature and dynamics of interaction between the Barrancoid and Saladoid groups, and other local residents has been undertaken (but see Sýkora 2006;Antczak and Antczak 2006). North-central Barrancoid pottery is morphologically akin to its Lower Orinoco counterpart, but at the same time shows elements of local continuity as well as simplification of forms and decoration.…”

“…Potsherds, some of them red-slipped Antczak and Antczak (2006) 27 El Paraíso One female figurine with canoe-shaped head Cruxent and Rouse (1958, vol. 1: 323), Requena (1947: Figs.…”

“…However, the Ocumaroid and Barrancoid inhabitants already on the coast seemingly entered into a long phase of neighbourly, rather peaceful interactions with the Lake Valencia Basin Valencioid culture. These relations lasted probably until the sixteenth century (Rivas 1997;Antczak and Antczak 2006;Sýkora 2006).…”