Caribbean Archaeology Symposium

Caribbean Archaeology Symposium
Name	Caribbean Archaeology Symposium
Formation	1960s
Type	Academic conference
Region	Caribbean
Language	English, Spanish, French, Dutch

Contents

Caribbean Archaeology Symposium is a recurring academic conference that brings together archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, museum curators, and heritage managers from across the Caribbean and beyond. The meeting fosters exchange among scholars associated with the Smithsonian Institution, University of the West Indies, National Museum of the American Indian, Royal Ontario Museum, and regional institutions such as the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and Museo del Hombre Dominicano. It serves as a forum connecting research on prehistoric peoples, colonial contact, maritime archaeology, and conservation practice, linking projects supported by bodies like the National Science Foundation, UNESCO, European Union, and the Caribbean Community.

Overview

The symposium convenes specialists in Caribbean prehistory and history, including researchers affiliated with Yale University, University of Florida, Harvard University, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford, alongside local scholars from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Bahamas, and Barbados. Presentations typically cover excavation reports from sites such as Taíno settlements, Saladoid sites, Coral Harbour, Cruz Bay, and shipwrecks like the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, while posters and panels link museum projects at institutions including the British Museum, Museo Nacional de Antropología de México, American Museum of Natural History, and Canadian Museum of History. The event promotes collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organizations such as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, World Monuments Fund, International Council on Monuments and Sites, and Caribbean Conservation Association.

Originating from regional meetings in the 1960s and 1970s led by figures associated with Frank M. H. Robinson, Irving Rouse, Gordon R. Willey, William F. Keegan, and Kathleen Deagan, the symposium evolved from workshops sponsored by Florida Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum. Early gatherings linked excavations at sites like Cayo Romano, Bell Prehistoric Site, and Guanajatabey locales with colonial-era research on plantations and forts such as Fort James (Antigua), Fort Charlotte (Tortola), and Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña. Funding and institutional backing in initial decades came from organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and national research councils in United States, United Kingdom, France, and Netherlands.

The symposium foregrounds research themes including indigenous ceramic traditions (e.g., Saladoid culture, Huecoid culture), lithic technology linked with Archaic age assemblages, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions using proxies from Lake Enriquillo, Great Inagua, and Lago de Oviedo. Sessions address contact-period archaeology involving figures and events such as Christopher Columbus, Spanish colonization of the Americas, British colonialism in the Caribbean, and Atlantic slave trade archaeology, with case studies from Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Interdisciplinary panels engage specialists in bioarchaeology working with remains studied by researchers from Columbia University, University of Toronto, University of Puerto Rico, and Universidad de la Habana, and conservationists collaborating with ICOMOS and legal scholars familiar with treaties like the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

Notable assemblies have produced proceedings and edited volumes published by presses such as University Press of Florida, Routledge, Cambridge University Press, and Brill, with influential papers reporting excavations at Banwari Trace, Preacher's Cave (Bermuda), Tutu Island complex, and submerged landscapes in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Special sessions have highlighted projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Smithsonian Institution Office of Fellowships, and regional initiatives like the Caribbean Cultural Mapping Project. Key meetings have included plenaries featuring scholars from University College London, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, and Duke University, and have produced methodological advances in radiocarbon calibration used by labs such as the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and Beta Analytic.

The symposium is typically organized by a rotating committee drawing members from host institutions—examples include the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas, and university departments at Florida Atlantic University and University of the Virgin Islands. Sponsorship has come from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, European Research Council, regional governments of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Bahamas, and private foundations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Administration often involves partnerships with professional organizations like the Society for American Archaeology, Caribbean Studies Association, Latin American Studies Association, and local heritage ministries.

The symposium has influenced heritage policy and site management practices in territories like Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia by disseminating research informing museums such as the Museo de las Casas Reales, National Museum and Art Gallery (Trinidad and Tobago), and conservation projects by the World Wildlife Fund. Outcomes include curricular development at universities including University of the West Indies St. Augustine, enhanced community archaeology programs with NGOs like Archaeology Without Borders, and contributions to UNESCO nominations for sites such as Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena and Old Havana and its Fortification System. The symposium continues to shape field methods, repatriation debates engaging institutions such as the British Museum and Smithsonian Institution, and collaborative research networks spanning Latin America, North America, Europe, and the Caribbean archipelago.

Category:Archaeology conferences Category:Caribbean culture