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MSU archaeologist part
of major Cuba initiative
Mississippi
University, Oct. 19, 2004.
STARKVILLE, Miss.-Mississippi State University
archaeologist John O'Hear has spent his
entire career exploring early Native American
life in the Southeast. But because he grew
up in Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish,
he recently also has become a co-investigator
of a project seeking to unravel archaeological
secrets at one of the most important sites
in southern Cuba.
The early 16th century site is so significant
O'Hear describes it as the equivalent of
"1,000 years from now being able to
dig at the site of Ebenezer Baptist Church,
Martin Luther King's home church in Atlanta."
At a remote location near Cienfuegos, Cuba,
O'Hear is in charge of field operations
in a project he co-directs with Vernon James
"Jim" Knight, anthropology professor
at the University of Alabama, and Marcos
E. Rodriquez Matamoros of the Provincial
Center of Cultural Patrimony in Cienfuegos.
John E. Worth, an ethno-historian at the
University of Florida, is in charge of the
historic document work for the project,
and is conducting archival work for the
project both in Spain and Cuba. Lee A. Newsom
of Pennsylvania State University, a recently
named McArthur Fellow, will be studying
the plant remains from the digs.
"This is a late-period Indian site
that probably dates from sometime in the
1400s up to the Spanish conquest in 1512,"
O'Hear explained.
Diego Velasquez, the conqueror of Cuba,
presented the Indian labor of a large district
to a Spanish priest, Bartoleme de las Casas,
as a reward for his participation in the
conquest. Las Casas and a companion took
up residence near the largest village site
peopled by the Arawakan Indians, but soon
renounced the system the Spanish called
an "Encomienda"-a type of feudalism,
originally intended to spread a religious
message, that quickly evolved into horrible
exploitation.
The priest soon moved to South America
and became the earliest opponent and a vocal
critic of Spain's treatment of people native
to the New World. "In essence, Las
Casas became the first Civil Rights activist
in the Americas," O'Hear said.
Located in south-central Cuba about two
miles from the Caribbean, the excavation
site known as Loma del Convento sits on
a high bluff overlooking the Ariamao River
Valley near Cienfuegos. The research team
is concentrating its archaeological sleuthing
at nine mounds they suspect originally were
Indian homes.
"Loma del Convento is especially significant
because it is the only Caribbean village
site known to have been under the ecomienda
system," O'Hear explained. The archaeologists
hope it will yield important clues about
the natives' relationship to the environment,
the impact of the Spanish conquest, and
contacts between the Arawakans and other
indigenous people.
Knight said the site was originally located
in the 1970s by a regional archaeologist,
with follow-up projects verifying its historical
and cultural importance.
"Our project is advancing a 1980s
effort that began as a joint Cuban-Soviet
project but ended with the dismantling of
the Soviet Union," he explained. He
added that the archaeological collaboration
is the first between the Cuban and U.S.
researchers. Intensive fieldwork is scheduled
to begin in January 2005, with a team of
approximately 35 Cuban and U.S. archaeologists,
specialists and students.
Travel to Cuba is allowed for full-time
academic research purposes, within limits
placed by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The University of Alabama in 2002 received
a special license from the federal department
to allow travel and academic research in
Cuba by faculty and students.
For more information, telephone O'Hear
at 662-325-3826.
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