Nexus 1492
The team of Principal Investigators in charge of the project: me, Prof. Corinne
Hofman, Prof. Ulrik Brandes and Prof. Gareth Davies
The NEXUS team will consist of 38 researchers: archaeologists, heritage specialists, geochemists and network scientists. A large number of them will be from the Caribbean region.
The project
NEXUS 1492 is intended to shed new light on the colonisation of the Caribbean, the nexus of interactions between the New and Old World. Columbus first set foot in the Caribbean in 1492. Current understandings of this event dictate that indigenous societies were enslaved and completely destroyed within 25 years of the first contact with Europeans. But in fact we know very little about the colonisation processes, and the transformations that indigenous societies underwent. Our knowledge is based on European colonial documents, which are biased and fraught with western stereotypes. The colonisation of the Caribbean was used as a model for the rest of the Americas. The aim of NEXUS 1492 is to re-write the history of these colonisation processes from the indigenous Caribbean perspective, using an innovative and multidisciplinary approach.
Fieldwork will take place in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Lesser Antilles. Using evidence from material culture, human remains and landscape development, NEXUS 1492 retraces cultural interactions between indigenous Caribbean populations, Europeans and - later - Africans. The latest methods and techniques will be applied, and new trans-disciplinary tools will be developed. Using isotope analysis, ancient DNA research, new archaeometric methods and network analysis, human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas within the Caribbean archipelago and to and from Europe and Africa will be investigated.
The Heritage Component
The heritage research will concentrate on the views on and uses of the past as cultural heritage in the present. Caribbean heritage resources are threatened by a lack of social embedding and heritage awareness combined with limited research, natural threats,
looting and illegal trade, economic pressures, tourist development, and deficient legal and technical tools. NEXUS1492 orients the development of heritage policies, which can represent the past in terms of dynamic multi-ethnic networks and processes of cultural hybridisation and social change and protects vulnerable heritage. In this respect the Caribbean region is both a challenge to and a source for new theoretical reflections on
heritage practices.
The challenge is to construct inclusive participatory policies, connecting cultural continuity of indigenous heritage with the interaction dynamics of present-day, multi-ethnic Caribbean society while creating sustainable heritage policies regarding
immediate human and natural threats to the archaeological record.
The Project aims to integrate current research issues in heritage management with the application of collaborative heritage programmes that provide practical benefits and a valorisation of the outcomes of the other component projects that constitute NEXUS1492. Three subprojects will deal with (1) practical tools for heritage management: legislation and documentation, (2) the relationship between communities and museum collections, and (3) the engagement of communities through outreach and collaboration.
Research will be conducted using case-studies that cover the main geopolitical regions resulting from former European spheres of influence: Martinique (French); Saba, St. Eustatius, and Bonaire (Dutch); Dominican Republic (Spanish); and St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. Kitts (English).
The visibility, accountability, and communication of all heritage-research programmes and participatory archaeological projects will be enhanced through the application of the newly developed CommonSites, an opensource web-platform that uses instant reporting and shared publicity to connect practitioners with communities. The NEXUS team will establish educational programmes with local partners in order to encourage appreciation and protection of cultural heritage.
Hofman, Prof. Ulrik Brandes and Prof. Gareth Davies
The NEXUS team will consist of 38 researchers: archaeologists, heritage specialists, geochemists and network scientists. A large number of them will be from the Caribbean region.
The project
NEXUS 1492 is intended to shed new light on the colonisation of the Caribbean, the nexus of interactions between the New and Old World. Columbus first set foot in the Caribbean in 1492. Current understandings of this event dictate that indigenous societies were enslaved and completely destroyed within 25 years of the first contact with Europeans. But in fact we know very little about the colonisation processes, and the transformations that indigenous societies underwent. Our knowledge is based on European colonial documents, which are biased and fraught with western stereotypes. The colonisation of the Caribbean was used as a model for the rest of the Americas. The aim of NEXUS 1492 is to re-write the history of these colonisation processes from the indigenous Caribbean perspective, using an innovative and multidisciplinary approach.
Fieldwork will take place in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Lesser Antilles. Using evidence from material culture, human remains and landscape development, NEXUS 1492 retraces cultural interactions between indigenous Caribbean populations, Europeans and - later - Africans. The latest methods and techniques will be applied, and new trans-disciplinary tools will be developed. Using isotope analysis, ancient DNA research, new archaeometric methods and network analysis, human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas within the Caribbean archipelago and to and from Europe and Africa will be investigated.
The Heritage Component
The heritage research will concentrate on the views on and uses of the past as cultural heritage in the present. Caribbean heritage resources are threatened by a lack of social embedding and heritage awareness combined with limited research, natural threats,
looting and illegal trade, economic pressures, tourist development, and deficient legal and technical tools. NEXUS1492 orients the development of heritage policies, which can represent the past in terms of dynamic multi-ethnic networks and processes of cultural hybridisation and social change and protects vulnerable heritage. In this respect the Caribbean region is both a challenge to and a source for new theoretical reflections on
heritage practices.
The challenge is to construct inclusive participatory policies, connecting cultural continuity of indigenous heritage with the interaction dynamics of present-day, multi-ethnic Caribbean society while creating sustainable heritage policies regarding
immediate human and natural threats to the archaeological record.
The Project aims to integrate current research issues in heritage management with the application of collaborative heritage programmes that provide practical benefits and a valorisation of the outcomes of the other component projects that constitute NEXUS1492. Three subprojects will deal with (1) practical tools for heritage management: legislation and documentation, (2) the relationship between communities and museum collections, and (3) the engagement of communities through outreach and collaboration.
Research will be conducted using case-studies that cover the main geopolitical regions resulting from former European spheres of influence: Martinique (French); Saba, St. Eustatius, and Bonaire (Dutch); Dominican Republic (Spanish); and St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. Kitts (English).
The visibility, accountability, and communication of all heritage-research programmes and participatory archaeological projects will be enhanced through the application of the newly developed CommonSites, an opensource web-platform that uses instant reporting and shared publicity to connect practitioners with communities. The NEXUS team will establish educational programmes with local partners in order to encourage appreciation and protection of cultural heritage.
