The post-Hispanic archaeological heritage from southern Buenos Aires Province through its collections

Abstract

In this article, we address the state of the art in post-Hispanic archaeological heritage from a southern micro-region of the Buenos Aires province. Here, we study both public (the San Cayetano, Tres Arroyos and Lobería museums) and private (the López Alfaro and Magret collections) post-Hispanic archaeological collections. Our analysis is centered on two main themes: 1) to identify the post-Hispanic archaeological record registered in the area, and 2) to evaluate the preservation of the studied samples, analyzing the conditions of management and protection of this archaeological heritage. In addition, we discuss the importance of these collections in post-Hispanic archaeological research in the south of Buenos Aires Province. Our approach highlights the important contribution of “archaeological materiality” in the narratives created around these collections. At times, these narratives are biased and decontextualized, while at other times they serve to democratize a variety of voices from the past. Nevertheless, even though there was an attempt to achieve an anthropological vision in the public museums we studied, we found that the colonial, independence and republican periods suffered from historical and archaeologically blurring, whereby parts of the past and the discourse and active agency of both local and regional indigenous communities during those periods, as well as that of the first non-indigenous frontier settlers was rendered invisible.