Legacy Collection Studies
View of archaeological materials at the Unidad de Estudios Arqueológicos, Caracas, Venezuela, Photo by José Voglar.
Legacy collections are an invaluable yet underutilized source of information. Archaeological research on the ABC islands has a long history and the results of these investigations, whether surveys or excavations, are held at our partner institutions on the ABC islands.
Collection studies expand our understanding of everyday life in households on the islands by providing qualitative and quantitative data on consumerism, material practices, and foodways at various other sites, apart from those we excavate. This provides not only a valuable point of comparison, but more crucially helps us discern how material things entered different households and how different island peoples became entangled with them.
During our collection studies, where possible, we perform minimum number of vessel counts so our data is directly compatible with the vessel-level data from our excavations. We employ a Laser-Aided Profiler to reconstruct vessel profiles and therefore come closer to the foodways, consumer practices, and everyday lives of the people living at these sites.
Responsible of the research line
Amy Victorina
Doctoral Researcher
amy.victorina@upf.edu
