Archaeology: Archaeology of the Caribbean and Amazonia

This is a specialisation of the master’s programme of Archaeology.

The interest in the Native American world in Leiden goes back to the geographer-linguist-historian Johannes de Laet, working with the West Indian Company in the 17th century.
At present, research continues to be very much interdisciplinary. An intensive and broad programme of archaeological excavations, surveys and artefact analysis takes place in the Caribbean (e.g. Saba, St. Eustatius, Curaçao, Guadeloupe, the Dominican Republic, St. Vincent and other islands), with a thematic focus on settlement archaeology, human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas, as well as on shamanic practices, funerary rituals etc.
The multidisciplinary perspective includes archaeology, biological anthropology, archaeometry, physical anthropology, ethnohistory and ethnoarchaeology, and involves modern and novel scientific techniques, as well as the documentation and analysis of contemporary material culture and worldview in the Circum-Caribbean and Amazonian region (e.g. in Surinam).

Staff: Prof. dr. Corinne Hofman.