CubaPLUS Magazine

Archaeology is the science that studies the past through its material remains. Cuba is rich in archaeological sites associated with diverse contexts. Many of the results from historic excavations can be seen today in specialized museums, scientific articles, and even at the sites where they were uncovered.

Humankind, in its journey through the world and across different stages of development, has left traces everywhere. This is why archaeologists still have much work to do. The main contexts investigated in Cuba are aboriginal, often associated with caves, lagoons, or the lands where settlements once stood. In these sites, one can find all types of tools–both utilitarian and ceremonial–as well as human burials and pictograms painted on the visible walls of caves.

Important excavation sites also exist in colonial contexts, especially in old cities such as Baracoa, Trinidad, and Havana. These towns preserve houses from the era with wells, cisterns, or latrines that once served as garbage dumps, long before common disposal sites existed. Through excavations carried out using natural stratigraphy, archaeologists can weave together the fabric of each historical moment described in documents preserved in archives.

Another fascinating field is underwater archaeology. Cuba has been called “The Key to the New World,” since it was the meeting point for fleets sailing from the Americas before their transatlantic journey back to Spain. Its ports welcomed vessels in need of repair and supplies. Ships from all over the world arrived in Havana carrying every kind of cargo.

For this reason, around 1,800 shipwrecks have been reported across the island’s waters, though only about a hundred have been excavated. One of the most emblematic is the Aviso Sánchez Barcaíztegui, known as the “School Shipwreck of Cuban Archaeology.” This vessel, used by the Spanish navy as a second-class cruiser, pursued and sank supply ships destined for patriots fighting against Spanish colonial rule.

It was such a luxurious ship that, on May 8, 1893, it was entrusted with receiving Infanta María Eulalia Francisca de Asís, daughter of Queen Regent Isabel II, at the Port of Havana.

Today, it lies sunk in the very channel leading into Havana Bay, near the Morro lighthouse, after an unavoidable collision with a larger ship. Not far from that site, in the Castillo de la Real Fuerza–now the Museum of Underwater and Naval Archaeology–a varied and fascinating collection of artifacts excavated from its remains is on display, along with treasures recovered from other wrecks that once carried gold and silver.

Some wrecks can even be visited with the guidance of specialized divers, such as the remains of the Christopher Columbus, part of the Spanish fleet commanded by Admiral Cervera, sunk in Santiago de Cuba during battle against the U.S. fleet under William T. Sampson.

Another landmark excavation is El Chorro de Maíta in Banes, Holguín, now an open-air museum. It displays funerary burials in situ with all the attributes of an indigenous cemetery, where more than 110 skeletons of the agricultural and ceramic-making Arauca people were found.

Some colonial houses also showcase archaeological evidence in their walls, glass displays, or exposed deposits.

These include objects recovered during excavations or mural paintings, such as those preserved in the museum dedicated to this theme on Obispo Street in Old Havana.

As for rock art, humans left remarkable marks on the walls of their first dwellings–the caves–using red pigment (hematite or fragments of iron) and black pigment (derived from charcoal). These pictographs and petroglyphs include a wide variety of figures: imprints of hands (“painted hands” technique), nets (net-like forms), animals (zoomorphic), concentric circles, and human figures (anthropomorphic), often shown hunting, in funeral rites, or engaged in daily activities.

Examples of this parietal art in Cuba include the murals in the Punta del Este Caves on the Isla de la Juventud–known as the “Sistine Chapel of Cuban Cave Art”–featuring large concentric circles painted in red and black. In El Cura Cave in Viñales, one finds human figures holding crosses, birds, and glyphs, while El Abono Cave, halfway up a limestone hill, contains an entire fleet of ships painted in black. Most of these discoveries were documented by speleologist Hilario Carmenate.

Ambrosio Cave in Varadero, Matanzas–today adapted for tourism–conserves abundant and detailed black pictographs.

Ramos Cave in Cayo Caguanes, Sancti Spíritus, features large leaf-shaped pictographs, one of which has become an emblematic symbol of Caguanes National Park.

In Cuba, much remains to be explored, discovered, and excavated in order to confirm episodes of history recorded in written documents–the starting point for any archaeological endeavor.