Las armas de la conquista. Presencia de armas de fuego en sitios coloniales de Argentina

Abstract

Objects used as weapons by the man had interested archaeologists worldwide since the early times of the discipline. Cultural sequences had been defined using the evolution arms as one of the relevant material indicators of social development. Argentinian archaeology has an extensive tradition of prehistoric weapons studies, but little attention has been accorded to the repertoire of arms -particulary firearmsused during colonial confrontations between Spanish soldiers and native population. The current paper briefly summarizes the main findings of colonial firearms remains in Argentina as well as reviews potential difficulties during archaeological identification of those remains.

Keywords

• historical archaeology – colonial weapons –firearms