Tácticas defensivas y tácticas ofensivas: Arqueología de una batalla en la Isla de Tierra Bomba, Cartagena de Indias, siglo XVIII

Abstract

During the preventive war in the 18th century the Spanish Crown constructed a defense system to protect the bay of Cartagena from enemy’s attacks as a part of strategy to control the oversea territories. One of this priorities was to fortify the Bocachica area on the island Tierra Bomba, the only entrance to the port of Cartagena. In 1741 the system was tested during a sea attack by British troops that succeeded to disembark on the coast after the strong bombings. In the defense of the territory 3 forts and 2 castles played an important role. This war represents for the battlefield archaeology a contribution to understand the existence of two independent archaeological records associated with defensive tactics and offensive tactics. The article presents the results of the archaeological research in the Fort of San Felipe during the battle of 1741.

Keywords

• Battlefield archaeology
• Cartagena
• 18th century