Battlefield archaeology in Latin America: Just a beggining

Abstract

The following work aims at the recent development in a particular area of knowledge that receives several names: “conflict archaeology,” “violence archaeology” and “war archaeology” among others. The terms used by the area (conflict, violence, war) shall be reviewed and discussed. On the other hand, one of the topics comprised by those definitions will be specifically emphasized: “battlefield archaeology” in Latin America. As opposed to the Anglo-European world, archaeological research in this matter is still very limited. Cases can be reduced to a total of six in the battlefields of the entire region. Most of the research reviewed was conducted during the last decade (especially during the last five years). Case studies were reported in these countries: Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay. The aforementioned cases will be critically described.