The site of El Flaco (AD 900-1490) is located in the northwestern Dominican Republic, at the foot of the Cordillera Septentrional. In 1494, Columbus passed through here while crossing the northern mountain range of Hispaniola and saw the Cibao Valley (the "Valley of Gold") for the first time. The typical Indigenous village layout in this region consists of leveled areas with round houses between 4 and 9 meters in diameter. This type of settlement is often surrounded by earthworks, and multi-functional mounds with a height of about 2 meters. It was on these mounds that the inhabitants planted their crops, cooked their meals, disposed of their garbage, and buried their dead.
Indigenous site of El Flaco, northern Dominican Republic, then and now. Stratigraphy of a mound dating to AD 1100-1500, with a present-day house on top (photo montage courtesy of Buro M2R).
Photo top: Still from drone footage of the archaeological excavation of El Flaco in 2014 (photo courtesy of Till Sonnemann).
Text by Corinne Hofman & Menno Hoogland.
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