Islands of Salt : Historical Archaeology of Seafarers and Things in the Venezuelan Caribbean, 1624-1880.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Islands of Salt -- Layout of the book -- Situating the study within disciplinary currents -- Venezuelan historical archaeology -- Latin American maritime historical archaeology -- Caribbean maritime historical archaeology -- Spatiotemporal Framework -- Space -- Time -- Assemblages of Practice -- A New Conceptual Framework -- Entanglements as the Point of Departure -- Things, not objects -- Fleshing Out Entanglements -- Itineraries of things -- Assemblages of practice -- Discussion -- Entanglement -- Scales of entanglement -- Itineraries of Sea Salt -- La Tortuga within the Atlantic World -- La Tortuga Island -- Discussion -- Anglo-American Thirst for Salt -- Early ventures (1634-c. 1700) -- The golden decades (c. 1700‑1781) -- The Dutch Quest for Salt -- Dutch herring and Venezuelan salt (1595‑1623) -- The La Tortuga enterprise (1624‑1638) -- Itineraries of Sea Salt -- Cayo Sal within the Venezuelan Caribbean -- The Los Roques Archipelago and Cayo Sal -- Discussion -- Cayo Sal: Island at the Crossroads -- Salt and contraband (c. 1700‑1800) -- Neglected archipelago (c. 1800‑1880) -- Crusty Salts -- The Seafarers at the Venezuelan Saltpans -- Inhabiting the Seascape -- Discussion -- The Seafarers at Cayo Sal, Los Escombros (c. 1800‑1880) -- "Free coloreds" and a US American -- The Seafarers at Cayo Sal, Uespen de La Salina (c. 1700‑1800) -- A miscellany of anonymous seafarers -- The Seafarers at Punta Salinas (1638‑1781) -- Rank, social status and small personal possessions -- Enslaved seafarers -- The Dutch Zoutvaerders at Punta Salinas (1624‑1638) -- Saltculture -- Socio-Natural Assemblages of practice on the Saltpans -- Introducing Socio-Natural Assemblages of Practice -- Discussion -- The Assemblages of Practice on the Venezuelan Saltpans -- La Tortuga: the Dutch enterprise (1624‑1638).

La Tortuga: the Anglo-American fleets (1638‑1781) -- Cayo Sal, Los Roques Archipelago: Uespen de la Salina (c. 1700‑1800) -- Cayo Sal, Los Roques Archipelago: Los Escombros (c. 1800‑1880) -- Socio-Natural Assemblages of Salt Cultivation -- The Process of Solar Salt Cultivation -- The Physical Environment of the Venezuelan Islands -- The Lived Saltpan -- Assemblages of Practice at the Campsites of La Tortuga -- The Dutch at Punta Salinas (1624‑1638) -- Excavations and features -- Discussion -- Anglo-American Everyday Life at Punta Salinas (1634‑1781) -- Excavations -- Seafarer campsites -- Shipboard victuals -- Local resource procurement -- Food preparation -- Tableware for the serving and consumption of food -- Dining at Punta Salinas -- Beverages and beverage containers -- Vessels for alcohol serving and consumption -- Drinking at the tavern by the saltpan -- Punch for the laboring crews -- Genteel seafarers: tea, coffee and chocolate drinking -- Resource procurement and food preparation -- Food consumption, drinking and leisure activities -- The Lived Saltpan -- Assemblages of Practice at the Campsites of Cayo Sal -- Daily Life at Uespen de La Salina (c. 1700‑1800) -- Excavations and features -- Discussion -- Daily Life at Los Escombros (c. 1800‑1880) -- Excavations and features -- Provisioning and local resource procurement -- Food preparation -- Dining at Los Escombros -- Drinking at Los Escombros -- Provisioning -- Local resource procurement -- Food preparation -- Dining at Uespen de la Salina -- Drinking at Uespen de la Salina -- Entanglements at the Salty Margins of Modernity -- The Sea as Domain of Entanglement -- Confluence of Local and Global Entanglements: Cayo Sal -- Seafaring Consumers: Anglo-American Captains -- Consumerism -- Interpreting ceramic absence at Punta Salinas -- Captains as consumers -- Bibliography -- Archives.

Primary Sources -- Secondary Sources -- Blank Page.

The early-modern Venezuelan Caribbean did not lure seafarers with the saccharine delights of cane sugar but with the preserving qualities of solar sea salt. In this book, the historical archaeological study of this salty commodity offers a unique entryway into the hitherto unknown maritime mobilities and daily lives of the seafarers who camped at the saltpans of Venezuelan islands from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, cultivating and harvesting the white crystal of the sea. For the first time, this study offers a comprehensive documentary history of the saltpans of La Tortuga Island and Cayo Sal in the Los Roques Archipelago, uncovering the surprising importance of their salt. Long-term archaeological excavations at the campsites by these saltpans have brought to light the plethora of material remains left behind by seafarers during their seasonal and temporary salt forays. The exhaustive analysis of the thousands of recovered things - pipes, punch bowls, plates, teapots, buttons, bones - contrasted with documentary evidence, not only enables us to understand where these things came from but also by whom they were used. By engaging the evidence through my theoretical framework of assemblages of practice, I demonstrate how seafarers and things were vibrantly entangled in the everyday assemblages of practice of salt cultivation, dining and drinking. This multisited approach spanning 256 years, reveals that seafarers were fervent buyers of fashionable products, drinking hot tea from porcelain tea bowls, using colorful ceramic chamber pots for their hygienic needs and imbibing exotic rum punch by the scorching saltpans of the uninhabited Venezuelan islands. Intended for scholars, students and the interested public alike, this historical archaeological study positions humble seafarers in the limelight, not as the anonymous movers of

international trade and facilitators of imperial interests, but as avid trans-imperial and extra-imperial consumers of the fruits of those very empires.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.