We express our deepest gratitude to the National Arcaological Museum Aruba for the amazing partnership, especially to Harold Kelly, who's endless hospitality Wenn beyond the tiring hikes to the sites, showing Kathrin also the natural beauty and endemic species Aruba has to offer.
Masha Danki!
It was worth it: visiting the sites we study is always very special. Standing where people stood in the past serves as a great reminder that we study humans, not bones.
Where better to sit and discuss the interpretations?
It led to some great ideas and a ton of inspirations for further analyses.
The week started with Radio and TV Interviews, and sandwiched in between were many many many site visits, for which Kathrin had to fight through the dense bush of cacti and thorny bushes (and paid "Aruba tax").
An intense week for Kathrin in Aruba!
It culminnated in the National "hymn and flag" day, that Kathrin used to engage with the public about our work in Aruba. Our Papiamento (the creole language of Aruba) colouring book (drive.google.com/drive/folder...) was the star of the kids' corner.
We are so thankful for the wonderful collaborations in Trinidad, old and new, the endorsement of the Santa Rosa First People Community and Warao Nation, and look forward to the exchange in the projects to come.
Of course, we also got to enjoy some of Trinidads natural beauty, the beaches, the birds (although Eleni needs some more convincing to become a proper birder) and the amazing food and beautiful architecture.
We visited the red house, seat of parliament and archeological site, where some of the individuals we studied were excavated from.
We discussed our findings with the chief of the Santa Rosa Forst People Community and gave a lecture on ancient DNA and our findings at the University of the West Indies. We were allowed to visit the "Banwari person," the oldest individual excavated in Trinidad, at the Zoological museum.
drive.google.com/file/d/1K-uE...
Last week, Eleni and Kathrin got to go on a very special trip filled with great encounters and experiences.
We were welcomed by our collaborators at the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago and brought our results, summarized in the English Trinidad version of our coloring book.
Really excited to share our new paper on the Early Iron Age mass grave at Gomolava (9th c. BCE), a study I had the pleasure to work on during my PhD with an amazing group of co-authors across multiple disciplines. Open access link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇
from the 24th of February it will be available as Open Access in University of Florida Press [floridapress.org/9780813079509/ethics-in-...
PhD student @eleniseferidou.bsky.social, Oriana Chiappa, Daniel Brito, and Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho investigate how the discussions on ethical research have improved practice and collaboration between researchers and communities, and explore current characteristics of research in the Caribbean.
Together with the two amazing Maria Nieves Colón and Jada Benn Torres, Kathrin wrote Chapter 7: a reflection on “Research Ethics in Caribbean Archaeogenomics”, suggesting an approach based on individual positionality to navigate the complex historical, political and cultural mosaic in the Caribbean.
The cover of the Book "Ethics in Caribbean Archaology - Past, present and future, shows the title of the book and the names of the three editors Felicia Fricke, Eduardo Herrera Malatesta and Maaike de Waal. The illustration features potsherds of european and presumably indigenous origin, and different dried plants in the upper half of the book cover, the lower half has the appearance of cardbord structure.
New publication alert!
Today, the book “Ethics in Caribbean Archaeology” launches, edited by Eduardo Herrera Malatesta, Felicia Fricke and Maaike de Waal;
And your Tropical Archaeogenomics group contributed 2(!) chapters!
Dear CoCAH enthusiasts! ✨
We would like to share with you who we are as CoCAH members, what we are working on, and why archaeological heritage is important to us. We will be posting short updates regularly, in which CoCAH members will briefly introduce themselves 🌍🔍
Stay tuned!
Our paper "Rethinking Caribbean Archaeology: Towards an ethical position for a truly decolonial practice" was published today at
@pciarchaeology.bsky.social
Many thanks to all the authors for this amazing collaboration! 🎊
📎 peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....
Join the Tropical Archaeogenomics crew at our stall about jade trade and genetic connectivity in the tropics - including DIY jewelry station! 🟢🏝️🛶🧬
