Single Review on past events

María Cruz Berrocal´s current field of research is an ordinary parking space in Taiwan. However it´s not the parking area itself, but its underground on which the archaeologist and her colleagues do excavations. Born in Spain María Cruz Berrocal is interested in the early Spanish presence in the Pacific. In her talk on the “Archaeology of a Spanish colony in Taiwan in the 17th century” she reported about her project and the latest field research on the Spanish colony of San Salvador de Isla Hermosa. It was founded by the Spanish on Heping Dao, Taiwan, in the 17th century, then they were expelled by the Dutch and the Dutch later by the Chinese.
The ethnic diversity in San Salvador with Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans (Spanish soldiers and merchants, priests, servants; Portuguese), Filipino (Cagayans, Pampangos, Tagui, Balayans, Negro), Mestizo (Chinese and Filipino), Malabars and Cafre (black slaves) is enormous, though they have a similar material culture.

“The project aims to understand the articulation of large-scale historical processes – situated at the core of the globalization process – with local and regional dynamics”, says María Cruz Berrocal. “We aim to understand the role of Taiwan in the incipient global trade. The island can be regarded as an extension of the Chinese-Spanish ground for exchange of trading commodities, such as silver and porcelain, which really made a difference in global economy.” A most important objective of the project is to understand the impacts suffered by local populations.

“We can study colonialism through a series of archaeological markers; colonialism also entails economic exploitation”, says the historian. In fact the goal of exploiting the colony is clearly observed in a letter by a Dutch governor in Formosa, stating that: “The Chinese are the only bees on Hermosa that give honey.” During their excavations María Cruz Berrocal and her team found lots of remains from the Neolithic and Iron Age, including post holes that denote houses, or rather, trajectories of houses. The Iron Age is characterized by an improved technology observed in remains of metallurgical activities for forge. Using stratigraphic methods the archaeologists can date the remains and also prove environmental changes such as fluctuations of the sea level and a change in the patterns of sedimentation. Dating to the time of the Spanish colony, remains of foundation walls of a big European building have been found. It has been determined the European origin of the building through the analysis of its construction technique and its stratigraphic position.

The latest excavations on the parking area in May 2014 revealed at least four tombs, three of them Christian burials and a native child burial, in association with the building. Therefore, apparently a cemetery and the former “Convento de Nuestra Señora de Todos Los Santos”. The excavated skeletons are currently being analyzed by anthropologists to determine sex and ethnicity.

In the end of her talk María Cruz Berrocal summarized her central research objectives: the configuration of the colonial space (filling gaps in written sources); find out more about the ways of life/integration/interaction; compare colonial/religious policies; reconsider the role of material culture in Asia-Pacific colonialism; analyze the interplay of Taiwan as a fringe colonial territory, a node within a dense network of regional interactions, and the very important element of the Taiwanese social formations; as well as investigate the relationship between Europeans and previous colonial agents (Chinese). All of these elements shaped the subsequent colonial process in the region.