strange case of the earliest silver extraction by European colonists in the New World

La Isabela, the first European town in the New World, was established in 1494 by the second expedition of Christopher Columbus but was abandoned by 1498. The main motive for settlement was to find and exploit deposits of precious metals. Archaeological evidence of silver extraction at La Isabela see...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2007-02, Vol.104 (9), p.3663-3666
Main Authors: Thibodeau, A.M, Killick, D.J, Ruiz, J, Chesley, J.T, Deagan, K, Cruxent, J.M, Lyman, W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506)
Expeditions
Glass
Historic buildings & sites
History, 15th Century
Humans
Lead
Lead - analysis
Lead glass
Lead isotopes
Lead mining
Materials
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Mining - history
Precious metals
Silicates
Silver
Slag
Social Sciences
Sulfides - analysis
Towns
West Indies
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Summary:La Isabela, the first European town in the New World, was established in 1494 by the second expedition of Christopher Columbus but was abandoned by 1498. The main motive for settlement was to find and exploit deposits of precious metals. Archaeological evidence of silver extraction at La Isabela seemed to indicate that the expedition had located and tested deposits of silver-bearing lead ore in the Caribbean. Lead isotope analysis refutes this hypothesis but provides new evidence of the desperation of the inhabitants of La Isabela just before its abandonment.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0607297104