First Permanent European Settlement in the New World Topic of Lecture

The UNM Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy Col­lo­quium Series presents “His­tory Writ­ten in Bones: Life and death at La Isabela, Colum­bus’ first per­ma­nent town in the New World (AD 1494–1498)” on Thurs­day, Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. in Hibben Hall, room 105.

Speaker Andrea Cucina, Fac­ulty of Anthro­po­log­i­cal Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­sity Autónoma de Yucatan, lec­tures on La Isabela was the first per­ma­nent Euro­pean set­tle­ment in the New World. Founded by Christo­pher Colum­bus in 1494, it was char­ac­ter­ized by famine, dis­ease and death until aban­don­ment in 1498. The analy­sis of the skele­tal remains unearthed in the town’s small ceme­tery, in con­junc­tion with his­tor­i­cal and archae­o­log­i­cal infor­ma­tion, reveals the population’s demic and eth­nic struc­ture, patho­log­i­cal con­di­tions and pos­si­ble rea­sons behind the set­tlers’ swift deaths.