CARBICA, in collaboration with the Government of Sint Maarten, the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean, Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung arranged “The Working Conference on Regional Approaches on Disaster Recovery and Heritage Preservation” in Sint Maarten to facilitate the training of international and regional policy makers and cultural heritage stewards in the above mentioned aims. Our participation in this conference was sponsored by UNESCO Netherlands and the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Gustav Heye Center in New York City is preparing an exhibition that addresses the topic of Native peoples in the Caribbean after 1492. This exhibition emphasizes the survival and contemporary vitality of Caribbean indigenous peoples.

The summer has flown by and the Nexus team in Valverde, Dominican Republic, has once again had an exciting and successful season!

The first call for proposals in 2017 drew a resounding response. Now the Prince Claus Fund, through its Cultural Emergency Response (CER) programme and the Whiting Foundation announce a second round of the Open Call for First Aid to Documentary Heritage under Threat. We invite proposals for projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to safeguard documentary heritage that is acutely threatened by recent conflict or other disaster, whether natural or man-made.

Dr. Antczak will take over the role of Departmental Head for World Archaeology in September 2018 at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University!

Niels Koning, a Bachelor student of the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, conducted a research internship on paleoethnobotany and paleoecology under the supervision of Dr. Jaime R. Pagán-Jiménez in the context of the ERC Synergy Project NEXUS1492 led by Prof. Dr. Corinne L. Hofman. His research delved into phytolith analysis of modern top soils from four plots that correspond to different forest types in the southern foothills of the Northern Range of the Dominican Republic. Niels compared modern phytolith results with vegetation currently known to grow in the selected areas. This research was aimed at assessing if meaningful correlations exist between recovered modern phytoliths and observed plant communities. The main goal was to test if ancient phytolith assemblages recovered by different means in buried contexts are reliable indicators of the past floristic communities associated with the archaeological sites studied by Nexus 1492 in the Dominican Republic.

Sponsored by the Leiden University’s Nexus 1492 project and led by Dr. Noa Corcoran-Tadd, we left the warm summer of the Netherlands behind to survey parts of the 'ruta de plata' in Tacora (Arica) located in the northern highland part of chilly Chile.

Andy J. Ciofalo, William F. Keegan, Michael P. Pateman, Jaime R. Pagán-Jiménez, and Corinne L. Hofman recently published a new article in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports entitled "Determining precolonial botanical foodways: starch recovery and analysis, Long Island, The Bahamas. Read the abstract below!

Joseph Sony Jean and Corinne L. Hofman recently published a chapter entitled "Dynamiques interculturelles des traces mémorelles amérindiennes d'Haïti" in the volume entitled "La Mémoire de l'Esclavage. Traces mémorielles de l'esclavage et des traites dans l'espace atlantique", edited by L. Aje and N. Gachon.

Nexus 1492 would like to congratulate P.I. Corinne L. Hofman, who has been made a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy for the humanities and social sciences. She is among 76 distinguished scholars to be elected to the fellowship in recognition of her work in the field of archaeology.