• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 07 / 08 / 2011

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2011.07.07 - 17:21:18 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Camaguey, Cuba.- Researchers from Colombia, Spain and Cuba visited on Thursday the area neighboring Nuevitas Bay, where in 2012 they’ll try to locate the first settlement of the Villa de Santa Maria del Puerto del Principe, presently.

The team visited the hectare of land demarcated for archeological excavations that could perhaps provide the first material evidence of the center of population, founded in 1514 or 1515 and one of the most important built by the Spaniards in The Americas.

Calle de Pueblo Viejo (Old Town), the sector is some three kilometers away from the locality of Nuevitas. It’s covered by vegetation and invaded by mosquitoes, on a hill facing a cove, between the elevations of El Vigia and El Soberano.

The Camaguey City Historian Office (OHCC) will head the research work, in which representatives of other organizations will participate.

The program’s coordinator, Iosvany Hernandez, told ACN that the preparatory actions for next year’s work included the use of tele-detection techniques, which revealed the existence of subterranean human stools.

Santa Maria del Puerto del Principe was moved to Caonao and in 1528 to its current location, but the alleged first settlement, Pueblo Viejo, was not totally abandoned, since according to estimates it was active until the first half of 19th century.

Doctors of Sciences Juan Guillermo Martin, from Colombia, and Spaniard Maria de las Mercedes Adan de Liras are the foreigners who joined Wednesday’s tour.

An Argentinean delegation will also take part in the research work of 2012, aimed at studying different facets of the history of Pueblo Viejo.
(ACN)