Samples of galena, a silver-bearing lead ore and worked pieces of lead recovered from the archaeological dig at La Isabela. Credit: Copyright 1998. James Quine, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
The Mysterious Case Of Columbus's Silver Ore
February 26, 2007
Volume 85, Number 09 p. 13 Archaeology
Bethany Halford
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS of metallurgical artifacts from La Isabela?the settlement Christopher Columbus founded on his second trip to the New World in 1494?is challenging the long-held notion that the site is where Europeans first mined and processed precious metals in the New World. A recent lead isotope analysis of La Isabela artifacts reveals that the settlers were not, as archaeologists thought, extracting silver from Caribbean ores but were trying to pull the metal out of materials they'd brought from Spain (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607297104).
The strange case of the earliest silver extraction by European colonists in the New World
A. M. Thibodeau *{dagger}, D. J. Killick {ddagger}, J. Ruiz *, J. T. Chesley *, K. Deagan {sect}, J. M. Cruxent ?||, and W. Lyman **
Departments of *Geosciences, {ddagger}Anthropology, and **Materials Science and Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; {sect}Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; and ?Universidad Nacional y Experimental Francisco de Miranda, 4101 Coro, Venezuela
Edited by David H. Thomas, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, and approved December 21, 2006 (received for review August 22, 2006)
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.
Author contributions: D.J.K. and J.R. designed research; A.M.T., D.J.K., J.T.C., K.D., J.M.C., and W.L.; performed research; J.R. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; A.M.T. analyzed data; A.M.T. and D.J.K. wrote the paper; and K.D. and J.M.C. excavated site and provided samples.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
{dagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Gould-Simpson Building no. 77, 1040 East 4th Street, Tucson, AZ 85721.
||Deceased February 23, 2005.
A. M. Thibodeau, E-mail:
Maria Anchor
La Isabela: Historical Background
Located on the remote north coast of Hispaniola, La Isabela was Spain's first capital of the new world from 1494-1498 prior to the establishment of Santo Domingo. During this brief occupation, La Isabela represented the first contact between distinct cultures of Europe and Native Americans. Archival documents indicate several caravels and other ships of Columbus were lost in the area due to two separate hurricanes. These vessels, and their associated artifact remains, represent a unique opportunity to research this important time period. Although many controversies surround this clashing of two worlds, everyone agrees the assimilation of cultures forever changed our global societies.
