"A superb presentation of a critically important archaeological site. It's a seamless synthesis of Hispanic historical sources [that] effectively ties the events played out at Puerto Real to the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century global geopolitical scene."--David Hurst Thomas, curator of anthropology, American Museum of Natural History

Puerto Real, Haiti, is the site of the largest and most intensive archaeological excavation of any Spanish colony in the Caribbean. It is a primary data source for understanding all Spanish colonial ventures in the region and a vital archival source for anyone concerned with the early history of European colonization in the New World.
The essays were written by the international specialists who carried out the fieldwork. They include a first-hand account by William H. Hodges, who discovered the site and brought it to the attention of archaeologists in Haiti and the United States, and discussion of the multiracial interactions of the Spaniards, American Indians, and Africans who lived there.

Contents
Part 1: The Contexts and Background of Puerto Real
How We Found Puerto Real, by William H. Hodges
Historical Archaeology at Puerto Real, by Kathleen Deagan
The Natural and Cultural Settings of Puerto Real, by William H. Hodges, Kathleen Deagan, and Elizabeth Reitz
A General History of Puerto Real, by William H. Hodges and Eugene Lyon
Part 2: Community Organization and the Public Sector
Spatial Patterning and Community Organization at Puerto Real, by Maurice Williams
Empire and Architecture at Puerto Real: The Archaeology of Public Space, by Raymond F. Willis
Archaeology in the Public Sector: Building B, by Rochelle Marrinan
Part 3: The Spanish Households of Puerto Real
Spanish Precedents and Domestic Life at Puerto Real: The Archaeology of Two Spanish Homesites, by Bonnie G. McEwan
Merchants and Cattlemen: The Archaeology of a Commercial Structure at Puerto Real, by Kathleen Deagan and Elizabeth J. Reitz
Part 4: Syntheses
Animals, Environment, and the Spanish Diet at Puerto Real, by Elizabeth J. Reitz and Bonnie G. McEwan
Indians and Africans at Puerto Real: The Ceramic Evidence, by Greg C. Smith
Part 5: Epilogue
The Aftermath of Puerto Real: Archaeology at Bayahá, by Jennifer M. Hamilton and William H. Hodges
After Columbus: The Sixteenth-Century Spanish-Caribbean Frontier, by Kathleen Deagan

Kathleen Deagan is curator of historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, and the author or editor of numerous books and articles, including Sourcebook on Spanish St. Augustine, Spanish St. Augustine: The Archaeology of a Colonial Creole Community, and Archaeology at the National Greek Orthodox Shrine, St. Augustine, Florida (UPF, 1976).

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"For researchers (both historians and archaeologists) interested in the Spanish exploration and colonization of the Caribbean, Puerto Real should be required reading.......Puerto Real is a fascinatnig and important archaeological study. Readers will not be disappointed."
--Florida Historical Quarterly

"an excellent and quite thorough work"
--Sixteenth Century Journal

"An impressive work. The chapters by Reitz and McEwan on the faunal economy and diet, and Smith on the ethnology of the ceramics, are particularly instructive. These combine number-crunching with astute historical and ethnological insight to shed much light on the ecological and cultural adaptiveness of the Colonists. Deagan's conclusion places the results of the project in regional context. ... The combination of anthropological and historical approaches to material culture in this volume shows the way forward for post-medieval archaeology on both sides of the Atlantic. This volume deserves to be widely read, not least because Deagan and her colleagues have demonstrated what a truly exciting and innovative discipline post-medieval archaeology is."
--Post-Medieval Archaeology

"A must for all scholars of the Spanish New World." -- SMRC Newsletter (Southwestern Mission Research Center)
--SMRC Newsletter (Southwestern Mission Research Center)

"This volume is the long-awaited study of Puerto Real, an early Spanish colonial townsite along the northern coast of present day Haiti, and also one of the earliest European towns established by the Spanish in the New World. . . . The story presented in the accounts of the investigations at Puerto Real should be of great interest to scholars studying how Old and New World peoples acculturated themselves to the natural and social environments of the Americas." -- North American Archaeologist
--North American Archaeologist