A lost heritage and anthropological research

In the parochial district of Caruao in the State of Vargas, Venezuela six small communities of Afro-Venezuelans united as a single town. The original people were African slaves brought to the region by their Spanish owners during the XVIIth Century to work on the chocolate plantations, which in this particular area at this moment in history are no longer functional. However, the slaves were not the first inhabitants of the area. Before the arrival of the Spanish the Caribs had settled there, but they were slowly dispossessed until they abandoned the region completely. From these historical populations -the displaced Indigenous, the enslaved Africans, the Spanish colonists-artefacts and remains have come to light which can only be properly appreciated by anthropologists. Generally the communities themselves pay very little attention to the archaeological aspects of the historical heritage which research has discovered.