Neolithic

This museum is a replica burial site from the times of the Taíno, indigenous people of Cuba. Intensive excavations took place from 1975 onward. A cemetery was found, covering about 2,000 square metres, with about two hundred burials. 56 of these are now shown in the exact place of discovery, as an in situ museum. It is the first Aboriginal cemetery of ceramist farmers found in Cuba from the period around the arrival of the first Spaniards. Chorro de Maíta is a place of contact with other cultures, not just with the Spanish, but also with the Mexicans.

The village is tucked away in the mountains, not visible to passing travellers from the main road. The village was purposely built hidden in the mountains because of the threat from pirate attacks throughout the Middle Ages.

With their mastery of agriculture, tribes living in the Upper Missouri River Valley developed a unique earth and wooden home to fit their sedentary lifestyle. The result of centuries of innovation and adaptation, the circular earthlodge of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people was the perfect home for life on the Northern Plains.

The Aktopraklık Höyük Open-Air Museum and Archaeology School is run by the Istanbul University Department of Prehistory. The foundation of this cultural heritage management project is the archaeological evidence from the excavation conducted at the prehistoric mound of Aktopraklık...

Pueblito is an ancient indigenous settlement of the Chairama with both ruins and reconstructions of dwellings, canals, stairs, bridges, terraces, dry walls and drainage systems. Archaeologists estimate that this town was developed in an area of about four square kilometres. In the central part there are about 400 houses, and for all its extension are calculated more than a thousand, which could house about 4,000 inhabitants.

The most important part of the site is its magical-religious nature: the ball courts, petroglyphs, amulets and burials which provide information about their belief in an after-life. Earliest excavations date to 1914. Until now, 9 ball fields, 186 burials, and 3 ceremonial plazas were discovered. It possibly is the oldest astronomical observatory in the Antilles.

The ancient village is a reconstructed archaeological ensemble, an attempt to reconstruct the life of indigenous tribe. It was created in 1962 by Celia Sanchez Manduley, a woman heroine of the Cuban Revolution, to represent the life of the aboriginal community of the island as closely as possible. La Aldea Taína was built to promote Cuban cultural roots, showing recreations and live shows that recreate myths and legends native to the ancient inhabitants of this place. There’s also a restaurant.