Excavación Arqueológica Calera El Palmar o Calera Barquín Parque Nacional El Palmar

Between 2012 and 2022, the Historical Archaeology Research Team at Maimonides University, led by Dr. Marcelo Weissel and Dr. Beatriz Rodríguez Basulto, conducted a long-term archaeological research programme at the Calera El Palmar site, located within El Palmar National Park, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina. The archaeological, historical, and architectural investigations established a long-term occupational sequence that documents the continuity and transformation of the site's social uses from the colonial period through the mid-twentieth century. The research demonstrated that several of the standing architectural structures date to the second half of the eighteenth century, a chronology corroborated through both archaeological and documentary evidence. These findings confirm the occupation of the site during the Jesuit missionary period in the region, in close interaction with Guaraní communities. The investigations also documented the historical presence of other Indigenous groups, including the Guenoa and Charrúa peoples, highlighting the complex socio-cultural and interethnic dynamics that characterized this frontier landscape. Archaeological excavations further identified successive processes of reuse and reconfiguration of the site throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The material evidence confirms the continuous operation of the lime kiln during the entire nineteenth century, within the broader context of regional economic expansion and successive waves of European immigration. Subsequently, the site was transformed into an aggregate extraction enterprise operated by Ripiera Salvia Hermanos, whose activities continued until at least the second half of the twentieth century. Overall, the results demonstrate that Calera El Palmar constitutes a cultural landscape of long-term historical significance, where successive social actors continuously redefined the site's functions and meanings through changing patterns of occupation, production, and territorial appropriation. The study contributes to a broader understanding of colonial and postcolonial landscape transformation, Indigenous–European interactions, and the long-term dynamics of heritage formation in northeastern Argentina.