Chegar e partir : o Capão do Lana : arqueologia de um pouso de viajantes

Abstract

Capão do Lana appeared in the early eighteenth century. It began as a small subsistence farm, until it became an important stop on the Caminho Novo (New Road) and the main imperial topaz mine in the world. The Caminho Novo connected Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais and was one of the busiest routes in the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The Capão inn attracted many travelers who wanted to rest after their long journeys. With the discovery of topaz in the area, Capão do Lana also became a mining site, becoming a stop point for naturalistic travelers of the nineteenth century who wanted to know more about the mineral. With the decay of gold mining and the introduction of railroads, Capão also declined as an inn, gradually returning to be a domestic unit until its abandonment in the twentieth century. Despite the historical importance of Capão, its material history remained poorly explored. Therefore, its study through archeology allowed the reconstruction of part of the inn's daily life. Some issues that arose during this research were: how was the division between the family space and the guest space, given that the inn was also the owners' place of residence? Was this division be reflected in the material culture found? What are the crucial differences between the types of domestic remains and those of an inn? Would a markedly segmented society, such as colonial and imperial Brazilian societies, reflect this segmentation in a space, in principle, of more plural coexistence?