An area of Santo Domingo convent, San Juan: Changes and functionality based of historical research

Abstract

The results of the archaeological and historical research carried out in a sector of the Santo Domingo convent, located in the city of San Juan, province of the same name, Argentina, are presented. This property was built in the 16th century, although its space and buildings changed with the passing of time. The research, framed in the theoretical and methodological corpus of historical archaeology, had the objective of revealing and knowing the functionality of a construction that arose while reforms were being carried out in the space adjacent to the homonymous school, as well as its relationship with the Dominicans. For this purpose, we went through the documentary and graphic archives of the province, from the XVII century to the XX century, allowing us to know and register the changes that occurred in the space of study during the mentioned centuries. To finally determine that according to the materiality, the building corresponded to the first decades of the 20th century. This is a relevant contribution to the history of San Juan, since there are few constructions prior to the 1944 earthquake and few historical archaeological works.