Abstract

The historical archeology of the city of Osorno and its hinterland in Southern Chile constitute the core of this research. By analyzing urban architecture, site distribution, and ceramic collections, we evaluate the hypotheses surrounding Hispanic settlements between 1558 and 1796 and occupational processes that occurred from the Early Ceramic (4th-11th centuries) to Late Ceramic and Colonial periods (12th-19th centuries). The discussion about long-term history (including archaeological periods) and intercultural relations, based on documentary sources, settlement patterns, and ceramic typology, allows us to integrate the jurisdiction of Osorno into wider archaeological and historiographic debates. In this paper, we deal with discontinuities in colonial processes on the southern border of the Kingdom of Chile and artifactual hybridization that gave rise to urban settlements in densely inhabited indigenous territories.