Maria Magdalena Antczak

Dr. Antczak has committed her life to studying the Los Roques Archipelago and dozens of others small oceanic islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean. Devoted to the life-long archaeological expedition, together with her husband (Dr Andrzej Antczak, also an archaeologist), during more than 25 years of remarkable archaeological research, she “sieved” the sands of the islands and recovered the extraordinary heritage of Amerindian navigators: hundreds of human pottery figurines and other artifacts used in pre-Hispanic rituals and related to the Queen conch (Strombus gigas) exploitation and symbolism. 
 

Among others, she is a coauthor of an outstanding publication Los Ídolos de las Islas Prometidas: Arqueología Prehispánica del Archipiélago de Los Roques. In this book she constructs a theory and method for meaning attribution to the pre-Hispanic representational material culture and also acts as an artist, creating hundreds of archaeological drawings with pen, ink, watercolor and pencils. Her field notes are full of drawings of archaeological artifacts and marine creatures.