Dr. Maria Magdalena (Marlena) Antczak is an archaeologist and anthropologist specializing in the archaeology of Northern South America and the Caribbean. She is currently a Guest at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, and serves as the Director of the Archaeological Research Unit (UEA) in Caracas, Venezuela.

More information about Marlena Antczak-Mackowiak

Research

Dr. Maria Magdalena (Marlena) Antczak is an archaeologist and anthropologist specializing in the archaeology of Northern South America and the Caribbean. She is currently a Guest at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, and serves as the Director of the Archaeological Research Unit (UEA) in Caracas, Venezuela.

Until recently, Dr. Antczak held the position of senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), where she focused on the impact of indigenous imagery across the ‘Columbian divide’ in the Southeastern Caribbean as part of the CaribTRAILS project. She has also taught at Leiden University’s Faculty of Archaeology and the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities.

Marlena’s research examines the role of archaeological imagery in the construction and maintenance of socio-cultural identities and ideologies, both in the past and the present. She focuses on the ontological dimensions of Amerindian imagery—especially figurines—and the semiotic practices associated with figurative material culture. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, her work investigates the ways in which such imagery contributes to the (re)construction of past social realities. She is also committed to advancing engaged archaeology, which involves community-driven archaeological practices and seeks to make past realities relevant to contemporary contexts.

Curriculum vitae

Marlena holds a PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology from University College London (2000), and has studied Ethnography at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, and Anthropology at Universidad Central de Venezuela. She was a Professor of Anthropology  of Art and Archaeology at the Universidad Simón Bolívar (2005-2013) and served as Associate Professor in Caribbean Archaeology at Leiden University’s Faculty of Archaeology (2013-2017).

In 1982, she co-founded and co-directed the Archaeology of the Islands of Venezuela project with her late husband, Dr. Andrzej T. Antczak. This initiative led to pioneering archaeological research on the 60 offshore islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean. Since 2006, Dr. Antczak has also co-directed research on the small islands off the eastern coast of Martinique and the island of Bonaire. In addition, her work includes extensive museological research on archaeological collections from Venezuela, housed in museums across the Americas and Europe. From 2013 to 2019, she was a senior researcher in the NEXUS1492 Project.

Marlena has significant teaching experience, having taught more than 70 graduate and undergraduate courses in Spanish, English, and Polish across Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean. Until recently, she taught at Leiden University’s Faculty of Archaeology and the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities.

She has published numerous monographs and scholarly articles in both English and Spanish, contributing to edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals. She has also participated in various archaeological exhibitions and documentaries.

Her contributions to the field continue to shape contemporary understandings of Caribbean and South American archaeology, particularly in the areas of indigenous imagery and the intersection of archaeology and social identity.

Selected publications

Urbani B., Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M., Dijkhoff R.A.C.F, Kelly H., Nieweg D. & Wake T. (2022), Monkeys along the Coast of Paradise: Prehispanic Nonhuman Primates in the Circum-Caribbean Region. In World Archeoprimatologies: Interconnections of Humans and Nonhuman Primates in Prehistory, edited by B. Urbani, D. Youlatos and A.T. Antczak, pp. 63-107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M., Antczak O. & Lemoine Buffet L. (2019), Rancherías: Historical Archaeology of Early Colonial Campsites on Margarita and Coche Islands, Venezuela. In Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in the Early Colonial Americas: Archaeological Case Studies, ed. by F. Keehnen and C.L. Hofman, 146–174. Leiden: Brill.

Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M. & Guzzo Falci C. (2018), Vibrant Pasts in Museum Drawers: Advances in the Study of Late Precolonial (AD 800–1500) Materials Collected from North-central Venezuela. Museum History Journal https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2019.1609870

Antczak A.T., Haviser J.B., Hoogland M.L.P, Boomert A., Dijkhoff R.A.C.F, Kelly, H.J., Antczak M.M. & Hofman C.L. (2018), Early Horticulturalists of the Southern Caribbean. In The Archaeology of Caribbean and Circum-Caribbean Farmers 6000 BC – AD 1500, ed. by B.A. Reid, 113-146. London: Routledge

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2017), Making Beings: Amerindian Figurines in the Caribbean. In The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines, ed. by T. Insoll, 195–220. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Antczak A.T., Urbani B. & Antczak M.M. (2017), Re-thinking the migration of Cariban-speakers from the Middle Orinoco River to north-central Venezuela (AD 800). Journal of World Prehistory 30(2): 131–175.

Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M. & Lentino M. (2017), Avian Remains from Late Pre-colonial Amerindian sites on Islands of the Venezuelan Caribbean. Environmental Archaeology Doi: 10.1080/14614103.2017.1402980

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2015), Late pre-colonial and early colonial archaeology of the Las Aves Archipelagos, Venezuela. Contributions in New World Archaeology 8:7–44.

Antczak A.T., Antczak K.A. & Antczak M.M. (2015), Risky business: historical archaeology of the Dutch salt enterprise on La Tortuga Island, Venezuela (1624–38). Post-Medieval Archaeology 49/2:189–219.

Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M., González Hurtado G. & Antczak K.A. (2013), Community Archaeology in Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela. Politeja DOI: 10.12797/Politeja.10.2013.24.13. 

Antczak A.T., Antczak M.M., González Hurtado G. & Antczak K.A. (2013), Community Archaeology in Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela. Politeja DOI: 10.12797/Politeja.10.2013.24.13.

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2011), Their World in Clay: The Art of Pre-Hispanic Venezuela. In Ancient American Art 3500 BC-AD 1532: Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Antczak, M. M., A. Antczak, S. Berti, J-F. Bouchard, D. Reents-Budet, and G. Griffin (eds.), pp. 175-203. Milan: 5 Continents Editions.

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2008), Between Food and Symbol: The Role of Marine Molluscs in the Late Pre-Hispanic North-Central Venezuela. In Early Human Impact on Megamolluscs, edited by A. Antczak and R. Cipriani, pp. 231-245.

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2007), Los Mensajes Confiados a la Roca. Caracas: Editorial Equinoccio, Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Antczak M.M. & Antczak A.T. (2006), Los Ídolos de las Islas Prometidas: Arqueología Prehispánica del Archipiélago de Los Roques. Caracas: Editorial Equinoccio.

Sajo-Bohus, L.., Antczak M.M., Greaves E.D., Antczak A.T., Bermudez J., Kasztovszky Zs., Poirier T. & Simonits A. (2005), Incipient archaeometry in Venezuela: Provenance study of pre-Hispanic pottery figurines. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 265(2): 247-256 (with L. Sajo-Bohus, E.D. Greaves, A.T. Antczak, J. Bermudez, Zs. Kasztovszky, T. Poirier and A. Simonits).

Activities