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This paper explores the relationship between the disciplines of archaeology and history through the lens of historical archaeology. This is not a unified subdiscipline and has indeed been defined in various ways. Here, the term will be used as a shorthand for (later) medieval, post-medieval and contemporary archaeologies. Historical archaeology is first and foremost archaeology focusing on material remains and producing knowledge claims about the past (history) from things. But it can complement and confront the data gleaned from the material sources with other types of evidence (textual, pictorial, oral), so it is an archaeology with texts. This represents a methodological and epistemological challenge. An uncritical reliance on textual information over the material has often been warned against as “the tyranny of the historical record”. Many (historical) archaeologists have been inspired by various historiographical concepts and approaches, such as cultural history, the Annales school of social and economic history, Braudel’s concept of the longue-durée, the history of the everyday (Alltagsgeschichte), and microhistory. Conversely, the knowledge produced by archaeologists tends to be disregarded by most historians. This is unfortunate, as the material evidence offers important insights into past lifeworlds and should not be ignored.

En este trabajo presentamos y analizamos documentación inédita procedente del Archivo General de Indias que fecha la construcción de un "castillo fortaleza" en el "Valle del Senta", a mediados del siglo XVII. Su localización, aproximadamente "a diez leguas" del pueblo de Humahuaca, es coincidente con el emplazamiento de un yacimiento arqueológico reconocido académicamente como una fortaleza incaica. A partir de este caso de estudio, examinamos las continuidades y discontinuidades en la región oriental de la Quebrada de Humahuaca a través del tiempo y del territorio. Tomamos como eje de análisis el concepto de frontera pues nos permite pensar en la relación entre Historia y Arqueología en lo que concierne al estudio de los primeros siglos de la conquista española en nuestra región de estudio.In this paper we present and analyze unpublished sources from Archivo General de Indias related to the construction of a "castillo fortaleza" in the "Valle de Senta" by mid-17th century. Its location, about ten "leguas" from the town of Humahuaca, coincides with the archaeological site academically recognized as an Inka fortress. Based on this case study we examine the continuities and discontinuities in the eastern region of Quebrada de Humahuaca, through time and territory. The concept of frontier enables us to rethink the relationship between History and Archaeology, regarding the study of the early centuries of the Spanish conquest in the region under study.