Travel has always been a way to discover new landscapes, cultures, and traditions. However, more and more travelers are seeking something beyond a simple destination: they wish to understand the history of the place they visit, connect with its heritage, and return home with an experience that has enriched them intellectually and emotionally.
This new way of understanding tourism has transformed culture and scientific outreach into some of the main drivers of rural tourism. It is no longer enough to stay in a charming hotel or enjoy an excellent gastronomic offering. Today’s traveler wants to discover what makes a territory unique, learn the stories hidden within its buildings, and participate in experiences capable of transforming their way of seeing the world.
That is precisely the spirit that defines La Hospedería Nuestra Señora del Rosario, in El Provencio (Cuenca).
Located in the historic building that housed the first winery of the Cooperativa Nuestra Señora del Rosario, La Hospedería has preserved the essence of a property deeply connected to the town’s history, transforming it into a space where heritage, gastronomy, wine tourism, and culture coexist naturally.
This summer, that commitment to outreach is reinforced with the arrival of an exhibition of extraordinary scientific and human interest: “The Last Frontier: The Ayoreo of the Paraguayan Chaco”.
Far from being a conventional ethnographic exhibition, this proposal invites visitors to embark on a journey connecting two territories separated by thousands of kilometers yet united by the same question: how did the first human beings live?
On one hand, we find the Gran Chaco, one of the most unknown and fascinating natural regions on the planet, where some of the last indigenous hunter-gatherer groups still survive. On the other, the important Lower and Middle Paleolithic archaeological sites documented in El Provencio, which have established the municipality as a reference point for studying the first inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula.
The relationship between both settings may seem surprising. However, it constitutes one of the great pillars of contemporary archaeological research.
Understanding how the last hunter-gatherer communities live allows for more precise interpretation of the material remains left by our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. That comparative perspective, developed with the utmost scientific rigor, is the essence of ethnoarchaeology and the guiding thread of this exhibition.
Promoted by the El Provencio Town Council and funded by the Provincial Council of Cuenca, the exhibition has been developed by ethnoarchaeologist Santiago David Domínguez Solera and filmmaker Dorian Sanz, the result of years of fieldwork, research, and coexistence with Ayoreo communities.
The result is a cultural experience that transcends the simple contemplation of objects. Each exhibited piece invites understanding of the extraordinary capacity of human beings to adapt to their environment, transmit knowledge between generations, and build cultures deeply connected to nature.
Visiting this exhibition ultimately means taking a journey that begins in the heart of the Paraguayan Chaco and ends by helping us better understand our own origins.
An exhibition uniting two continents through archaeology
At first glance, it is difficult to imagine what relationship could exist between a small municipality in the province of Cuenca and the immense plains of the Paraguayan Chaco.
Thousands of kilometers separate both territories, but science has demonstrated that distance disappears when the objective is to understand human evolution.
Archaeology works from material remains: stone tools, bones, hearths, plant remains, or traces of ancient camps. However, correctly interpreting that evidence requires knowing how certain human behaviors leave traces in the archaeological record.
This is where ethnoarchaeology comes into play, a discipline that studies present-day communities whose ways of life allow for better understanding of certain processes observed in prehistoric sites.
It does not claim that these communities live as our ancestors did. That would be an incorrect simplification. Its objective is to analyze how activities such as making tools, preparing food, organizing a camp, or using fire generate material evidence that, thousands of years later, can be studied by archaeologists.
The exhibition “The Last Frontier” constitutes a magnificent example of how scientific research can reach the general public in a rigorous and accessible manner.
The Ayoreo: a living people who continue writing their history
The Ayoreo traditionally inhabit the Gran Chaco, an immense territory shared between Paraguay and Bolivia, considered one of the most important ecosystems in South America.
For generations they developed a way of life based on extraordinary knowledge of their environment.
Every tree.
Every plant.
Every animal.
Every water source.
Everything formed part of a complex system of knowledge transmitted orally from generation to generation.
However, the Ayoreo do not represent a people anchored in the past.
They are a fully contemporary community that, during recent decades, has had to face profound transformations resulting from agricultural expansion, extensive livestock farming, and deforestation of the Chaco.
Many families left the forest and began a new life in permanent settlements. At the same time, some groups continue living in voluntary isolation, becoming one of the last isolated indigenous peoples existing outside the Amazon. Precisely that reality makes their study a source of enormous interest for anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnographers worldwide.
Objects that tell stories
One of the great values of this exhibition lies in the authenticity of the pieces housed in its display cases.
Far from reproductions or recreations, visitors can contemplate original objects used by Ayoreo communities during their daily life.
Bows.
Arrows.
Necklaces made with feathers.
Bags crafted from plant fibers.
Sandals.
Maracas.
Utensils for producing fire.
Each of these elements constitutes much more than a tool.
They are material testimonies of a way of understanding the world.
In archaeology it is often said that objects never speak for themselves.
They need context.
They need interpretation.
They need to be observed from multiple disciplines to truly understand the information they contain.
A bow is not only used for hunting.
It also reveals knowledge about the wood used, the available plant fibers, biomechanics, artisanal manufacturing, and a community’s relationship with its natural environment.
A woven bag does not only allow transporting objects.
It also speaks of social organization, use of plant resources, and transmission of traditional techniques between generations.
Each exhibited piece thus becomes a window open to the extraordinary cultural diversity of our species.
Santiago David Domínguez Solera and Dorian Sanz: researching to disseminate
The exhibition stems from work developed over years by ethnoarchaeologist Santiago David Domínguez Solera and filmmaker Dorian Sanz, who have lived with Ayoreo communities and other contemporary hunter-gatherer groups in different scientific and audiovisual projects.
Their objective has never been to collect objects for their exotic value.
Quite the opposite.
Each piece forms part of a much broader context built from research, respect for indigenous communities, and the will to disseminate knowledge that usually remains restricted to the academic sphere.
Thanks to this fieldwork, today visitors to La Hospedería can contemplate a collection that helps understand how observation of the present continues providing new keys to interpreting the past.
When we were beginning to be ourselves: understanding Prehistory from a new perspective
The exhibition forms part of a new edition of the scientific conferences “When we were beginning to be ourselves”, an initiative that seeks to bring the general public closer to some of the main advances in the study of human evolution.
On this occasion, the central focus revolves around the Upper Paleolithic and the idea that knowing the last hunter-gatherer peoples can provide very valuable information for interpreting the European archaeological record.
The proposal is especially interesting because it breaks with the traditional image of archaeology.
Discovering an object constitutes only the first step.
Then the real scientific work begins: interpreting it.
Understanding who used it.
How it was made.
What function it performed.
What information it provides about the social organization of those who produced it.
And precisely in that interpretation process, ethnoarchaeology plays a fundamental role.
El Provencio: a territory where archaeology continues writing new pages of history
Speaking of this exhibition also means speaking of the place that hosts it.
Because El Provencio is not only a destination known for its wine-making tradition or the gastronomic richness of its surroundings. In recent years, the municipality has acquired important prominence within archaeological research thanks to the findings documented in its municipal area, which have allowed deeper knowledge of the first human occupations of the Southern Plateau.
The Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites studied in El Provencio constitute a valuable laboratory for understanding how our ancestors lived hundreds of thousands of years ago. Research developed by specialists has documented lithic tools, technological processes, and evidence that help reconstruct the evolution of the first human groups that inhabited this territory.
However, contemporary archaeology no longer limits itself to excavating and preserving.
Its objective goes much further.
It seeks to interpret.
Explain.
Disseminate.
And share with society knowledge that belongs to everyone.
Precisely for that reason, the permanent exhibition dedicated to the Paleolithic heritage of El Provencio finds an exceptional complement in “The Last Frontier: The Ayoreo of the Paraguayan Chaco”.
While the sites speak to us of a remote past through material remains, the ethnographic collection allows understanding how certain human activities leave traces that thousands of years later will be the object of archaeological study.
Both exhibitions dialogue with each other.
One provides the archaeological evidence.
The other offers an anthropological perspective that helps interpret that evidence from a profoundly human dimension.
The result is an exhibition journey that invites visitors to reflect on an idea as simple as it is fascinating: to understand who we were, we must also observe who we are.
A bridge between archaeology and anthropology
One of the great merits of this exhibition lies in its capacity to bring together scientific disciplines that the public often perceives as independent.
Archaeology studies the material remains of the past.
Anthropology analyzes human societies and their forms of organization.
Ethnography documents ways of life, customs, and traditions.
Ethnoarchaeology establishes bridges between all of them to understand how certain behaviors generate a material record that can be preserved for centuries or even millennia.
That interdisciplinary approach is what gives meaning to the exhibition.
The exhibited objects cease to be simple ethnographic pieces to become tools of knowledge capable of expanding our understanding of human cultural evolution.
Every bow.
Every arrow.
Every woven bag.
Every musical instrument.
Every utensil for producing fire.
All of them remind us that behind any object there is always a history, a technology, a learning process, and a specific way of relating to the environment.
La Hospedería: a historic building transformed into a space for knowledge
There are buildings whose importance transcends their architecture.
They are places that form part of the collective memory of a territory.
Spaces where entire generations have worked, lived together, and built the identity of a community.
The former winery of the Cooperativa Nuestra Señora del Rosario is one of those buildings.
Its history begins in the 1950s, when the growth of the cooperative made it necessary to construct facilities capable of storing the wine production of El Provencio’s farmers.
Those warehouses were for decades the economic heart of the municipality.
Through their doors passed thousands of harvests.
Thousands of personal stories.
Thousands of days of shared effort.
The recovery of the building to transform it into the current Hospedería did not represent a break with that legacy.
It meant giving it continuity.
Transforming a space linked to agricultural work into a place destined for gathering, rest, culture, and knowledge.
Today, those who cross those same doors discover a four-star hotel, a haute cuisine restaurant deeply committed to local products, and a building that keeps alive the spirit with which it was born: to be a meeting point for people.
The exhibition “The Last Frontier” fits naturally into this philosophy.
It does not simply occupy a room.
It forms part of a much broader project that understands heritage as a living element, capable of generating new experiences and new ways of discovering the territory.
A tourism model that looks to the future without forgetting its roots
Tourism has changed profoundly during the last decade.
The quality of a destination is no longer measured solely by the beauty of its landscapes or the comfort of its accommodations.
Today’s traveler seeks authenticity.
They wish to understand the history of the places they visit.
They want to know the origin of the products they taste.
They are interested in discovering who the people were that inhabited that territory before them.
And they especially value those establishments capable of integrating heritage, gastronomy, culture, and sustainability in the same experience.
That model fully responds to the identity of La Hospedería.
Those who stay in this building do not only find a hotel.
They find a space where every corner tells a story.
Where the memory of the old winery coexists with contemporary cuisine.
Where wine continues to be the protagonist.
And where culture becomes an essential part of the travel experience.
Heritage, gastronomy, and wine tourism: an experience that transcends the stay
One of the great attractions of La Hospedería lies in the way it manages to integrate different manifestations of heritage under the same concept.
On one hand, visitors discover the history of an emblematic building for El Provencio.
On the other, they can approach the archaeological richness of the municipality and understand the importance of the Paleolithic sites studied in the area.
To this is added a gastronomic offering where local products, signature cuisine, and Manchegan tradition dialogue naturally.
And all this without forgetting the deep connection the building maintains with wine culture.
We must not forget that these facilities were created to house the first winery of the Cooperativa Nuestra Señora del Rosario, the origin of a wine-making tradition that continues forming part of the municipality’s identity.
Each stay at La Hospedería allows tracing that evolution.
From the effort of the farmers who promoted the cooperative in the 1950s to the creation of a space where heritage, gastronomy, wine tourism, and culture coexist in absolute harmony.
Few places manage to offer such a complete experience.
An experience where visitors can begin the day discovering a scientific exhibition, continue enjoying the heritage richness of the building, and end the day tasting a gastronomic offering inspired by the flavors of the territory. That balance constitutes, precisely, one of the great differentiating values of La Hospedería.
Conclusion
There are exhibitions that awaken our curiosity.
Others allow us to contemplate pieces of enormous historical value.
And some, very few, manage to modify the way we understand the world.
“The Last Frontier: The Ayoreo of the Paraguayan Chaco” belongs to this last category.
Its true value does not lie solely in the authenticity of the objects it presents or in the extraordinary research work developed by Santiago David Domínguez Solera and Dorian Sanz. What is truly relevant is the conversation it establishes between cultures, territories, and apparently unconnected eras.
Thanks to this exhibition we understand that the history of humanity cannot be interpreted solely through archaeological remains.
It also needs to observe how certain ways of life have managed to preserve ancestral knowledge that helps interpret our past with a much broader perspective.
Its installation at La Hospedería Nuestra Señora del Rosario also reinforces the role this building plays as a reference point for cultural tourism in Castilla-La Mancha.
The former heart of El Provencio’s first cooperative winery continues to be a meeting place.
Before it was for farmers and winemakers.
Today it is for travelers, researchers, lovers of gastronomy, wine, heritage, and culture.
In its walls coexist the memory of the harvest, gastronomic excellence, wine-making tradition, and scientific outreach.
All this transforms the visit to this exhibition into much more than a tour among display cases.
It means discovering how a small municipality in the province of Cuenca has managed to transform its history into an experience capable of moving, teaching, and awakening new questions about our own origins.
Because, after all, understanding the last hunter-gatherers on the planet also helps us understand an essential part of ourselves.
