This research is structured around a call to attention about the urgency of arque-historical investigations centered in Colombia Afro-descendant communities, as well as the need to understand them in a context of multiple intercultural relations - mediated phenomena of domination and resistance, so that it is possible to evaluate the models circulating today on proposed from anthropology ethnicity and cultural contact Sociology and history. This general purpose in mind, the research documents from archaeological contexts and ethnohistorical evidence the process of settlement of the Afro-descendant of Paez (Cauca, Colombia) community and its social, economic and community practices related to the production of salt, between the 18th and 19th centuries. In this way, it seeks to characterize elements of their social organization, and the way in which such community interacted with the indigenous population mestizo-espanola, to contribute to the understanding of the traditions of Afro-descendants in Colombia, field of research that has occupied a secondary place in the archaeological agenda of the country. The work gathered data on the local and regional archives which, together with the references of the collective memory of the current afropaeces, served as the basis for implementing a program of archaeological reconnaissance to explore sectors associated with domestic, economic life and ritual of Afro-descendants. However achieved, it is clear that this research is a first approximation which should be complemented with new questions and excavations that allow to clarify aspects of livelihood strategies and the development of the Afro-descendant of Paez materiality.