Central America (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Markus Reindel. Franziska Fecher. Peter Fux.

As part of the Central American Isthmus, Honduras adopted a special role in prehispanic America. Together with Nicaragua, the territory of modern Honduras functioned as a bridge between the culture areas of Mesoamerica and the Intermediate Area. In spite of that unique situation, archaeological investigations in Honduras have been focusing on the western, Mesoamerican part, especially on the Maya city of Copan. In contrast, cultural developments in the east remain largely unknown. With the goal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry Steinbrenner.

In the mid-20th century, Doris Stone described Las Vegas Polychrome, a brightly coloured ceramic ware found at sites in Honduras’ eastern highlands and the Comayagua Valley, as being “strongly reminiscent of western Nicaragua and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.” Meanwhile, contemporary archaeologists were happily classifying near-identical ceramics from eastern El Salvador as “Nicoya Polychromes”. More than a half century later, Las Vegas Polychrome remains only nominally defined, examples...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katrina Kosyk.

Typically ephemeral aspects of material culture, such as musical gestures and sound, are often overlooked in the reconstruction of Greater Nicoya culture history. Musical instruments offer clues to our understanding of cultural practices and the kinds of interactions between groups of individuals. Developing from recent research based on both archaeological and museum collections, my research examines—from a music archaeology perspective—a variety of highly decorated and culturally imbued...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Colón. Jimmy Daniels. Lana Ruck. Clifford T. Brown.

We performed morphotechnical and trace element analysis of 2871 obsidian artifacts recovered during survey and excavation from 12 archaeological sites in the Department of Chinandega, in northwest Nicaragua. The elemental analysis was conducted using the Bruker Tracer III-V portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer. The pXRF spectra and elemental concentrations of artifacts were compared with those of known source provenience. The results show 98 percent of the specimens match the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Lowry. Jason Paling. Colin Quinn.

The 2013 and 2014 seasons at Chiquilistagua archaeological project included survey, description and excavations of archaeological remains west of Managua. The site of Chiquilistagua was chosen because of its proximity to potential trade networks. Lithic and ceramic materials have been found in these excavations that point to production and trade. This paper will show analyses of trade networks connecting Nicaragua with southern Honduras and contextualizing those trade networks within the larger...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David McCormick.

Scholarly understanding of the prehistoric economy of the Pacific Coast lacks the resolution afforded its Lowland counterpart. Analysis of the Obsidian deposits at Cotzumalguapa offer us a lens through which to bring our understanding of the prehistoric economy of the Pacific Coast into focus. Surface survey and excavations near the El Baúl acropolis revealed the presence of several obsidian dumps, the result of a large-scale lithic industry in the Classic Period site of Cotzumalguapa. Thus far,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jay K. Johnson. Carol A. Morrow.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Hansen. David Wahl. Thomas Schreiner. Donald W. Forsyth. Edgar Ortega.

Recent multidisciplinary investigations in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin have provided evidence of human sedentary occupation by about 2600 B.C. Data from coring of shallow lakes and from small residential structures with postholes in bedrock below Middle Preclassic platforms show evidence of corn pollen, isotopes, and human presence by this early period. Archaeological investigations at sites such as Nakbe, El Mirador, Xulnal, Wakna and El Pesquero, among others, have identified architectural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard E. W. Adams. School of American Research (Santa Fe, N.M.).

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Geoffrey McCafferty.

In 1989, John Hoopes and I presented a paper at the SAA conference in which we attempted an archaeological evaluation of ethnohistorical models for Mexican migrations into the Greater Nicoya region of Central America. Although the paper was never published, it became the foundation for my current research in Pacific Nicaragua. Colonial chronicles describe ‘Mexican’ cultural practices of the Nahua-speaking Nicarao and, to a lesser extent, the Oto-Manguean-speaking Chorotega. Linguists and art...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Chatters. Pilar Luna-Erreguerena. Dominique Rissolo. Patricia Beddows. Shanti Morell-Hart.

Hoyo Negro is an immense, underwater collapse chamber deep within the Sac Aktun Cave system, Quintana Roo, Mexico. On its floor lie data-rich calcite raft deposits, bat guano piles, scatters of wood and charcoal, skeletons of large animals, and the remains of one teen-age human female. These sediments and fossils lie in total darkness, >40 meters below sea level, creating major technical challenges for their study and recovery. Investigations by a team of divers and scientists from Mexico, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bianca Gentil.

By bringing together theoretical frameworks utilized by scholars to describe the Classic Maya political economy, this work evaluates their applications in the case of the site of La Milpa. Located in Northwestern Belize, La Milpa experienced a demographic rise during the Late Classic/Terminal Classic periods, followed by a rapid decline shortly thereafter. This poster explores Maya political economy mechanisms as defined by Kenneth Hirth in his 1996 piece, specifically focusing on aspects of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ivonne Miranda Tapia. Jorge Zambrana.

En esta ponencia discutimos un hallazgo muy importante para la arqueología de Nicaragua, en lo que respecta a patrones funerarios del Período Tempisque terminal y posiblemente Bagaces inicial. El hallazgo fue realizado a 18 kilómetros al sur de la ciudad de Managua, el mismo comparte algunas similitudes con otros sitios de la ciudad de Managua, pero con notables diferencias en lo que respecta a ensamblajes cerámicos y al mismo tiempo en los patrones funerarios en sí, por ejemplo, en Ticuantepe,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frederick Lange.

Three years after the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, this author was invited by the Council of National Reconstruction to assist Nicaraguan cultural authorities in developing an archaeological research program for the Pacific side of the country. The revolutionary government had made a conscious decision to prioritize the protection and investigation of the cultural heritage. I had conducted extensive research in northwestern Costa Rica, known to be similar to southern Pacific...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John R. Swanton.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Johnson. Heather McKillop. Bretton Somers.

Arvin’s Landing is a Postclassic (A.D. 900-1500) settlement located on Joe Taylor Creek near Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The abundance of obsidian in the artifact assemblage at Arvin’s Landing indicates trade from the Maya highland sources of obsidian. During the Classic period (A.D. 300-900), obsidian was transported along the coast and by inland routes to the Maya in the lowlands. There was a shift from a dominance on El Chayal obsidian in the Classic to Ixtepeque obsidian in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry Steinbrenner.

The production of polychrome pottery in Pacific Nicaragua during the Sapoá and Ometepe Periods (AD 800-contact) has traditionally been attributed to various migrant cultural groups of vague Mesoamerican origin who were living in the region at the time of Spanish contact and who are usually assumed to have displaced the autochthonous inhabitants of Greater Nicoya. Supposed links between specific ceramic types and specific Mesoamerican groups that were originally based more on speculation than on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Heller.

Although ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources offer insights into the practices of producing political and sacred landscapes among contemporary and colonial era Maya, the scarcity and separation in time and space of written sources from most Classic period contexts complicates the examination of placemaking strategies in more ancient settings. In the near absence of written sources, landscapes, which are inscribed by built environments and the material remains of inhabitation, may be read as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown. Linda Howie.

In 2015-2016, the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP) in collaboration with HD Analytical Solutions, initiated a preliminary petrographic characterization study of presumed "local" pottery and daub artifacts, surface collected during settlement survey at the Late to Terminal Classic (ca. 750-1000 C.E.) Maya site of Alabama, Belize. This initial study, though small, has proved mighty in terms of the new information it has revealed, building on earlier studies of Maya communities in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Doyle.

Many Classic period (ca. AD 250-900) polities owe the location of their royal courts to decisions made by settlers in the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC – AD 250). This presentation evaluates the basic question of whether there is evidence of territories or political boundaries in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands. In the past, I have argued that Middle Preclassic residents constructed monumental E-Group architecture at specific places on the landscape as a conscious creation of distance between...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara L. Stark. Barbara Voorhies.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Sever.

The objective of this research is to understand human adaptation and survival in a tropical forest environment that was buried through time by six volcanic eruptions. Through the use of remote sensing and GIS technology an ancient footpath network has been discovered that connects villages, cemeteries, springs, and other cultural features upon a forested landscape. A combination of aerial and satellite data was used to locate archeological features invisible to the human eye. This information...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marc Abramiuk.

The Quebrada de Oro Ruins comprise the remains of one of four known Classic Maya centers located in Bladen Branch region of the Maya Mountains of southern Belize. Initially recorded in the 1970s, the site has not garnered much attention by archaeologists due to its remoteness. However, this has not deterred cartographers from noting it as a significant landmark or archaeologists from asserting that it played an important role in ancient times. This contrasts with the views of the few...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lucas Martindale Johnson.

To the uninitiated, Maya "eccentrics" are vague archaeological labels applied to flaked obsidian objects placed in ritual caches during the Classic Period (AD 250-800). Although an unclear label of humanoid, deity, animal-like, or other shaped objects, lithics analysts have tried to define eccentrics based on technological attributes enabling comparisons between contexts, sites, and regions. Those studies that reconstruct a complex chaîne opératoire demonstrate many eccentrics had a dynamic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Petra Cunningham-Smith.

The ancient coastal Maya fished for food and trade to the heavily populated cities that lay many miles inland. At these inland cities, marine fish were an elite and symbolic product often included in burials and caches. Although the use of marine resources in both coastal and inland Maya communities has been well documented, actual fishing and trading practices are poorly understood. This paper explores the potential of using stable isotope analysis to answer questions related to the use and...