Central America and Northern South America (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (158 Records)
Authenticating relations are defined by artisanship, temporality, value-making and ethnographic authority. These relations are visible in contemporary museum settings as well as in the art world as such, and may be particularly poignant in the case of the Caribbean and Central America with its diverse manifestations of emotive styles and materials such as wood and stone. Historically deep and widespread, 19th and 20th century Central American trafficking of pre-Columbian things was tied to...
Out of Mexico: An Archaeological Evaluation of the Migration Legends of Greater Nicoya (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Postclassic Mesoamerica: The View from the Southern Frontier" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnohistoric documents pertaining to the Greater Nicoya archaeological subarea document legends in which the inhabitants of western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica traced their ancestry to migrations from the north, presumably in Mexico. Linguistic data indicate that speakers of Chorotega, an Oto-Manguean language, and...
Paleoindian Sites from Central Mexico: Paleoenvironment and Dating (2018)
During the last 20 years we have studied systematically several important Paleoindian sites from Central Mexico doing detailed stratigraphic studies, paleoenvironmental reconstructions (pollen, diatoms, tephra studies) and radiocarbon dating. The sites include: Peñon Woman III skeleton, Santa Isabel Iztapan Mammoths with associated lithics, Tlapacoya Man Skull, Tocuila Mammoths, Tequixquiac Late Pleistocene Fossils and Tepexpan Man Skeleton. We present here a general model of strong...
Petrography, Production, and Provenance of Ceramics from La Blanca, Guatemala (2018)
The Middle Preclassic (900-600 BCE) was a critical time of political and social centralization in the Guatemalan lowlands. Of particular interest is La Blanca, one of the first polities to rise and show signs of regional influence and potential urbanization. To reconstruct everyday life I am using excavated ceramic refuse to observe dynamics surrounding three households. This, in turn, elucidates elements of La Blanca’s political economy associated with the manufacturing and production of...
The Pipil/Nicarao Migration from the Perspective of Pacific Nicaragua: An Archaeological Critique of Mythstorical Mobility (2018)
Ethnoshitorical sources describe migrations from central Mexico of Nahuat and Mangue speakers, known as the Pipil/Nicarao and the Chorotega, who settled along the Pacific Coast of Central America in the centuries prior to European contact. According to these accounts the new groups introduced cultural and religious traits into settlements in El Salvador, the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, and northwestern Costa Rica. Beginning in 2000, archaeologists from the University of Calgary have investigated...
Place-Making, Erasure, and the Death of Kingship at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Classic Period (550–800 CE) at Pacbitun, a sequence of events took place that changed the landscape of power and sacredness in the site’s core during a tumultuous time in the Belize River Valley. The sequence of caches and burials likely began in order to consecrate a new courtyard (Court 3) and establish the new center of power at the site....
Point Counter Point: Interpreting Chipped Chert Bifaces in a Terminal Classic "Problematic Deposit" from Structure A2 at Cahal Pech, Belize (2018)
Sixteen small chert bifaces are part of a Terminal Classic (AD 800-900) peri-abandonment "problematic deposit" recovered just above the surface near the western base of Structure A2 at the ancient Maya site of Cahal Pech, Belize. The results of stylistic, technological, and use-wear analyses performed on these chert artifacts indicate: 1) production from locally available stone; 2) five different tool styles; 3) evidence for some tool curation/re-sharpening; and 4) wear patterns on some of the...
Points of Early Human Mobility: A Preliminary Synthesis of Paleo-Central American Sites (2018)
This poster addresses an understudied area relevant to the initial peopling of the Americas: what are the earliest indications of human activity in Mesoamerica (particular emphasis on Guatemala)? Its geographic location and its relatively narrow expanse make the southern half of Middle America the natural stage to funnel terrestrial and coastal/riverine routes of early human migrations. Despite this consideration, archaeological research targeting Paleoamerican horizons [pre-12,800 BP] in this...
Politics along the Rivers: An Example from the Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reconstructing the Political Organization of Pre-Columbian Nicaragua" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The relationship between environment, politics, and economies has often been observed in the archaeological record. In the Gulf of Fonseca, where archaeological sites concentrate around mangrove swamps, rivers and estuaries; politics were intricately tied to the affordances of riverine systems. Based on the ceramic...
Potential Method for Structure Alignment by the Ancient Maya (2018)
It is well established that the ancient Maya favored certain orientations for the buildings in their major urban centers. In the southern Maya lowlands, an orientation of 14° clockwise from the cardinal directions is particularly common. How did the ancient Maya find this orientation? What was their surveying technique? Lidar from many sites shows that this orientation was not limited to major constructions. The smallest residential structures and patio groups, structures spread throughout the...
Practice and Place: Ceramic Technology and Social Boundaries in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize River Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic provenance studies often focus on resource acquisition to address the question "what is local?", overlooking the role that practice plays in vessel manufacture. Potters must learn to create viable ceramic vessels, engaging with learning networks that extend beyond conventionally...
Praying to the Predator: Symbols of Insect Animism on Luna Polychrome (2018)
Pacific Nicaragua has long been noted as a cultural crossroads, especially featuring historically documented migrants from central Mexico. Following ethnohistorical accounts, Nahuat speaking groups colonized the Rivas area in the Late Postclassic Ometepe period. The most prominent diagnostic ceramic of this time was Luna Polychrome, often found in mortuary contexts. This paper presents a detailed analysis of over 50 Luna vessels from the Mi Museo collection. The overarching theme of the painted...
Pre-colonial Griddles in Central Nicaragua: An Archaeometric and Archaeobotanical Approach to Foodways at the Barillas Site, Chontales (2018)
Since 2007, the Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua, directed by Alexander Geurds, has excavated several archaeological sites in Chontales, Nicaragua, northeast of Lake Cocibolca. This papers reports on fragments of ceramic griddles recovered in layers dated to cal AD 1275 and 1290 at the Barillas site - unprecedented find challenging our views on ancient foodways in the region. The paucity of these comales has hitherto co-determined narratives on human mobility from Mesoamerica, due to...
Pre-Columbian Adaptation to Fluvial Environments, Chontales, Central Nicaragua: 2018 PRISMA Results. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reconstructing the Political Organization of Pre-Columbian Nicaragua" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Alluvial valleys are dynamic environments that continuously change under the influences of flooding and erosive processes caused by climatic and tectonic events. The Roberto Amador site is situated on alluvial deposits, surrounded by a meander of the Mayales River, in the proximity of the city of Juigalpa, Chontales,...
Pre-Columbian Conflict and Early Social Complexity in Java, Southern Costa Rica (2018)
Based on the Spanish chronicles from the Contact period (Sixteenth century), we know that the inhabitants of what is now Southern Costa Rica were in constant violent conflict, at least during the last pre-Columbian years. On the other side, warriors, captives and trophy heads are a recurrent theme in the sculptures and other artistic representations from this archaeological area. Although the importance of warfare and conflict during the pre-Columbian period has been considered in archaeological...
Pre-Columbian Pottery Production in Greater Nicoya: A Cross-Regional Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Spanning northwest Costa Rica and the Isthmus of Rivas in Pacific Nicaragua, the Greater Nicoya archaeological region has been historically interpreted as a cohesive language and culture area (‘primordially’ Chibchan but shifting to Mesoamerican post-AD 800). Since the 1980s, however, researchers have begun to increasingly...
The Preceramic Occupation of Greater Chiriqui: An Assessment of our Current Understanding (2018)
The first substantial evidence of a preceramic occupation of Greater Chiriqui resulted from the 1970 excavations of upland rockshelters in the watershed of the Chiriqui River in Western Panama. Results from these excavations were reported in a 1972 dissertation and the 1980 publication Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama. Our current understanding of the preceramic period occupations in Greater Chiriqui owes more to subsequent innovations in research methods – phytolith and starch grain...
Preclassic Settlement Patterns and Natural Topography in the Mirador Karst Basin of Northern Guatemala (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A new model of Preclassic settlement patterns has emerged with the use of lidar to document a large-scale landscape in northern Guatemala. These patterns include highly sophisticated man-made hydrographic features, monolithic transportation networks, extensive residential complexes, and monumental civic complexes...
Prehistoric Fishing Practices in Bocas del Toro, Panama (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The pre-European population of the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago was more numerous and diverse than previously thought. Fish were a primary source of vertebrate protein throughout the region. Recent findings illustrate that the inhabitants of Sitio Drago consumed both maize and beans, not just root and tree crops as previously assumed. This presentation...
A Preliminary Multi-isotope Assessment of Precolumbian Humans from Panama (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study presents data on the first multi-isotope analysis of precolombian humans in Panama. We use carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), oxygen (δ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopes to determine the diets and mobility patterns of individuals from seven archaeological sites: Cerro Mangote, Sitio Sierra, and Cerro Juan Díaz in...
Preliminary Results of Archaeological Survey in the Zapatera Archipelago, Granada, Nicaragua (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reconstructing the Political Organization of Pre-Columbian Nicaragua" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although archaeology within the Zapatera Archipelago was initially documented in the 19th century due to the islands’ exceptional stone statuary and petroglyph panels, little scientific archaeology or environmental work has taken place there. This paper presents the results from the first season of the Proyecto...
Re-Contextualizing Pre-Columbian Gold and Resin Artifacts from Panama in the National Museum of the American Indian (2018)
Until recent years the study of Pre-Columbian gold and resin objects from Panama was slow to progress due to the relative scarcity of archaeological projects excavating these materials. While the original contexts of many museum objects have been lost, the collection of Panamanian gold and resin in the National Museum of the American Indian was re-evaluated for its potential to answer key questions about the ancient craftspeople of this region. To ensure accurate provenience information was...
Reassessment of Population Density in Late Precolumbian Central Caribbean Panama (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using radiometric and settlement survey data from an area with 100% survey coverage in the rain-forested lowlands of the Caribbean watershed of Colón, Panama, we present the results of an analysis of site distribution and 14C dates to calculate population density. The archaeological data is compared with previous population...
Reconsideración de Las Fuentes de Aprovisionamiento de Obsidiana en el Oriente y Suroriente de Honduras (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Pre-Columbian Cultures of Honduras after AD 900" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A la luz de los nuevos datos sobre el uso y distribución de fuentes de obsidiana en el territorio hondureño, particularmente la evidencia relacionada con la explotación de la cantera de Güinope, en el departamento de El Paraíso en la región oriental del país. Se analiza y expone un debate sobre el abordaje de los estudios líticos en...
Reconstructing Trajectories of Social Change: A Multiscale Approach Applied to the Valle Central Occidental, Costa Rica (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2007, the project "Cambio social precolombino en San Ramón, Alajuela y sus alrededores" has aimed to reconstruct the trajectory of precolumbian social change (from at least 1000 BC to AD 1550) in this region of Costa Rica using systematic and standardized procedures. The most general and ambitious aim of the project is...