Nicaragua (Other Keyword)
1-18 (18 Records)
This past summer I was given the opportunity to participate in an archaeology field school conducted in the country of Nicaragua. For the past 15 years, archaeologists have excavated sites along the shore of Lake Cocibolca in search for Mexican colonization. During my participation in the field school, we continued this quest through investigations at the site of El Rayo, the most significant site for studying the potential impact of outsiders on indigenous cultural traditions. The core...
Camp Granada, the Next Generation: Recent Excavations at the El Rayo site, Pacific Nicaragua (2016)
El Rayo, located on the Asese Peninsula in Lake Cocibolca, continues to surprise with its archaeological resources. Initially identified as a small fishing community on the lakeshore, investigations in 2009 and 2010 revealed extensive mortuary remains as well as rich domestic refuse. In the summer of 2015, a field school by the Institute for Field Research re-opened excavations at the Locus 3 mortuary complex, uncovering additional burial urns in diagnostic Sacasa Striated ‘shoe-pot’ urns. A...
Ceramic Compositional Analysis from Chiquilistagua, Nicaragua (2017)
This paper discusses patterns of production and distribution of pottery recovered from the site of Chiquilistagua through the use of X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) compositional data. Dominant types found in the Chiquilistagua assemblage include Usulatan, Espinoza, Segovia, Chavez Astorga, and Nejapa Roja. Occupational episodes at Chiquilistagua extend across the Tempisque and Bagaces ceramic spheres, which have been associated with widespread...
Contemplating Trade Corridors: Cost and Pathway Analysis Around Managua, Nicaragua (2017)
Trade and inter-community connections are keys to understanding how the ancient region around the modern city of Managua, Nicaragua, interacted and participated in the larger Central American and Mesoamerican trade corridor. This paper will present potential interpretations of long distance and local connections through a cost and pathway analysis using ArcGIS. This study will incorporate recent research on obsidian and ceramic sourcing studies from the site of Chiquilistagua into the model of...
Faring the Sweet Sea: Simulating Pre-Hispanic Raft and Canoe Navigation in Lake Cocibolca, Nicaragua (2017)
Before 1492, the human communities that inhabited the shores of Lake Cocibolca in Central America engaged in dynamic interactions and exchange networks, traveling across the land and canoeing or rafting on the lake and rivers to trade goods and communicate with their neighbors. Evidencing this travel network, archaeological studies have documented an abundance of ceramics and carved stone that the past inhabitants of the Lake Cocibolca region produced and traded widely during the later...
In Defense of Plainware Ceramics: Form, Function, and Foodways in Sapoa Period Pacific Nicaragua (2016)
Plain, utilitiarian pottery has typically been considered the 'red headed stepchild' of ceramic studies. This is especially the case in Pacific Nicaragua, where beautifully decorated polychromes have attracted the most attention. However, more theoretically engaged studies consider utilitarian pottery as a key to understanding foodways, and therefore offer important insights into alternative dimensions of social practice. This paper will consider plainware cooking and storage vessels from...
Just a Matter of Time: Preliminary Ceramic Chronology Building in Central 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. The archaeology of central Nicaragua offers a challenging arena for the deconstruction of traditional ceramic chronology discourses in Southern Central America. The ‘anthropology of techniques’ approach and ethnoarchaeological research have determined that the most stable steps in ceramic manufacture are connected to...
The Lithics of Conchal, Nicaragua and the story they tell (2015)
During the excavations of Conchal, Department of Rivas, Nicaragua relatively few lithic materials were encountered. While there were only 315 lithic pieces found, much can be learned from these pieces; this includes the daily activities that the prehistoric population conducted. By examining the data from the excavations, it was determined that the population began as a semi-nomadic one that eventually permanently inhabited the area. The formal and informal tools, along with the site furniture...
Mohammed’s Paradise: indigenous society and natural surroundings in southern Central America (2017)
Human-environment relations are a point of interest in the archaeology of indigenous southern Central America, defined here to encompass Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. As such, it does not seem to deviate from other world regions. This focus in past and contemporary research reflects the weight given to the idea of natural surroundings as resource endowments, following the cultural ecology approach. Elsewhere, such emphases on material, and indeed economic, sides of human...
Monuments Unmasked (2016)
Ometepe Island, Zapatera Island and Las Isletas of Lake Nicaragua are home to a distinctive group of monumental ground stone statues of up to two meters in height. Sometimes referred to as the "Alter-Ego" style, they depict humans with full animals on their back and shoulders, or elaborate headdresses with animalistic imagery. Well known throughout the country, they are featured prominently in murals and even currency. Yet their purpose and symbolism remains poorly understood due to challenges...
Pioneering Archaeology in Nicaragua (1983) (2016)
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...
Pots, People and Pacific Nicaragua: Misconceptions about Migrant Mesoamericans and Material Culture (2017)
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...
Pottery of the Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua: Sequence, External Connections, Ethnicity, and Migration. (2016)
I summarize the archaeological ceramics recovered from our excavations in the Department of Chinandega, in northwest Nicaragua. Our analysis is still in an early stage, and we have studied mainly collections from sites on the coastal plain, in the southern half of the Department. We have found Late Preclassic ceramic assemblages intimately linked to those described for Quelepa, Chalchuapa, and Santa Leticia in El Salvador. We have also found Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic assemblages with...
A Seriation of Local Ceramics from Cosmapa Oriental, Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua (2017)
Many local ceramic wares in northwestern Nicaragua are, as of yet, undescribed. Excavations at the site of Cosmapa Oriental in the municipality of Chichigalpa, Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua were conducted by Dr. Clifford Brown of Florida Atlantic University in 2013. Analysis of the ceramic sample in 2015 revealed two occupational periods at the site: a Late Preclassic occupation related to cultures in El Salvador; and a Classic to Early Postclassic occupation, which include Las Vegas and...
Trade and inter-community networks around Managua, Nicaragua (2016)
Trade and inter-community connections are keys to understanding how the ancient region around the modern city of Managua, Nicaragua interacted and participated in the larger Central American and Mesoamerican trade corridor. This poster will present potential interpretations of long distance and local connections through a cost and pathway analysis using ArcGIS. This study will incorporate recent research on obsidian sources from the site of Chiquilistagua into the model of interactions, as well...
True Potential: a database on osteological material in Nicaragua (2017)
Archaeological research in Nicaragua has yielded an abundance of human osteological material. Excavations at sites like Monkey point on the Caribbean coast and RURD-UNAN in Managua have uncovered impressive and extensive human inhumations. These sites are among the only four sites in Nicaragua were an extensive osteological study has been done and published. Yet many more unpublished literature mentions or has documented osteological remains. What is the real extent of the uncovered osteological...
What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Precolonial Sites in Chontales, Central Nicaragua? (2017)
The Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN), directed by Alexander Geurds, has recently conducted archaeological research in Chontales, Central Nicaragua. The main focuses of the study include the identification of the different types of settlements, understanding site and mound morphologies, as well as re-defining the regional pottery sequence. Therefore, the authors of this paper carried out a systematic full-coverage high intensity survey of a 52 square kilometer area, a complete...
Why Pacific Nicaragua Should Not Be Considered Mesoamerican during Prehistory (2017)
During Pre-Columbian times, it is well-known that the societies of Mesoamerica developed monumental architecture with a high level of complexity. During this same period, much if not all of lower Central America never achieved higher complexity other than that of chiefdom level. Honduras is the one major exception. While the societies of Nicaragua had similar gods and ceramics much of this can be explained through other means. The gods that were similar were "lesser" gods and not the main gods...