Cerámica sin Fronteras: Defining Cultural Phenomena at the Intersection of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Willis. Clifford Brown.

Since 2009, Florida Atlantic University has been carrying out archaeological survey and excavation in the Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua jointly with the Dirección de Patrimonio Cultural. Objectives of this research include establishing an artifact sequence and studying sociocultural processes such as the evolution of social complexity, interregional interaction, and migration. Found in 2009, the site of San Antonio is located between the cities of El Viejo and Chinandega. A single 2x2 m...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley Gravlin Beman.

In the summer of 2015, we analyzed ceramics recovered from the site of Cosmapa Oriental in the municipality of Chichigalpa, Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua. The research design calls for the investigation of ethnic identity and migratory processes through the identification, description, and sequencing of the ceramics. Ceramics were recovered from one 1 x 2 m pit, eight stratigraphically excavated shovel tests, and various surface collections. The pottery was analyzed using the Type:...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elisa Fernández-León. Geoffrey McCafferty.

Ethnohistorical sources describe migrations of Mesoamerican peoples into the Greater Nicoya region of Pacific Nicaragua and Northwestern Costa Rica during the Classic to Postclassic transition, ca. 800 CE, a period known regionally as the Bagaces and Sapoa periods. Recent research has targeted this transition in order to better understand the material culture dynamics, as a means to further understand historical linguistic and genetic data. This paper contrasts two case studies: one from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eva Martinez.

Although the ceramics of eastern Honduras have been sometimes described as being remarkably homogenous throughout the region, recent research points to intraregional variations regarding ceramic assemblages and what they represent in terms of intra and inter regional interactions. The identification of the ceramic group known as Chichicaste has contributed to point out a greater diversity of ceramic traditions in eastern Honduras as well as to recognize more nuances in its intraregional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Geoffrey McCafferty. Shaelyn Rice.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marie Kolbenstetter.

Traditionally, polychrome pottery from Late Classic and Early Postclassic Honduras has been considered as falling under or being subjected to the Mesoamerican sphere of influence, as well as showing certain Central Mexican affiliations. Yet, the Lower Central American connection has rarely been explored. This connection is nonetheless present as can be observed throughout the diversity of Honduran polychromy. In this paper, the influence of the Greater Nicoyan style on Honduran polychrome...

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 Clifford Brown.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rosemary Joyce.

In Central America, recent research crosses national boundaries that once divided archaeological analyses, including by identifying historically related ceramics with regionalized names. This paper argues for using contemporary concepts that do not tie us to the culture historical approach, with its equivalences of a people, a material culture, a language, and an identity, to fully understand emerging data. Culture history worked as a preliminary step to clarify relations in areas like...