The Earliest Dated Skeletal Remains from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

Summary

A recent discovery of a female skeleton from Monkey Point – a shell matrix site on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua – represents the earliest confirmed evidence of the occupation of the region. In 2014, the skeleton eroded from the profile (left unprotected after the excavations in the 1970s) prompting rescue excavations. The skeleton was not disturbed, and the excavations could follow proper archaeological procedures, allowing us to reconstruct the burial position and to attempt chronometric 14C dating. Here we present the skeletal and burial data in their archaeological and chronological context. Situated in Bluefields, Atlantico Sur Province, Nicaragua, (11° 36' 0" North, 83° 40' 0" West), the site is a large shell-matrix site in the Duck Creek region, considered to be very important in the subsistence of the local indigenous Kriol and Rama communities. This particular region, because of its geographic position on the coastal area of the Nicaaraguan rise, plays a potentially critical and yet poorly known role in our understanding of the early peopling of the Greater Antilles. The discovery of human remains at the site offers us material evidence of the early population and the opportunity to examine population affiliations and movement.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Perspectives on Early Migrations in the Western Caribbean   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage