The Imbalanced Archaeology of Honduras: Challenges and Potentials

Summary

This paper presents a brief overview over past and current trends in non-Maya archaeology of Honduras. From the beginnings of archaeological investigations in Honduras, there has been a strong research focus on the Maya city of Copan in the extreme west of the country. But already in early years, pioneers like William D. Strong, Doris Stone and Claude Baudez made valuable contributions, in order to reveal the hidden history of central Honduras, the Atlantic and the Pacific coast. The lack of research in these regions of Honduras in the following years, due to the ongoing interest in the influence of the Maya culture in western Honduras, and also to the difficult sociopolitical situation, resulted in an imbalance of archaeological research which today prevents the understanding of cultural processes between Mesoamerica and Lower Central America.

In recent years, new archaeological projects were started which reveal the great potential of research in the hitherto less studied regions. A well trained new generation of archaeologist is using new methodologies and technologies to systematically study settlement patterns, regional chronologies and intercultural relations. This new research results in the definition of new strategies for archaeological research in Honduras in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20417