Feathery Serpents of the Greater Nicoya Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Polychrome pottery from the Greater Nicoya region of Central America prominently features ‘feathery serpents’ that have been associated with the Mixteca-Puebla tradition of greater Mesoamerica. A closer look at the variety of ‘feathery serpents’ has discriminated between more Borgia-like images and others that are less prototypical, including features such as legs and shield patterns on the back. Feathered serpents have been at the core of debates over whether or not the Greater Nicoya region should be considered part of the Mesoamerican culture area. Recent excavations have refined the chronology of Greater Nicoya polychromes, especially in Pacific Nicaragua, such that these so-called "Mixteca-Puebla" diagnostics now pre-date polychromes from central Mexico. This paper will muddy the waters of how we define "Mesoamerica," at least for the Postclassic period, with suggestions about the importance of religious and economic interconnectedness, and the directionality of cultural influences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23859