Complexity during the Aguas Buenas Period of Greater Chiriquí: Initial Comparisons between El Cholo, Cantarero, and Pejeperro Sites, Southern Costa Rica

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The development of precontact social hierarchy in southern Central America is a subject open to debate. For the Aguas Buenas period (300 BC–AD 800) of the Greater Chiriquí archaeological region, new data at the regional level (Costa Rica, Panama) indicate the appearance of centers with architectural complexity after AD 400. This paper offers an initial comparison among three contemporaneous sites with extensions of several hectares and the presence of artificial mounds: El Cholo, located in the Upper General Valley, Cantarero in the Tigre River basin in the interior of the Osa Peninsula, and Pejeperro, on the peninsular southern coast. El Cholo and Cantarero exhibit cobble architecture with the latter also showing extensive terrain modification and smaller surrounding settlements. We explore the question of variable site function and formation and propose alternatives for understanding this diversity amid an overarching model of social complexity and regional interaction. We also discuss aggrandizement and collective leveling mechanisms, reviewing evidence for strategic geographic placement and its possible role in the control of staple resources, raw materials, and extra-local goods. Finally, we review ecological variability and its possible influence on local and interregional social dynamics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33082