Geochemistry and Provenance of Late Formative Pottery from Chinandega, Nicaragua

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We describe the Cosigüina ceramic complex from the coastal plain of the Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua. It dates from the Late Formative. We assign it stylistically to the Providencia-Miraflores ceramic spheres of western El Salvador and southeastern Guatemala. We used instrumental neutron activation analysis to obtain elemental compositional data for 197 potsherds, including presumably local utilitarian types. Statistical analysis of the resulting elemental concentrations indicated that the specimens fall into three compositional groups, with seven sherds remaining unassigned. We interpret two of the groups as having been manufactured locally because they contain the majority of specimens (n = 177), including the utilitarian types, and exhibit similarities to the documented geochemistry of the area. The third group (n = 13, or 6.6% of the original sample) appears nonlocal not only because it is distinct from the other two but also because it shares similarities in chemical composition with contemporaneous pottery from western El Salvador and southeastern Guatemala; for example, the concentrations of Th and La. We argue that this group was imported from western El Salvador and southeastern Guatemala, indicating direct contact between that region and Chinandega. Raman spectroscopy revealed the composition of purple paint applied to Olocuitla Orange.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• 2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36794.0