The Question of Monumentality in the Sacred Spaces and Features of Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ometepe is the largest island in Lake Coçibolca (Lake Nicaragua), itself the largest body of freshwater between Lake Titicapa in South America and the Great Lakes of North America. Its topography is unique, composed of two volcanoes—one active (Concepción) and one ancient and dormant (Maderas). A vast array of petroglyphs on Maderas and statuary and clusters of mounds on both volcanoes comprise some of the unusual man-made features found on this distinctive island. Words like “monument”’ and “monumentality” elicit such connotations as extraordinary size, importance, commemoration, and ritual, all usually associated with human-built environments. Some natural features have, however, also been called monuments, usually because of some unique cultural and/or scientific importance and, often, impressive size. This paper will discuss how or whether Ometepe’s built constructions can in themselves be considered “monumental,” whether the intersection of unusual natural features with the ritual and ideology represented in the island’s man-made constructions more accurately define our notion of “monumentality,” and what these ideas and features signal regarding social complexity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38290.0