Prestige materials and artefacts exchanged between the Maya area and the pre-columbian Costa Rica : Presentation of the MayaCosta project and its first results

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hidden Gems: New Research on Lapidary, Lapidarists, and Polished Stone and Shell in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Between 500 BC and 700 AD, important quantities of iron ore mirrors and jade plaques, associated with the Maya elites and kings, were found in northwestern Costa Rica some 1000 km away from the Mayan area (BC 500 - AD 700). Since 2023, the MayaCosta Project brings together archaeologists, archaeometers, traceologists and archaeozoologists to review all the available archaeological data on these objects in order to document their contexts and chronological frameworks. This work involves the chemical analyses of the stones and adhesives by a set of complementary spectroscopic, datation and isotopic techniques. It also involves the characterization of the lapidary traditions by the study of the manufacturing microtraces, as well as the malacological and isotopic analyses of the Spondylus shells found in both regions. Finally, all data will be cross-referenced by being placed in geographic and chronological contexts in order to understand the distributions, productions, reuse and functions of these goods in the two areas. By understanding the nature and modalities of the relations between the two regions, this project will enable us to rethink the old distinctions between what is called Mesoamerica and what is still often considered as an "intermediate area".

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Hidden Gems: New Research on Lapidary, Lapidarists, and Polished Stone and Shell in the Americas

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51786