The Archaeology of Greater Nicoya: Two Decades of Research in Nicaragua and Costa Rica

by Larry Steinbrenner (Editor), Alexander Geurds (Editor), Geoffrey G. McCafferty (Editor), Silvia Salgado (Editor)

Overview

The Archaeology of Greater Nicoya is the first edited volume in a quarter century to provide an overview of this fascinating archaeological subarea of Mesoamerica, encompassing Pacific Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. Inhabited by diverse peoples of Mesoamerican origin centuries before Spanish colonization, Greater Nicoya remains controversial in the twenty-first century as scholars struggle to achieve consensus on questions of geography, chronology, and cultural identity.
 
Drawing on approaches ranging from ethnohistory to bioarchaeology to scientific and culture-historical archaeology, the book is organized into sections on redefining Greater Nicoya, projects and surveys, material culture, and mortuary practices. Individual chapters explore Indigenous groups and their origins, extensive summaries of the three largest scholarly archaeological projects completed in Pacific Nicaragua in the last quarter century, clear evidence of Mesoamerican connections from Costa Rica’s Bay of Culebra, detailed histories of lithic analysis and rock art studies in Nicaragua, new insights into mortuary and cultural practices based on osteological evidence, and reinterpretations of diagnostic ceramic types as products of related potting communities and the first definitive identification of production centers for these types. Drawing upon new 14C dates, this volume also provides the most substantial revision of the late pre-colonial chronology since the 1960s, a correction that has critical implications for understanding the prehistory of Greater Nicoya.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646421503
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	11/01/2021
Pages:	564
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Larry Steinbrenner is head of anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences at Red Deer Polytechnic in Alberta, Canada. He was a member of the University of Calgary’s Santa Isabel Archaeological Project in Rivas, Nicaragua, from 2000 to 2005.

Alexander Geurds is associate professor at the University of Oxford and Leiden University and holds an adjunct post at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has been the director of the Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN) since 2007.

Geoffrey G. McCafferty is professor of anthropology and archaeology at the University of Calgary and was previously a Mellon fellow in Latin American art and archaeology at Brown University. He has directed archaeological research in Nicaragua since 2000.

Silvia Salgado is professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Costa Rica and was previously assistant professor at the University of Mobile, Latin American Branch Campus (Nicaragua).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 Introduction Larry Steinbrenner 3

Part 1 Redefining Greater Nicoya

2 Contact-Era Pacific Nicaragua: Indigenous Groups and Their Origins Larry Steinbrenner 23

3 Indigenous Peoples of Pacific Nicaragua and Nicoya in the Sixteenth Century: A Historical Approach Eugenia Ibarra Rojas 47

4 A Critical Reevaluation of Pacific Nicaragua's Late Period Chronology Larry Steinbrenner Geoffrey G. McCafferty 67

Part 2 Projects and Surveys

5 The Managua Metropolitan Project: A Retrospective Frederick W. Lange 105

6 Twenty Years of Nicaraguan Archaeology: Results of the University of Calgary Projects Geoffrey G. McCafferty 125

7 The Development of Social Complexity in the Rivas Region, Pacific Nicaragua Karen Niemel Garrard 162

8 Social Practices at La Cascabel, A Village on Culebra Bay, AD 800-1550 Ana Cristina Aguilar Vega 193

Part 3 Ceramics and Stone: Material Culture in Pacific Nicaragua

9 Polychrome Potting Traditions of Pacific Nicaragua, AD 800-1300 Larry Steinbrenner 215

10 Ceramic Economy and Communities of Practice in Granada and Rivas, AD 1-1300 Carrie L. Dennett 261

11 Exploring Technological Modifications: Variation of Non-vessel "Objects" from El Rayo, Nicaragua Sacha Wilke 312

12 A Century in Stone: One Hundred Years of Lithic Analyses in Nicaragua Adam K. Benfer 331

13 The Development of Nicaraguan Rock Art Research Suzanne M. Baker 368

Part 4 Mortuary Practices in Greater Nicoya

14 Raising the Dead: Mortuary Patterns in Pacific Nicaragua Geoffrey G. McCafferty Andrea L. Waters-Rist Sharisse McCafferty Celise Fricker Jessica Manion 395

15 Osteoarchaeological Markers of Health and Identity at the Site of El Rayo, Nicaragua, AD 550-1200 Andrea L. Waters-Rist Geoffrey G. McCafferty 433

16 Human Bone Artifacts: Ancestor Cults and Human Sacrifice in a Community of Mesoamerican Origin in Culebra Bay, Costa Rica Anayensy Herrera Villalobos Felipe Solís Del Vecchio 469

Part 5 Conclusion

17 Greater Nicoya through the Looking-Glass: Merging Culture History with Social Theory Alexander Geurds 505

Index 533

List of Contributors 549