Nicaragua (Archaeology)

Investigations over the past ten years have searched for archaeological evidence for Mexican migrants to lower Central America, as indicated in ethnohistorical origin myths and as embraced by contemporary popular culture. For example, Nicaragua itself is named after the chief of the Nahuat-speaking Nicarao who the Spanish first encountered in 1522. Nahuat- and Oto-Manguean speakers were the major indigenous groups in Pacific Nicaragua at contact (Abel-Vidor 1981; Chapman 1960; Ibarra Rojas 2001), and although they were largely exterminated during the Colonial period they are still the groups most associated with the pre-Columbian past (Newson 1987). Problems arise in the very non-Mesoamerican lifeways of Postclassic (900-1550 CE) inhabitants along the shore of Lake Cocibolca (also known as Lake Nicaragua), supposedly the 'Mexican heartland' at the time of European contact, as demonstrated through intensive excavations of three Postclassic sites supposedly relating to these migrant groups (McCafferty 2008a, 2010a). Extensive analyses have evaluated domestic architecture, foodways, mortuary remains, and religious practices – all considered to be potential archaeological indicators of ethnicity, but none of which provide strong evidence of Mexican identity. A larger theme relevant to this volume is the reaction to challenging the identity of the indigenous ancestors, which is perceived by Nicaraguan scholars as a blow against entrenched concepts of ethnic origin and political identity. This paper will discuss the the Mexican legacy in Nicaragua, and strategies for negotiating popular ideology with badly behaved archaeological data.

Informe Final de la Segunda Temporada de Reconocimiento y Excavaciones en el Departamento de Chinandega, Nicaragua.
Please note that to upload and post this, I had to convert it to pdf. The conversion ruined several of the maps that were exported from ArcGIS.

Endangered by deforestation, agro-industrialisation and urbanisation, the protection of Central American rock art is more necessary than even before. Locally applied strategies of rock art preservation depend on the concept of a site's further utilisation. Thus one of the most omportant to pose is: How might ancient rock art be integrated into modern social contexts?

Zapatera Island is located in Lake Cocibolca, about 10 km south of the colonial city of Granada. It was first explored archaeologically in the mid-1800s, when it was mentioned by such scholars as Squier and Bovallius. Carl Bovallius published a fine book that detailed carved monuments from the site of Sonzapote that were arranged around low, stone mounds. In 2013, a team from the University of Calgary and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua investigated Sonzapote, with funding from the National Geographic --Waite Institution. The site center was mapped, including 17 mounds and over 50 monuments. Excavations at Mound 14 exposed architectural features, and encountered multiple urn burials dating to the Sapoa/Ometepe periods (800-1525 CE). Notably, walking surfaces associated with the mound architecture itself dates to the late Tempisque period (100-300 CE), based on diagnostic pottery. This early date is in direct contrast to previous interpretations, and if validated using C14 testing pushes the date of the ritual center back nearly 1000 years earlier than published interpretations.

En el sitio Paz y Reconciliacion, Mateare, Nicaragua, se ha investigado un monticulo prehispanico. Este sitio se ubica a orillas del Lago Managua(Xolotlan) y se destaca por la existencia de dicho monticulo. En la temporada de 2015, se ha confirmado el piso que posiblemente fuera la base de una estructura de piedras.

El sitio Chilamatillo se localiza a la orilla del lago Xolotlan, Tipitapa, Nicaragua. Ahi hemos encontrado vestigios de una densa poblacion en los periodos Sapoa y Ometepe que posiblemente dependia no solo de la agricultura sino tambien de la pesca. Tambien cabe mencionar que la cantidad y la variedad de herramientas de piedra que se encuentran en este sitio sugieren existencia de una produccion masiva de litica en este sitio.

A consideration of the settlement pattern of Postclassic Pacific Nicaragua, with dispersed settlement clusters situated between environmental greenspaces. Although the population density was relatively low, these 'garden cities' often stretched from kilometers along the lake shores of the region.

Illustrated lecture about the archaeological resources in the Isthmus of Rivas that may be impacted by planned construction of the Trans-Oceanic Canal.  The presentation included discussion of the historic roots of the canal plan, especially the 19th century transit route that connected the Atlantic with the Pacific for travelers en route to the California gold rush, and concluded with a discussion of the many challenges that the planned canal will present.

A study of the foodways of ancient Nicaragua based on excavated materials from the Santa Isabel site on the shore of Lake Cocibolca. Remarkably good preservation of faunal and botanical remains provide a unique insight into the kinds of foods consumed, while a functional analysis of material culture used in food preparation fills out the rituals of consumption.

Since 2007, the Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua, directed by Alexander Geurds, has excavated several archaeological sites in Chontales, Nicaragua, northeast of Lake Cocibolca. This paper reports on fragments of ceramic griddles recovered in layers dated to cal AD 1255 and 1391 at the Barillas site-unprecedented finds challenging our views on ancient foodways in the region. The paucity of these comales has hitherto co-determined narratives on human mobility from Mesoamerica, due to the debatable assumption that this type of artifact necessarily entangles consumption of maize tortillas. In this paper, we present results on paleoethnobotanical and archaeometric analyses, discussing technological and provenance aspects related to the ceramic fragments and interpretations of the ancient starch remains attached to the earthenware retrieved during the excavations. The interdisciplinary approach to this dataset will shed light onto the ways people prepared and consumed food in southern Central America. Studying foodways is vital to understanding socially learned food practices, which intertwined with ceramic manufacturing technology. This research on cooking dynamics will help expose the unique Central Nicaraguan perspective of foodways.

Nicaragua is a country that has been neglected by archaeological study.  It has been confined to the periphery of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican societies, featuring as little more than a sidenote if at all.  It has long been a region that has been defined by outside influence, from external migrations to imperial powers.  Its past has been played down as inferior and worthless by the very forces that destroyed the local societies, and committed atrocities against the populace.  Like many other parts of the colonial world, the past has been treated as filled with savages not worth remembering.  Unlike other parts of Latin America, Nicaraguan pride in the indigenous past has proven more difficult.  No Aztec or Inca Empires existed in Nicaragua to attach pride to, and so the Pre-Hispanic world has been forgotten.  The myth of Mestizaje has even helped people to forget about the thousands of indigenous peoples still living within its borders.
Within Nicaragua is a dynamic Pre-Hispanic past that is now beginning to re-emerge.  Work over the last twenty five years has massively rewritten what the last five hundred have ‘known’ about that world.  Unfortunately, the long term failures of valuing Nicaragua’s past has produced many issues to archaeological research. This presentation will raise awareness to an area and its amazing past that has remained unappreciated for far too long.

A research report of results from the 2015 field season at El Rayo, Nicaragua. El Rayo is located on the tip of the Asese Peninsula in Lake Cocibolca, near the colonial capital of Granada. In previous field seasons El Rayo has revealed mortuary remains and residential deposits dating to the late Bagaces and Sapoa periods (500-1250 CE). In 2015, excavations continued at the Locus 3 cemetery, recovering additional Sacasa Striated shoe-pot urns associated with a small stone altar. A new excavation at Locus 4, a low mound, revealed a long, rectangular stone foundation consisiting of parallel lines of vertical stones, perhaps supporting a palisade of perishable materials. No clear artifact pattern was found to infer the building's function, and the tentative interpretation is that it was a public building used for ritual performance.

An illustrated public lecture considering the ethnohistorical myth of migration from central Mexico into Pacific Nicaragua, with information based on 25 years of archaeological research along the shore of Lake Nicaragua. The conclusion is that the evidence for Mexican influences are minimal, and as a result the assertion of 'Chorotega' ethnicity (associated with speakers of Oto-Manguean language and Mexican cultural traits) is misleading. Instead, I suggest adopting a less Mexican-centric term (Papagayo culture) that reflects the local material culture.