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Is there even such a thing? Because I certainly have been having a hard time tracking down published materials. The only references relate to Claude Baudez's survey work in the early 60s, but since then not much seems to have taken place. He mentioned to me a future B.A.R. publication with work on this coastal area, but I have not seen it yet.
Anyone who might have any knowledge of archaeological data on the area?
Anyone who might have any knowledge of archaeological data on the area?
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Tue, July 5, 2005 - 8:11 AMBy the "Pacific coast" of Honduras, I assume you mean the area of the Gulf of Fonseca between El Salvador and Nicaragua. (That's about it for Honduras!)
It is a fascinating area and undoubtedly one with a rich archaeological record. However, you're right. There hasn't been a lot that has been published about the archaeology of the Gulf of Fonseca. Do you know the following Baudez article?
Baudez, C. F. (1976) Llanura costera del Costa de Fonseca, Honduras. Vínculos 2:15-23.
I would also be grateful for any additional information about the archaeology of the Gulf of Fonseca, whether in the Salvadoran, Honduran, or Nicaraguan portions. It is likely to have been an area of major importance. My guess is that there is a record that runs from at least Archaic period semi-sedentary sites up through Postclassic trading colonies, but the work (as far as I know) remains to be done, much less published.
The question would best be addressed to some Honduran archaeologists, but I don't think we have any yet as members of this Tribe. (If anyone would like to invite some to join us, please do!) There has undoubtedly been some investigation there, but it may exist mostly in the form of reports to the IHAH. I haven't looked through recent issues of the journal Yaxkin, but that's one place to start.
If I were to sketch out an ideal plan of action, I think I'd start with a regional survey of either the Río Nacaome or the Río Cholulteca valley, combined with visits to local archaeological collections. A survey of the small bay on which the town of San Lorenzo sits may help identify shell middens and such, as well as larger sites.
By the way, the Pacific coast of El Salvador is not well known, either, although Early Formative pottery has been identified there:
Arroyo, B. (1995) Early Ceramics from El Salvador: The El Carmen Site. In The Emergence of Pottery: Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies, edited by W. Barnett and J. W. Hoopes, pp. 199-208. Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Tue, July 5, 2005 - 1:24 PMOne place I might begin to pursue this line of research would be to review the excavations at Quelepa, El Salvador to see what materials, if any, could be traced to the gulf. The pertinent publication would be:
Andrews, E. W. (1976) The archaeology of Quelepa, El Salvador, Middle American Research Institute Tulane University.
There was a study of obsidian done from Quelepa over a decade ago, but that's the most recent publication I've seen on this important site:
Braswell, G. E., E. W. Andrews V and M. D. Glascock (1994) The Obsidian Artifacts of Quelepa, El Salvador. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:173-192. -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Wed, July 6, 2005 - 9:28 AMRosemary Joyce of U.C.-Berkeley and John Henderson of Cornell have been working on Honduran archaeology for some time with more of an emphasis on the Ulua Valley, but I am sure they would have leads for you. I will send them each an email to see if they will join the tribe.
Laura B. -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Thu, July 7, 2005 - 4:34 AMHi Laura,
I've been in contact with Rosemary a while ago about the links of the gulf coast into central honduras, and we exchanged useful data. It certainly would be a good idea if they could join this tribe!
Alex
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Thu, July 7, 2005 - 4:31 AMHi John,
Thanks for the useful literature orientations! Baudez has sent me an offprint from his Vinculos article along with the one mentioned below, it seems to be the only publications directly relating to the Gulf coast. Wyllys Andrews MARI publication is currently on my desk, still need to work through it though.
Your tips on where to get started are also much appreciated. I'm putting together a project application at the moment, and will be in the area early november to visit the river valleys and the sites recorded by Baudez. He recorded ceramics dating to no earlier than AD 300.
Alex
Baudez, Claude (1966) Niveaux céramiques au Honduras: une reconsidéracion de l'évolution culturelle. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, pp. 299-342.
Baudez, Claude (1973) Les camps de saliniers de la côteméridionale du Honduras: données archéologiques et documents historiques. In L'Homme, hier et aujourd'hui, pp. 509-519. -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Thu, July 7, 2005 - 10:53 AMThanks for the additional references. I've been corresponding with Karen Olsen Bruhns, who is currently in El Salvador (and has also been invited to join us here). She confirms that the archaeology of the Gulf of Fonseca has been minimal and it is exciting to learn that you're pursuing fieldwork there. In reviewing the prehistory of "non-Mesoamerican" Central America, it is readly apparent that there is a *lot* of basic research that remains to be done in many areas. (Karen also tells me that a huge amount remains to be done at Quelepa.)
The Gulf of Fonseca has gone unexplored for far too long! I suspect that the Río Cholulteca valley will be especially important for understanding travel and trade from one side of the Isthmus to the other, especially because its headwaters near Danlí (east of Tegucigalpa) are near what may have been a natural area of portage across the Continental Divide to the headwaters of the Río Patuca, a major route to Mosquitia and the Caribbean.
Danlí (formerly San Buenaventura), also known as "the City of Hills" has a rich Colonial history, beginning with the founding of a mission there in 1665. However, even less seems to be known about the archaeology of this region than the Gulf of Fonseca. Something tells me it merits detailed investigation.
Given the dates of Baudez' earliest ceramics in the Gulf, you should check out my recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Research (see the link under the "Social Complexity in the Chibchan World" thread in this Tribe). However, given the much earlier dates for pottery in coastal El Salvador, the Managua region, Chontales, and northwestern Costa Rica, you should also be on the lookout for much earlier stuff! -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Mon, July 11, 2005 - 12:25 PMI have yet to visit the area, I only have seen it briefly several years back, but I agree with you that the coastal line as well as the routes going inland are to be investigated. Luckily, the work done by Stone and Healy should create some perspective on the northeastern part. I basically see four lines for a regional focus. The first two are the contemporary frontier areas between El Salvador and Honduras and Nicaragua and Honduras; the remaining two are the Choluteca drainage valley you already mentioned and the Goascorán drainage valley. The geography of the latter is particularly interesting (and different from the former) since it consists of a rift-valley that runs all the way up to Ulua valley and the atlantic coast. This rift-valley has produced ample references in colonial period sources (e.g. Torquemada, de Lerma, Pedraza and later also Squier, as mentioned in Stone 1957:3-10) for its fertile and busy environment. Lots of people moving 'up and down' the valley are mentioned. I doubt that would merely be a post-Conquest phenomenon.
I think it will depend mostly on local circumstances where the focus of the project will lie. The border areas arguably are somewhat less attractive for the obvious territorial reasons, but I'm also not satisfied to exclude those areas based solely on that; too much data that needs refinement and promising recent research seems to be going on there too (readers may auto-identify..).
Long story short, we will see in november, talk to some IHAH people that know the area and listen to their ideas on the Fonseca gulf. Meantime, I really appreciate the detailed attention you're giving this, John. I picked up on your extensive article in JAR when it came out, but as the Mexicans say; 'solo lo revisé'. I will dig it up and give some proper attention.
By the way, Karen Olsen mentioned to me an SAA symposium coming March on Central America. Do you (are anyone else) have any input on what theme it will be?
Greets,
Alex
Ref.:
Stone, Doris (1957) The Archaeology of Central and Southern Honduras. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Harvard. -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Thu, July 14, 2005 - 8:49 AMI think your focus on the Goascorán drainage will be fruitful. It may be productive to look carefully at the linguistic data to trace the historical distribution of speakers of Ulúa/Ulwa/Sumu (a Misumalpan language) in Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. (Although it is sometimes referred to as "macro-Chibchan," and is related to some Chibchan languages, linguist Adolfo Constenla distinguishes between the Misumalpan and Chibchan stocks.)
There is a helpful essay on the Sumu by Peter Herlihy (a colleague of mine here at the University of Kansas) on pp. 236-240 of the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. VIII: Middle America and the Caribbean (1995, G.K. Hall & Co., New York), published under the auspices of the Human Relations Area Files. However, it focuses primarily on the groups in Mosquitia with no mention of El Salvador.
According to this source, the most common ethnonyms for this group are Mayangna, Ohlwa, Panamaka, Smoo, Smu, Somoo, Summoo, Sumoo, Taguaca, Tahuajca, Taoajka, Towcka, Twahka, Twaka, Twanka, Twaxha, Woolwa, Woowa, Wulwa, and Zumo.
However, apparently over sixty different names have been used, including Spanish references to "Caribes" or "Chatos" (flat heads) and derivations from place names such as Baruca, Patuca, and Bocayes.
Although it's a difficult and problematic approach, there is probably some value in attempting to correlate Misumalpan languages with genetics and material culture (something I've been trying to trave with Chibchan speakers.) Some of the Ulúa speakers seem to have been highly "Mesoamericanized" while other look more like Caribbean Chibchan groups. How this process occurred is well worth investigating.
Genetics is certain to continue to be a valuable asset for tracing the histories of these populations. Language provides some of the best clues for investigating patterns in DNA, but there's no reason archaeology can't generate some testable hypotheses for geneticists as well. (It will really get interesting when we have more information *ancient* DNA!)
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Thu, July 14, 2005 - 9:12 AMBy the way, one reference that may be especially pertinent for evaluating other non-Maya contacts with Mesoamerica is Andrea Gerstle's dissertation:
Gerstle, A. I. (1988) Maya-Lenca Ethnic Relations in Late Classic Period Copan, Honduras. Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Tue, June 24, 2008 - 6:52 PMHi Alex, I don't know if you are yet interested on this area. I worked ten years ago on an archaeological project in the Nacaome drainage with Christopher Begley and George Hasemann, where now is the Nacaome Dam. There we found almost ten archaeological sites, and we dug the primary site of the area.
Now, I'am writting my disertation about the ethnic groups of Honduras and the mesoamerican frontier on the 16th century, using historical data from the Archivo de Indias de Sevilla.
I heard about your project because Sheptak told me something.
Are you working now on the Goascoran drainage?
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Mon, June 30, 2008 - 11:16 AMHi all,
Alex - You might want to try contacting Esteban Gomez, at Berkeley. He does research on pre-Columbian and Contact period cross-cultural interaction in the Gulf of Fonseca (with a focus on the islands and the El Salvadorian portion). If you recall, he gave a paper in the SAA session this spring. He may have some additional resources not mentioned here.
Here is an older link to his research objectives:
www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/Rese....html
If you need his email, just drop me a line and I will send it on.
Carrie. -
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Re: Archaeology of Pacific Coast Honduras
Mon, June 30, 2008 - 11:19 AMYes, I am having a good laugh at myself... I just realized that the original post is from 3 years ago!!
Oops.
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