The Archaeology of Travel in Greater Nicoya (500 BC – AD 1250)

Sometime before 500 BC, a dynamic interaction and exchange network developed among the villages and hamlets in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. Traveling across land and canoeing or rafting over the large freshwater lakes and rivers, these peoples voyaged for many hours to trade goods and maintain social and political ties with their neighbors. The range and frequency of these interactions within this region is demonstrated by geochemically sourced ceramic and obsidian artifacts. However, the travel routes along which these artifacts were exchanged remain poorly understood. Geographic information systems (GISs) offer a means to predictively model the optimal travel routes that interconnected the settlements of western Nicaragua and the surrounding regions. In this dissertation, I use a GIS to present a probable simulation of the overland travel infrastructure that facilitated the regional movement of exchange goods during the Tempisque (500 BC – AD 300), Bagaces (AD 300–800), and Sapoá (AD 800–1250) periods. I then discuss and interpret the results of my simulations against the rest of the archaeological record and consider the ethnohistoric accounts of trade and exchange in the region. By interpreting this simulated travel network and the given distribution of exchanged goods within an intersocietal interaction framework, I discuss the role that intraregional movement and mobility played in the evolution of the societies that once thrived in this section of southern Central America. While some exchange goods traveled long distances, most interactions were oriented locally or among neighboring polities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Archaeology

Grantor

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Benfer, Adam K

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Oetelaar, Gerald A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Callaghan, Richard T.
• McCafferty, Geoffrey G.
• Davidsen, Conny
• Gorenflo, Larry J.

• Intersocietal Interaction
• Computational Archaeology
• GIS
• Least Cost Paths
• Cost Surface Analysis
• Isthmo-Colombian Culture Area
• Greater Nicoya Subarea
• Peer-Polity Interaction
• Trade Diasporas
• Prestige Economy
• Market Economy
• Nicaragua
• Costa Rica

Language dc:language.iso

English

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/dspace/41131

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/116287