CULTURES FROM CENTRAL MEXICO SOUTH


TO COSTA RICA WERE CAPTIVATED BY THE LUSTROUS GREEN JADEITE STONE THAT IS BELIEVED TO HAVE COME FROM A SINGLE SOURCE IN THE MOTAGUA VALLEY OF GUATEMALA, NEAR THE HONDURAS BORDER.


the Nicoya, Ulua and Cocle that flourished in Central America more than a millennium ago. The presence of status-enhancing jadeite


objects as far south as Costa Rica provide evi- dence that paths and roads once moved highly valuable materials mined from the Motagua Valley in Guatemala. Deity imagery on pot- tery recovered from villages like Santa Isabel, Nicaragua, in the Greater Nicoya culture re- gion, suggest a long-distance, albeit unclear, connection with Mesoamerican populations sometime before AD 1000. Gold pendants uncovered in central Panama are so similar to objects found in Colombia that archaeolo- gists are convinced the knowledge for gold- working traveled north from South America. The variety of other material items that clearly flowed in abundance along ancient trails, paths and roads between 1000 BC and the early 16th


century help us visualize a human landscape teeming with activity and meaning.


OBJECTS IN MOTION Obtaining materials to build homes, trans- porting food for consumption or exchange and social visits were as important to ancient Central Americans as they are to us today. Ac- quiring objects that signified wealth and social status also preoccupied ancient elites who may have been village leaders, chiefs, nobles or even kings. These needs and desires meant that everything from foods to gifts to valuable gold and jadeite jewelry moved across the regional landscape. Perishables such as foods and highly valued quetzal-bird feathers do not often survive to the present, but weather and time-resistant stone and ceramic objects are common in the debris of ancient villages. Cultures from Central Mexico south to


Costa Rica were captivated by the lustrous green jadeite stone that is believed to have come from a single source in the Motagua Val- ley of Guatemala, near the Honduras border. The ancient Olmec who thrived along the Gulf Coast of Mexico between 1500 BC and 400 BC first mined the stone and created remarkable figurines, masks and ear ornaments. Around the same time, the Maya, in present-day Belize and Guatemala, created beads and plaques 18 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER 2013


(or pendants) with images of leaders and dei- ties. The latter were owned by members of the Mayan elite and demonstrated extreme wealth. In both the Olmec and Maya worlds, jadeite objects also functioned as dedicatory offerings associated with public buildings and spaces. As such they were tied to ritual practices. By around 300 BC, people in northern


Costa Rica were importing jadeite by way of coastal routes along the Atlantic, bypassing Honduras and Nicaragua. These early “Costa Ricans” engraved jadeite pendants called Axe Gods and invented a string-saw jade carv- ing technique that allowed them to produce intricate pendants with imagery of deities or spiritual beings. Many of these carvings were meant to be worn, but they were also interred with the deceased. Pottery, elaborated in different colors and


with different iconography, also circulated among the various peoples of ancient Central America. Plumbate ware, easily distinguished by its vitrified gray-colored surface, circulated widely from its production center near the Mexico–Guatemala border between AD 600 and AD 1200. It was the preferred pottery of the powerful Toltec state in Central Mexico. Elaborate carved vessels representing animal, human and deity forms have been recovered throughout Mesoamerica, and in Central America as far south as Panama. The Museum collections include plumbate ware from Gua- temala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. Many of these objects are of the later, more elaborate, Tohil variety of plumbate ware, which was produced between AD 900 and AD 1200. Several vessels depict the Mesoamerican “Old Man” deity who may have been a house- hold deity connected to hearths and fire. His presence south of the Mesoamerican region suggests that religious iconography and ideas were also moving along the network of roads leading to communities in Central America.


PEOPLE IN MOTION Natural disasters, political tensions or perhaps population pressures occasionally compelled groups and even entire communities to search for new lands to settle. These migrations can be


difficult to identify, but the ideas and objects they took with them may provide clues about who made the journey and when it occurred. The Greater Nicoya region,


bridging


modern-day Costa Rica and Nicaragua, expe- rienced a tremendous influx of new residents between AD 600 and AD 900. Ethnohistoric ac- counts describe the migration of Mesoameri- can Chorotega and Nicarao communities to Greater Nicoya during this period. At villages like Santa Isabel, located on the fringes of Lake Nicaragua along the southern Pacific coast, the evidence is clear that non-locals were arriving and bringing with them unique pottery styles,


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