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The famous Guanacaste-Nicoya polychrome-pottery tradition and the beginning of a significant stylistic divergence between the matrtial culture of this zone and that of the Central Highlands-Atlantic Watershed mark this period. Although the causes are far from understood, the rupture of old northern trade routes, combined with new political, commercial, and perhaps spiritual allegiances to the south, may have been of considerable importance. A trend toward greater marine exploitation (at least of mollusks) began c.400-500 A.D., and it is possible that other ocean products like salt and purple dye from Murex Mollusca became increasingly valuable trade items. Domestic features have been found at coastal sites like Vidor or Nacascolo: large, circular, rock-filled ovens or kilns; small, ellipsoidal, fired adobe hearths; fired adobe chunks with cane impressions, testifying to wattle-and-daub house constructions; floors; and postholes. The same sites had apparently differentiated burial grounds: at Vidor, more than 20 burials of females, children and infants (the last often in urns) were excavated in a vicinity of domestic activity and refuse, while Nacascolo yielded tombs of the same period, constructed entirely of natural basalt columns, overlain by a cap of fieldstone, and positioned along the contours of a steep natural slope. Grave goods were much more elaborate in the latter tomb type. Carrillo Polychrome, with angular geometric patterns of red and black lines (often carelessly executed) on a buff or brown ground, is one of the most representative ceramic types of the period 500-800 A.D. It begins at the end of Period IV as a variant of Tola Trichrome, and eventually grades into the striking Galo type. Most forms are bowls, jars, and ollas; motifs thought to be stylized alligators or bats occur. Chavez White on Red, characterized by zoomorphic effigies as well as by functional bowls, also has roots in earlier styles. This type probably spanned the Period IV-V transition. Some archaeologists find in it stylistic affiliations to certain Ecuadorian ceramics. Pelicans or similar water birds are often represented. Perhaps the finest ceramics from the period c. 500-800 A.D. are Galo Polychrome. Their mirror-bright burnished surfaces are technically unsurpassed by any Precolumbian pottery, and the yellows, reds, oranges, creams, maroons, and blacks of their polychrome decoration are impressively vivid. This ware is closely related to the Ulua Polychromes found in western Honduras and El Salvador. Galo, with cylindrical vessel forms and slab tripod feet, often looks very Mayoid. Guilloche and woven-mat patterns, seen on contemporary Maya pottery, where it is indicative of high rank, are also conspicuous. Galo has been found by looters in Nicoya with a fresco-painted vessel reminiscent of Teotihuacan pottery, and marble (alabaster) vessels from the Sula plain in Honduras. Galo was even found in the earlier Las Huacas cemetery and in Nicoya sites where Classic Maya glyph-incised jades have surfaced. The largest and most impressive ceramic figurines of prehistoric Costa Rica fall into the Galo category. They may be full human figures or effigy heads; the former usually have a pubic cover, and are painted with elaborate, busy representations of tattoos or body paint. Human faces are often exceptionally expressive. A striking and ornately modeled ceramic type of this same time is Potosi Appliqué or Modeled Alligator pottery. These vessels, which perhaps served as incense burners, often have a large, hemispherical base and a ventilated lid, elaborately decorated with a multicrested animal effigy, usually an alligator or crocodile. Variants of this pottery type persist into Period Vl. The brilliant polychrome tradition that began in Guanacaste-Nicoya with Carrillo and Galo may represent an important new social dimension; when the northern trade network that brought jade, slate-backed pyrite mirrors, foreign ceramics, and other luxury goods broke down (c. 500 A.D., it seems), the Nicoyans responded by producing their own special-purpose pottery. Inspired by northern models, it also incorporated local and southern elements, forming a vigorous hybrid style that would be traded around Central America and southern Mesoamerica in the centuries to come. Striking changes took place in almost all aspects of prehistoric life in Guanacaste-Nicoya from c. 800 A.D. on. Sites increased dramatically in both number and size. There seems to have been a marked shift of population concentration toward the coast, although inland zones some distance from the mountains apparently remained occupied. Lange has noted the presence of a thin volcanic-ash layer in coastal sites near the middle of Period V; volcanic activity may have driven people from the central piedmont toward the Pacific. While agriculture must have remained important, a much greater exploitation of marine protein sources began; most of the large and numerous Nicoyan shell middens began to accumulate after 800 A.D.
External factors also functioned as agents of change in northwestern Costa Rica during the eighth and ninth centuries. The central Mexican empire of Teotihuacan had long since dissolved, and now the Classic Maya lowland centers had also suffered catastrophic collapses. When these basically theocratic empires were fragmented by more militaristic nations. the ceremonial context in which elite-associated artifacts played important roles was drastically altered. In Costa Rica, the symbolic importance of carved jades, ceremonial mace heads, and elaborate metates suddenly declined midway through Period V. Today, archaeologists tend to play down the importance of actual migrations of peoples as causes of cultural change, preferring to see cultural history as a result of the interplay of social and environmental elements. Nevertheless, there is evidence for the arrival in Guanacaste-Nicoya during this period of Mesoamerican peoples of the Oto-Mangue language group, probably as a result of social disruptions in the north. No doubt these influxes changed the stylistic tenor or local material culture. The time of greatest diversity and production of polychrome ceramics (Middle Polychrome) was 800- 1200 A.D. The earliest varieties of Mora Polychrome, like the older Galo type, incorporate elements common in certain Late Classic Maya pottery -- -the seated figure with headdress, the mat pattern, and the Kan cross. Typical Mora painted decoration is mostly geometric, executed in red, black, and maroon on a buff-orange ground; vessel forms are usually simple hemispherical bowls. The other hallmark of the period is Papagayo Polychrome with a cream-to-white slip and brilliant orange-red paint, usually paired with black, and sometimes gray, in later varieties. Motifs on Papagayo pottery range from simple bands to complex figural scenes, including humans, jaguars, and a version of the Mesoamerican plumed serpent. Papagayo's great range of forms includes bowls, jars, zoomorphic effigies, and effigy-head tripods; some forms resemble those of Mesoamerican Early Postclassic horizon types like Tohil Plumbate and X Fine Orange. Papagayo brought renown to the "Nicoya Polychromes," but it is just one of several related white-slipped wares that began to be manufactured in Pacific Central America during this time. Baudez noticed that polychromes like Mora and Birmania are found with great frequency in the southern half of Greater Nicoya, while Papagayo tended to augment toward the north. There is increasing evidence for a system of local centers of production for each major polychrome type; Abel-Vidor has postulated that almost all white-slipped pottery, beginning with Papagayo, was made at least as far north as Rivas, Nicaragua, and then traded to Guanacaste-Nicoya. Papagayo-like ceramics have been found as far north as the Toltec capital of Tula, in central Mexico. There was a trend away from sculptural qualities toward painted ceramics in the second half of Period V; new effigy styles appeared, however, notably those of Guabal and early Birmania Polychromes. The former emphasize broad-legged seated human figures, most with intricate painted clothing, tattooing, or body painting; an invariably flattened headdress and face suggest possible cranial deformation, and ear flares are prominent. Birmania, with technically inferior painting, generally takes zoomorphic effigy forms that incorporate a small bowl; felines, birds, and even sea turtles appear. Ocarinas, especially turtle and avian forms, also are seen in these types. Potosi "alligator incensarios" persist through Period V, becoming less elaborate. Brown-slipped "Chocolate Ware" begins in, and lasts through, this period and most of the next. Early types in the tradition, like Huerta Incised, are more skillfully executed, displaying motifs also seen in Galo Polychrome; later, the geometric painted designs of other polychrome types, especially Mora, are translated into incised decorative bands on mostly open bowls and dishes of the Belen Incised type. Next »
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