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Periods I, II, and III (12,000 B.C. - 1000 B.C.) When the Americas were first populated by Homo sapiens, who came across the Bering Strait between 15,000 and 35,000 years ago, the Central American isthmus had to be crossed. C-14 dates from sites in Patagonia tell us that this occurred around 10,000 B.C. The only evidence of the presence of these migratory bands of hunters and gatherers in Guanacaste-Nicoya is a single fluted spear point, obtained by Hartman in the 1890s and not identified until 50 years later. Period IV (1000 B.C. - 500 A.D.) Although the first pottery in northwest Costa Rica probably appeared in Period III, our present knowledge of the ceramic sequence picks up between 1000 and 500 B.C. Through the controlled stratigraphic excavation of only a handful of potsherds from depths of nearly six meters at some coastal sites, archaeologists have been able to identify a few whole vessels in museum collections as products of early Period IV. Decoration usually consists of wide, round-bottomed, incised lines, sometimes traced around thickened vessel rims, or in parallel bands separating areas of red slip; two colors predominate, red and the natural buff or brown of the fired clay itself. "Zoned Bichrome" is the name given Period IV in the regional periodization. This pottery shows a general stylistic relationship to other contemporary ceramic traditions throughout Nuclear America, especially those of the Middle Preclassic in southern Mesoamerica.
Sedentary settlements are suggested by a circular oven at the Vidor site, which produced a C-14 date of c. 800 B.C. Early Period IV is known as the Loma B phase in the Bay of Culebra archaeological sequence, the longest sequence for Guanacaste-Nicoya. A trend toward increasing size and complexity of sites began during middle to late Period IV (300 B.C.-300 A.D.). M. Coe and Baudez first described the archaeology of this time; their stratigraphic excavations also provided supporting radiocarbon dates. Like Lange and his students some years later, they noted extensive cemeteries with differential mortuary goods, implying rankordered social structure. Village size and layout and house forms are as yet unknown, but, so far, more sites of this period have been found inland, on the foothills of the central volcanic range, than near the coast. Interestingly, the occupants of Zoned Bichrome coastal sites did not utilize marine mollusks, a major resource in later periods. It is likely that hunting, gathering of wild fruits and nuts, and agriculture were all practiced.
I would also link the other well-known high-status object of this period, the jade "axe-god" pendant, to the spread of full-scale-probably maize-agriculture. Stone axes, or celts, were the standard forest-clearing tools in Nuclear America. Used for girdling and splitting tree trunks from late Preceramic times onward, they were especially numerous in agricultural societies. The axe-gods incorporate the celt form, usually with an avian effigy. These symbolic celts, the associated zoomorphic effigies, and the sometimes elaborately decorated ceremonial metates may have formed part of a politico-religious complex associated with the control of agricultural lands and the processing and redistribution of foodstuffs.
Behind most developed prehistoric subsistence systems was a mythological framework, the knowledge and perpetuation of which explained the origins of the system, usually in an allegorical fashion, and defined the rituals that formalized seasonal and other cyclical, necessary procedures. Priestly and administrative classes arose to handle the organization and sanctions required. Unfortunately, iconographic research in Costa Rican archaeology is scanty. Mark Graham has taken the first steps toward interpreting the various effigies that appear on stone sculpture. There are indications that Mesoamerican influence was important in northern Costa Rica during several centuries before and after Christ. Elizabeth Easby has noted the importance of the celt form in both Olmec and Costa Rican lapidary work and has suggested that important gem-quality jade sources were located in Costa Rica, stimulating trade with Olmec centers like La Venta to the north. Recent physical analyses dispute this hypothesis, indicating that the highest quality jadeite may have been traded into Costa Rica from the north. In any case, there is increasingly better evidence for well-established trade routes between northern Costa Rica and southern Mexico from late Olmec times (800-400 B.C.) on. Since, as Easby notes, the stylistic links between the Olmec and Costa Rican Zoned Bichrome cultures are tantalizing yet incomplete, we cannot describe with certainty the nature of Olmec influence in Costa Rica. The few Olmec jades found here appear to have been heirlooms, associated with local objects hundreds of years younger. This suggests a "down-the-line" trading system (in which objects from point A reached point D through intermediaries at points B and C) rather than a direct Olmec-Costa Rica contact. Ceramics from Guanacaste-Nicoya during the second half of Period IV (300 B.C.-500 A.D.) often display strong sculptural qualities and an elegance of line that strike sympathetic chords in modern aesthetic sensibilities. The human and zoomorphic effigy forms of the ceramic type archaeologists call Rosales Zoned Engraved are probably the most outstanding ceramic objects of this time. Some have been found in the Central Highlands-Atlantic Watershed zone, in contexts suggesting trade between elite groups. Many pieces, especially spouted forms, are reminiscent of formative styles in both Mesoamerica and the Andes. Like most prehistoric pottery from Costa Rica, these red, black, and brown or cream-colored vessels were made by a combination of molding and coiling, and were fired at relatively low temperatures in open hearths or rudimentary kilns. The potter's wheel was not used. Mortuary evidence suggests that, in the last centuries of Period IV (200/300-500 A.D.), population and social stratification continued to increase. Many cemeteries of this time have been excavated in part, beginning with Hartman's Las Huacas excavations. There, in what was obviously a high-status burial ground, decorated metates, ceremonial mace heads, and jade pendants were' found in many tombs, with relatively little pottery. In the nearby Bolson cemetery, Baudez found both secondary and primary burials with more modest grave goods, mostly ceramics. This pattern was also observed in the MNCR excavations of contemporary cemeteries at Mojica, near Bagaces, Guanacaste, and at the coastal site of Nacascolo on the Nicoya Peninsula, where culinary pottery, a few modeled and incised ceramic effigy vessels, and mostly undecorated metates were recovered from burials containing both articulated, flexed individuals and secondary interments. Archaeologists deduce from these differential mortuary patterns well-developed class or rank divisions, although enduring evidence. such as architecture, is absent. The repertoire of ceramic decoration begins to enlarge importantly in the two or three centuries before 500 A.D. The early bichromes are now often trichromes, the black motifs usually outlined with white. Incised and appliqué techniques are more frequent, and motifs become increasingly angular and geometric. Linear, rather than sculptural, qualities are emphasized. Modeled and/or effigy vessels of Guinea Incised ware include many striking representations, but they lack the subtle quality of line characteristic of earlier ceramic sculptures. Some Guinea vessels incorporate the image of one or more people reclining in a hammock, an object associated with southern tropical-forest peoples. Bat motifs begin to appear with greater frequency; the large, modeled, and painted ollas of Tola Trichrome are often decorated with bat forms. Figurines, ocarinas, stamps, and other specialized ceramic objects were particularly abundant during this time; they were perhaps indicative of a preoccupation with ritual required to bind together a society of increasing complexity.
The wider distribution of portable status objects like jades and ceremonial mace heads suggests that geographically dispersed upper classes may have possessed strong social or even hereditary ties, and that their status was produced and maintained, at least in part, by their access to foreign trade articles or peoples. Regionally important chiefdoms had probably developed in many parts of Costa Rica before 500 A.D. Next »
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High-ranking burials frequently contain
metates (grinding tables) along with jade pendants. Some archaeologists,
including Lange, feel that the metates were "thrones" for high-status personages
and not grinding tables. Their owners may sometimes have sat on these highly
valued objects, but I do not believe this to have been their primary function,
for several reasons: (1) the majority show considerable wear by grinding, even
in sections of the upper surface that are decorated with low-relief carving; (2)
the MNCR excavated two decorated examples of the period 300-500 A.D. at the
Nacascolo site in 1980, each with heavy wear and a long "overhang" type of mano,
or muller, in association; (3) the noticeable increases in population and social
stratification during this period were almost certainly linked with more
productive agricultural techniques, and it is not surprising to find among the
paraphernalia of the ruling elite articles symbolic of food preparation and its
ceremonial redistribution, major sources of political power in chiefdom
societies. 
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