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After maintaining close contact with Mesoamerican culture for several centuries, the Central Highlands-Atlantic Watershed, during the middle part of Period V, underwent striking changes, which can be observed in house forms, ceramics, and high-status artifacts. Most evidence suggests that an undefined "southern influence" produced these changes. It was perhaps fortuitous that the fall of Teotihuacan in the sixth century, with the consequent disruption in central lowland Maya centers and the Pacific trade route to the south, coincided approximately with the introduction to Costa Rica of metallurgical techniques from Colombia and Panama, but it may turn out that there was a causal relationship, with elite-oriented gold objects and their associated mythology being brought in to fill the vacuum produced by the sundering of ties with Mesoamerican elite groups. Guanacaste-Nicoya did not react to these influences in the same way; after c. 500 A.D., the ceramic traditions of the two zones began a marked stylistic divergence, the former emphasizing polychrome painting and the latter, plastic decorative techniques. In the first part of Period V, settlements seem to have followed the El Bosque pattern of dispersed villages of several houses, usually located on alluvial terraces; one incomplete excavation of a La Selva A-phase house in the Turrialba valley suggested a rectangular form. Long "corridor" tombs are also typical of La Selva A. Examples at the La Montana site near Turrialba were defined by rows of cobbles in two or three courses, measuring 2-2.5 x 7 meters. No domestic zones of corresponding Curridabat A-phase sites in the Central Highlands have been reported, but Aguilar excavated tombs of this date at Tatiscu, near Cartago, that were shaped like large, shallow basins and contained multiple interments. In one, he recorded a large fragment of a tumbaga figurine in the "Cocle," or Sitio Conte, style - one of the earliest metal objects found in Costa Rica.
Red-slipped Gutierrez lncised/Engraved and the earliest brown-slipped incised types of Guanacaste-Nicoya have analogues in Zoila Red and La Selva Brown of the Atlantic Watershed. Incised triangles with simple hatching, probably symbolizing alligator scutes, are a common motif, and zoomorphic effigy vessels sometimes occur. Negative, or resist, painting - in which pottery is painted with a design in wax or impermanent clay and then smudged or repainted, after which the "resist" substance is removed to reveal a design the color of the original surface (a technique similar to the batik process on cloth) - increases greatly toward the middle of Period V. It is usually applied in curvilinear patterns reminiscent of Colombian and Panamanian motifs. Around 700-800 A.D., the preferred house form became circular, and tombs became what have been called stone cists: oval or rectangular boxes of cobbles or flagstones, usually with both a floor and a lid of stone. When floors and lids are missing today, they were probably made of wood, now decayed. Wooden cist tombs - used because of taboos against the funerary bundle touching earth - are recorded historically. Some of the better-made prehistoric stone cists were sealed so well with natural volcanic flagstones that today they are only half-filled with fine dirt that has sifted in over a thousand years. At about this time, a few Early Polychrome trade ceramics (usually Galo or Carrillo) from Guanacaste-Nicoya appear in Central and Atlantic sites, beginning a substantial trade in polychromes between the two zones. The earliest known site with circular house forms is La Fabrica, near Grecia in the Central Highlands, where the MNCR did archaeological salvage. Thirteen circular foundations of field stone and river cobbles were mapped; at least as many more may be hidden in nearby sugar-cane fields. Most foundations varied from 10 to 20 meters in diameter, and the largest had two rectangular entry ramps opposite one another. A cobble-paved causeway, nine meters wide, enters the site from the north and runs toward the principal structure. La Fabrica shows evidence of occupation from the first few centuries after Christ until c. 1100-1200 A.D.; associated pottery of the Curridabat B phase suggests that the circular structures date to 700 - 900 A.D. La Fabrica has no stone cist tombs. Instead, the mortuary patterns recall those of Guanacaste-Nicoya: tombs were marked with natural stone columns and/or accumulations of field stone. Fired adobe floors appeared 50 to 200 centimeters below the present surface in cemetery zones and beneath houses, where burials were also located. Most La Fabrica burials were of the primary extended type. One cemetery burial, laid on three decoratively sculpted metates, was accompanied by artifacts known to be indicative of high status in most of Costa Rica before c. 800 A.D.: jades, ceremonial mace heads, teardrop-shaped polished black celts, and a stirrup mano with zoomorphic motifs. A collared jade tube found in this burial is identical to examples recovered from the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, dating to the Maya Late Classic (c. 800 A.D.). While this burial is similar to the Tibas burial that contained an heirloom Olmec jade, artifacts from the La Fabrica burial place it somewhat later. At La Fabrica, carbonized remains of maize, beans, and palm nuts were found, which, together with the large quantities of quotidian manos, metates, and chipped-basalt tools, indicate a nucleated agricultural village. Differences in architecture and grave goods (a copper or tumbaga bell and deer antlers were found in the principal house) reveal a rank-structured society. Barrial de Heredia was another Central Highlands site excavated as part of an MNCR salvage program. Its architectural remains date to the transition between Periods V and Vl (900-1100 A.D.). Although later than La Fabrica, Barrial did not have round houses. Of eight structures excavated and mapped, three were ellipsoidal and five were square or slightly rectangular. The two shapes apparently correspond to functional differences, for the ellipsoidal cobble foundations contained much more domestic refuse (burned food remains, broken culinary pottery, and stone tools) and large ovens and/or hearths, and lacked burials beneath the floor, while the quadrangular examples showed less evidence of domestic activity but had burials with imported polychrome ceramics beneath the floor. The largest quadrangular and ellipsoidal structures directly adjoined, suggesting that occupants of the latter (wives?) were involved in the domestic maintenance of those domiciled in the former. Two kinds of tombs were noted at Barrial: a variant of the long, corridor variety, using only one line of standing cobbles and found only beneath the largest quadrangular houses, and a simple rectangular trench capped with flagstones. The latter type was found under houses and in a small cemetery zone, 100 meters away. Basin-shaped metates and simple cobble mortars appear at Barrial; the most commonly observed stone tool was a small boxlike mano-machacador (combination grinder-pounder) showing use-polish on its flat facets and battering at the extremities. Carbonized maize and beans were found in and around the structures. Although Curridabat B-phase pottery was found beneath many parts of the site, ceramics associated with the architectural features were more closely related to the crudely executed applique styles of Period VI. Other frequent finds were small, open dishes with tripod zoomorphic-effigy head supports, a brown slip, and geometric incised panels on the exterior (Tayutic Incised), and a large number of caches of tiny ollas, often placed well away from burials and al no great depth. Of the hundreds of Guanacaste-Nicoya polychrome sherds found at Barrial, a considerable percentage showed crack-lacing holes, a mending technique whereby perforations are drilled on either side of a fracture, and thongs are employed to bind the weakened part together. This bespeaks esteem for the foreign polychrome pottery, since almost no locally made vessels were thus mended. The repeated presence of this polychrome in higher-status tombs at Barrial indicates a flourishing, elite-oriented trade network between these two archaeological zones. Since Central Highlands Atlantic Watershed ceramics are not found in Guanacaste-Nicoya sites, we know that something else was being traded in return, possibly perishable commodities (carved wooden objects, feathers, poisons, drugs, cacao, or slaves). Two C-14 dates from Barrial fall between 800 and 1000 A.D. Next »
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The same kinds of ground-stone artifacts described
for the El Bosque phase continue in La Selva A and Curridabat A. There is a
decline in the technical skill of lapidary work, and frequently lesser stones
are used as raw material. At La Montana, we recovered a necklace composed of
tiny disk beads made from tiza, a light-green, chalky stone; at intervals
among them were strung miniature beads of jade and tree resin, with a somewhat
larger jade pendant placed to hang centrally on the chest. Ceramics sometimes
reflect the zoned, red-on-buff El Bosque tradition, but the simple elegance
that sometimes characterized that style is lost. Shiny maroon-on-orange
painted decoration appears on the interior of open bowls, and purple or maroon
paint on orange-brown slip, accompanied by a variety of incised, stamped, or
applique motifs, becomes more common. This is what Hartman called Curridabat
ware. The massive Ticaban tripods of El Bosque are gradually replaced by the
hollow-legged Africa type, whose modeled adornos, perched above the supports,
display a variety of ritual and domestic poses. 
In one tripod we found a carbonized maize cob. Burnt maize in a mortuary
offering might be symbolic of the funeral chicha, a thick, fermented brew made
from maize or palm-fruit. In another part of the same cemetery, a mass of 15 to
20 of the same kind of tripods was found, smashed, near the surface at one end
of a corridor tomb. This discovery recalls the two- or three-day funeral
chichadas (rowdy, drunken feasts) described for historical times by Maria
Eugenia Bozzoli and others. Another possibility is that the tripods were incense
or offertory burners, since many are smudged on the exterior.
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