Las Mercedes (Archaeological Site, Costa Rica)
Encyclopedia
Las Mercedes is a complex archaeological site
located on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica
between the foothills of Turrialba Volcano
and the alluvial plain. The site contains a variety of architectural features including platforms, plazas, retaining walls or terraces, funerary areas, ramps, and paved roads.
, Limón Province
, Costa Rica
between the rivers Dos Novillos and Parismina
, which are tributaries to the Reventazón River
. Dos Novillos River is 700 meters to the southeast and Parismina is 2.5 kilometers to the northeast of the site.
of historic European origin have been found during excavations. This indicated that trade may have occurred between the Las Mercedes inhabitants and the Spanish.
who removed two 1.85 meter tale stone male "warrior" figurines among other artifacts. Today these sculptures are housed at the Museum of Ethnography, Sweden
.
Three of the 15 platforms have been studied more extensively. Platform R12 is circular, 1 meter tall, and has a 28 meter diameter. Moreover, this platform is accompanied by 7 meter wide, 30 meter long ramp or causeway (R11), which connects to a stone terrace (R10). The second most studied platform (R9) is actually two conjoined platforms with a figure eight shape. The circular part has a 25 meter diameter and the oblong part measures 22x20 meters. The third of these platforms (R14) has an irregular shape "like a peanut" according to archaeologist Ricardo Vásquez.
All of these platforms, circular or not, are thought to have been covered with conical shaped huts made out of organic materials that have decomposed without a trace.
reserve that contains the site. However, researchers predict that it extended as far as the Iroquois settlement. Although The Iroquois Causeway has not been followed in its totality, it may be presumed that it is of a comparable length to The Pocora Causeway, based on their similarity in design.
The Pocora Causeway begins in the main complex and extends for an indefinite distance, going beyond the zone southeast of the complex, where it was not possible to clear vegetation during the 2005 field season. The Pocora Causeway continues for more than 300 m, running parallel to a secondary road, which connects to the Dos Novillos River. This causeway was raised above the surface as a protective measure against flooding. When The Pocora Causeway reaches its southeast extent, it comes to an end intersecting with a small stream known as Santa Emilia. Just before it reaches the stream The Pocora Causeway is flanked by an architectural complex consisting of two low walls with circular halves on the southeast side (R31 & R32), resembling those of the main complex. A set of stairs (R33) between the circular structures, descends to the stream.
There may have once been a suspension bridge across Santa Emilia, connecting the two roads and the two architectural complexes. Such suspension bridges may have once also crossed the channels of the rivers Dos Novillos and Iroquois, too. The researchers think that this road system included a stone drainage system to reduce the effect of water flow across the road surfaces, however none have been identified. In the area near the stream Santa Emilia a footpath with a width of 3 meters was defined by a linear depression in the land’s surface. This unnamed footpath extends in the same general direction as the road, and was followed as far as 150 m. However, it seems to disappear about 400 meters before reaching Destierro River.
Both the Iroquois and Pocora causeways offered formalized, controlled, and ceremonial access to the central part of Las Mercedes-1 architectural complex. The roads go in opposite directions from the center of the site along a route perpendicular to the hydrographic system. The geographic context of Las Mercedes-1, located between streams and rivers on all sides, has raised the question of whether the sphere of influence of a chiefly political center might be bounded by hydrographic systems. It might have been that these surrounding hydrographic systems served defensive functions as naturally existing barriers.
The Pocora Causeways does not communicate directly with another archaeological site, but is aiming towards Williamsburg
(L-58Wb) 3.5 km to the southeast of Las Mercedes-1. While the causeway ends 1.5 km before reaching Williamsburg, a footpath has been archaeologically identified that may extend the rest of the way connecting these sites.
Viewing these roads as part of one extensive construction project sharing the same constructive techniques, it is obvious that the cost of the roads to the former inhabitants of Las Mercedes-1 must have been great. A lot of time and manpower were required for the preparation of the terrain, the quantity of stone, the volume of fill, and the amount of other construction materials that must have been transported for the construction of these magnificent roads.
in 1896 and subsequently by Alanson Skinner during the winter of 1916-1917. Hartman excavated a total of 17 graves in four different circular funerary platforms and Skinner also excavated in 4 different cemeteries. Both of these excavations revealed rectangular, box-shaped, stone-lined graves, most of which had cobblestone walls with both a flat limestone
floor and roof. Hartman only found the remains of human bones in one of the graves. Most of the graves he excavated contained ceramic vessels and other burial goods. The ceramics were said to have shown wear marks indicating that they were once employed as cooking utensils or for some other utilitarian purpose. Some of the other contents of graves recorded by Hartman include two stone celts and a European-manufactured bead of blue glass
. The latter indicates that the builders of the grave were alive during the 16th century. Skinner's excavations revealed ceramic vessels in the graves along with such other grave goods as incense burners
, stone disks, meteoric iron gravers, flint
stone knives, greenstone
earspools, jade
ornaments, a copper
bell
, carved stone statues and tables, celts, and even some gold
or tumbaga
objects.
arrived in Costa Rica. Archaeologists now believe that Las Mercedes was a political center, like Guayabo de Turrialba. The site is associated with the Hüetar, a Chibchan-speaking people. After analyzing the artifacts uncovered during the 2009 field school archaeologists are relatively certain that Las Mercedes served as a powerful political center for the region—probably the center of a chiefdom
. The 2009 excavations also provided evidence contrary to the assertion that all platforms in Costa Rica are circular, because both a figure-eight-shaped platform and a peanut-shaped platform were excavated.
.
from the Costa Rican Central Valley
, as it was directly in the path of railroad construction. Minor C. Keith
, the American
commissioned to construct the railroad (and the principle founder of the United Fruit Company
), came across a gold artifact at Las Mercedes. This discovery inspired Keith to not only conduct non-scientific excavations at Las Mercedes, but also to collect artifacts from all over Costa Rica. Eventually Mr. Keith collected 16,608 artifacts, some of which were auctioned off after his death. Most of these artifacts, some of which are from Las Mercedes, are now housed by the Brooklyn Museum
and the American Museum of Natural History
in New York, the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C., and the Ethnography Museum in Sweden
. During his life Mr. Keith presented some artifacts to museums. For example several large stone sculptures were presented to the National Museum in Washington.
, a Swedish botanist and anthropologist in 1896. Hartman's descriptions of his various excavations include an early depiction of the architecture around the principal platform, descriptions of the stone figures he uncovered, descriptions of the architecture of 17 graves found in four different platforms, a description of a "cache
" of ceramics in a rectangular sunken chamber, details about an area of concentrated worked stone that may have been a stone cutters work place, a description of a clay pit, and detailed listings of the artifacts found in each grave or other excavation area.
, and Dr. Claude Chapdelaine with a group of his students from the University of Montréal, Canada
conducted an archaeological field-school. Their work focused on a 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) area of the central sector of Las Mercedes. By the end of the field-school, the team's stratigraphic excavations and mapping labors resulted in drawing of a general site plan, digital mapping of the most outstanding architectonic features, dating the site's earliest occupation to around 3,000 years ago, and the beginnings of carbon 14 based chronology for the site.
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
located on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
between the foothills of Turrialba Volcano
Turrialba Volcano
Turrialba Volcano was named after the region of Costa Rica in which the volcano is situated in Turrialba County, Cartago of Costa Rica. There is no clear consensus on the origin of the name Turrialba, but historians disagree with attempts to attribute the name to the patronym Torrealba or from...
and the alluvial plain. The site contains a variety of architectural features including platforms, plazas, retaining walls or terraces, funerary areas, ramps, and paved roads.
Location
Las Mercedes is located 90 meters above sea level in Mercedes District, Guácimo CantonGuácimo Canton
Guácimo is the name of the sixth canton in the province of Limón in Costa Rica. The canton covers an area of 576.48 km², and has a population of 37,549. Its capital city is also called Guácimo....
, Limón Province
Limón Province
Limón is one of seven provinces in Costa Rica. The majority of its territory is situated in the country's Caribbean lowlands, though the southwestern portion houses part of an extensive mountain range known as the Cordillera de Talamanca...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
between the rivers Dos Novillos and Parismina
Parismina
Barra del Parismina is a village of about 600 people located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, at the mouth of the Reventazón River. Parismina is about half way between Tortuguero and Limon on the Tortuguero canals. There is no road to Parismina; it is accessible only by boat or plane...
, which are tributaries to the Reventazón River
Reventazón River
The Reventazón River or Rio Reventazón, is a river in Costa Rica which forms part of the Reventazón-Parismina drainage basin, it is 145 km long and flows into the Caribbean sea. It rises in Meseta Central and flows through the Orosí, Reventazón and Turrialba Valleys...
. Dos Novillos River is 700 meters to the southeast and Parismina is 2.5 kilometers to the northeast of the site.
Description
With a size of 25 hectares, Las Mercedes is divided into 3 large complexes: Las Mercedes-1, Las Mercedes-2, and Las Mercedes-3. However, only Las Mercedes-1 has been extensively studied. Recent excavations at Las Mercedes-1 (L-289 LM-1) have revealed that it has an area of 5 hectares and consists of 7 platforms, 2 plazas, 6 retaining walls or terraces, 7 walls, 4 funerary areas, 1 ramp, and is where the 2 roads converge.Chronology
Investigations in this part of the site have determined that the site was occupied from circa 1500 BC to circa AD 1500 and that monumental architecture began being constructed around AD 1000. We know that the former inhabitants of Las Mercedes were still living there at the time of the initial Spanish arrival because a number of glass beadsGlass beadmaking
The technology for glass beadmaking is among the oldest human arts, dating back 3,000 years . Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times...
of historic European origin have been found during excavations. This indicated that trade may have occurred between the Las Mercedes inhabitants and the Spanish.
Platforms
In all, Las Mercedes has at least 15 platforms. Three of these platforms are located around a principal/central platform (known as the Hartman Platform), and are united by intra-site causeways. The Hartman Platform (R1) is 6 meters tall and has a diameter of 30 meters. It was first excavated by C. V. HartmanC. V. Hartman
C. V. Hartman, full name Carl Vilhelm Hartman , was a Swedish botanist and anthropologist.Trained as a botanist, Hartman joined Norwegian ethnographer Carl Sofus Lumholtz on a three-year expedition to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. One of Hartman's duties was to conduct studies concerning...
who removed two 1.85 meter tale stone male "warrior" figurines among other artifacts. Today these sculptures are housed at the Museum of Ethnography, Sweden
Museum of Ethnography, Sweden
The Museum of Ethnography , in Stockholm, Sweden, is a Swedish science museum. It houses a collection of about 220,000 items relating to the ethnography, or cultural anthropology, of peoples from around the world, including from China, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific region, the...
.
Three of the 15 platforms have been studied more extensively. Platform R12 is circular, 1 meter tall, and has a 28 meter diameter. Moreover, this platform is accompanied by 7 meter wide, 30 meter long ramp or causeway (R11), which connects to a stone terrace (R10). The second most studied platform (R9) is actually two conjoined platforms with a figure eight shape. The circular part has a 25 meter diameter and the oblong part measures 22x20 meters. The third of these platforms (R14) has an irregular shape "like a peanut" according to archaeologist Ricardo Vásquez.
All of these platforms, circular or not, are thought to have been covered with conical shaped huts made out of organic materials that have decomposed without a trace.
Causeways
Las Mercedes is the home of two well-documented stone-paved roads, named The Iroquois Causeway and The Pocora Causeway for the present-day towns they lead towards from the main architectural complex of the site. With widths ranging between 5 and 8 meters, they follow a northwest to southeast path, running perpendicular to the river drainage system. The research to date has registered much data about The Pocora Causeway, whereas our knowledge of The Iroquois Causeway will never be complete due to its alteration and partial destruction over the years. The straight stone-paved Iroquois Causeway has been followed for about 660 m at the edge of the EARTH UniversityEARTH University
EARTH University, located in Guácimo, Limón & EARTH University – La Flor, located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is a private, international, non-profit university which offers an undergraduate program leading to a licenciatura degree in agricultural sciences and the rational use of natural...
reserve that contains the site. However, researchers predict that it extended as far as the Iroquois settlement. Although The Iroquois Causeway has not been followed in its totality, it may be presumed that it is of a comparable length to The Pocora Causeway, based on their similarity in design.
The Pocora Causeway begins in the main complex and extends for an indefinite distance, going beyond the zone southeast of the complex, where it was not possible to clear vegetation during the 2005 field season. The Pocora Causeway continues for more than 300 m, running parallel to a secondary road, which connects to the Dos Novillos River. This causeway was raised above the surface as a protective measure against flooding. When The Pocora Causeway reaches its southeast extent, it comes to an end intersecting with a small stream known as Santa Emilia. Just before it reaches the stream The Pocora Causeway is flanked by an architectural complex consisting of two low walls with circular halves on the southeast side (R31 & R32), resembling those of the main complex. A set of stairs (R33) between the circular structures, descends to the stream.
There may have once been a suspension bridge across Santa Emilia, connecting the two roads and the two architectural complexes. Such suspension bridges may have once also crossed the channels of the rivers Dos Novillos and Iroquois, too. The researchers think that this road system included a stone drainage system to reduce the effect of water flow across the road surfaces, however none have been identified. In the area near the stream Santa Emilia a footpath with a width of 3 meters was defined by a linear depression in the land’s surface. This unnamed footpath extends in the same general direction as the road, and was followed as far as 150 m. However, it seems to disappear about 400 meters before reaching Destierro River.
Both the Iroquois and Pocora causeways offered formalized, controlled, and ceremonial access to the central part of Las Mercedes-1 architectural complex. The roads go in opposite directions from the center of the site along a route perpendicular to the hydrographic system. The geographic context of Las Mercedes-1, located between streams and rivers on all sides, has raised the question of whether the sphere of influence of a chiefly political center might be bounded by hydrographic systems. It might have been that these surrounding hydrographic systems served defensive functions as naturally existing barriers.
The Pocora Causeways does not communicate directly with another archaeological site, but is aiming towards Williamsburg
Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville , California*Williamsburg, Colorado*Williamsburg, Florida*Williamsburg, Dunwoody, Georgia*Williamsburg, Indiana*Williamsburg, Iowa*Williamsburg, Kansas*Williamsburg, Kentucky...
(L-58Wb) 3.5 km to the southeast of Las Mercedes-1. While the causeway ends 1.5 km before reaching Williamsburg, a footpath has been archaeologically identified that may extend the rest of the way connecting these sites.
Viewing these roads as part of one extensive construction project sharing the same constructive techniques, it is obvious that the cost of the roads to the former inhabitants of Las Mercedes-1 must have been great. A lot of time and manpower were required for the preparation of the terrain, the quantity of stone, the volume of fill, and the amount of other construction materials that must have been transported for the construction of these magnificent roads.
Funerary Areas
The first cemeteries were excavated by C. V. HartmanC. V. Hartman
C. V. Hartman, full name Carl Vilhelm Hartman , was a Swedish botanist and anthropologist.Trained as a botanist, Hartman joined Norwegian ethnographer Carl Sofus Lumholtz on a three-year expedition to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. One of Hartman's duties was to conduct studies concerning...
in 1896 and subsequently by Alanson Skinner during the winter of 1916-1917. Hartman excavated a total of 17 graves in four different circular funerary platforms and Skinner also excavated in 4 different cemeteries. Both of these excavations revealed rectangular, box-shaped, stone-lined graves, most of which had cobblestone walls with both a flat limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
floor and roof. Hartman only found the remains of human bones in one of the graves. Most of the graves he excavated contained ceramic vessels and other burial goods. The ceramics were said to have shown wear marks indicating that they were once employed as cooking utensils or for some other utilitarian purpose. Some of the other contents of graves recorded by Hartman include two stone celts and a European-manufactured bead of blue glass
Glass beadmaking
The technology for glass beadmaking is among the oldest human arts, dating back 3,000 years . Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times...
. The latter indicates that the builders of the grave were alive during the 16th century. Skinner's excavations revealed ceramic vessels in the graves along with such other grave goods as incense burners
Censer
Censers are any type of vessels made for burning incense. These vessels vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction. They may consist of simple earthenware bowls or fire pots to intricately carved silver or gold vessels, small table top objects a few centimetres tall to as many as...
, stone disks, meteoric iron gravers, flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
stone knives, greenstone
Greenstone (archaeology)
Greenstone is a common generic term for valuable, green-hued minerals and metamorphosed igneous rocks and stones, that were used in the fashioning of hardstone carvings such as jewelry, statuettes, ritual tools, and various other artefacts in early cultures...
earspools, jade
Costa Rican Jade Tradition
Jadeite is presumed one of the most precious materials of Pre-Columbian Costa Rica. It, along with other similar looking greenstones were cherished and worked for years...
ornaments, a copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
bell
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
, carved stone statues and tables, celts, and even some gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
or tumbaga
Tumbaga
Tumbaga was the name given by Spaniards to a non-specific alloy of gold and copper which they found in widespread use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and South America.-Composition and properties:...
objects.
Site Significance
Recent excavations at Las Mercedes are helping archaeologists understand the role it once served to the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica before 1502 when Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
arrived in Costa Rica. Archaeologists now believe that Las Mercedes was a political center, like Guayabo de Turrialba. The site is associated with the Hüetar, a Chibchan-speaking people. After analyzing the artifacts uncovered during the 2009 field school archaeologists are relatively certain that Las Mercedes served as a powerful political center for the region—probably the center of a chiefdom
Chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political economy that organizes regional populations through a hierarchy of the chief.In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band...
. The 2009 excavations also provided evidence contrary to the assertion that all platforms in Costa Rica are circular, because both a figure-eight-shaped platform and a peanut-shaped platform were excavated.
History of Excavations at Las Mercedes
In 1871 Las Mercedes was bisected by the construction of the railroad connecting the country's capital to Puerto Limón on the Caribbean coast. Today part of the site is protected within the campus of the Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda or EARTH UniversityEARTH University
EARTH University, located in Guácimo, Limón & EARTH University – La Flor, located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is a private, international, non-profit university which offers an undergraduate program leading to a licenciatura degree in agricultural sciences and the rational use of natural...
.
1871: Minor C. Keith & the Railroad to the Atlantic
Las Mercedes was first discovered in 1871 during the construction of the railroad to the Caribbean SeaCaribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
from the Costa Rican Central Valley
Costa Rican Central Valley
The Central Valley is a plateau and a geographic region of central Costa Rica. The land in the valley is a relative plain, despite being surrounded by several mountains and volcanos, the latter part of the Central Range. The region houses almost three quarters of Costa Ricans, and includes the...
, as it was directly in the path of railroad construction. Minor C. Keith
Minor C. Keith
Minor Cooper Keith was a U.S. railroad, fruit, and shipping magnate whose business activities had a profound impact in Central America and in Colombia.- Early life :...
, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
commissioned to construct the railroad (and the principle founder of the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
), came across a gold artifact at Las Mercedes. This discovery inspired Keith to not only conduct non-scientific excavations at Las Mercedes, but also to collect artifacts from all over Costa Rica. Eventually Mr. Keith collected 16,608 artifacts, some of which were auctioned off after his death. Most of these artifacts, some of which are from Las Mercedes, are now housed by the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
and the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York, the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C., and the Ethnography Museum in Sweden
Museum of Ethnography, Sweden
The Museum of Ethnography , in Stockholm, Sweden, is a Swedish science museum. It houses a collection of about 220,000 items relating to the ethnography, or cultural anthropology, of peoples from around the world, including from China, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific region, the...
. During his life Mr. Keith presented some artifacts to museums. For example several large stone sculptures were presented to the National Museum in Washington.
1896: Carl Vilhelm Hartman
The first archaeological excavations were done by C. V. HartmanC. V. Hartman
C. V. Hartman, full name Carl Vilhelm Hartman , was a Swedish botanist and anthropologist.Trained as a botanist, Hartman joined Norwegian ethnographer Carl Sofus Lumholtz on a three-year expedition to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. One of Hartman's duties was to conduct studies concerning...
, a Swedish botanist and anthropologist in 1896. Hartman's descriptions of his various excavations include an early depiction of the architecture around the principal platform, descriptions of the stone figures he uncovered, descriptions of the architecture of 17 graves found in four different platforms, a description of a "cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
" of ceramics in a rectangular sunken chamber, details about an area of concentrated worked stone that may have been a stone cutters work place, a description of a clay pit, and detailed listings of the artifacts found in each grave or other excavation area.
Winter of 1916-1917: Alanson Skinner
During the winter of 1916-1917 Alanson Skinner conducted archaeological excavations at Las Mercedes, Anita Grande, and Costa Rica Farm Site. His excavation notes indicate that he excavated parts of four cemeteries and one "mound" or platform, and lists off the artifacts found in each excavation. It is also interesting that Skinner's description was the first to note the existence of the causeways. He also meantions that others like Alpizar (who worked for Mr. Keith) and J. H. Wilson had excavated at the site.May and June 2005: Ricardo Vázquez, Claude Chapdelaine, & the University of Montréal Field-School
After Skinner completed his excavations only a few minor archaeological investigations were conducted at Las Mercedes until 2005. During May and June 2005 Ricardo Vásquez, an archaeologist from the Museo Nacional de Costa RicaMuseo Nacional de Costa Rica
The Museo Nacional de Costa Rica is the national museum of Costa Rica, located in the capital of San José. It is located at Calle 17, between Central and Second Avenue, Cuesta de Moras, in the Bellavista Fortress, a crenallated, ochre colored building opposite the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica...
, and Dr. Claude Chapdelaine with a group of his students from the University of Montréal, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
conducted an archaeological field-school. Their work focused on a 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) area of the central sector of Las Mercedes. By the end of the field-school, the team's stratigraphic excavations and mapping labors resulted in drawing of a general site plan, digital mapping of the most outstanding architectonic features, dating the site's earliest occupation to around 3,000 years ago, and the beginnings of carbon 14 based chronology for the site.
January and February 2009: Ricardo Vázquez, Robert M. Rosenswig, & the UAlbany Field-school
In the winter of 2009, between January 11 and February 22, a group of archaeologist from the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany), led by Ricardo Vásquez and Robert M. Rosenswig, conducted further investigation. During this archaeological field school a number of important discoveries were made, which caused Las Mercedes to make the newsFurther reading
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External links
- Sitio Las Mercedes, Guácimo de Limón: el otro gran cacicazgo del Caribe central: segunda temporada de campo
- Las Mercedes, un monumento escondido
- Arqueólogos desempolvan sitio indígena en Guácimo
- Photo Gallery from the 2009 fieldschool at Las Mercedes
- Sitio Las Mercedes fue capital de importante aldea indígena
- Guerrero esculpido en piedra ve la luz
- Las Mercedes Project
- Las Mercedes - Joya Patrimonial (video)
- Costa Rica Field School Students Dig into the Past
- Archaeological Field School in Costa Rica 2009: Las Mercedes (January 11 - February 22, 2009)
- Archaeologists and Huaqueros
- The Hartman Collection
- The Archaeology of Costa Rica: Highlands-Atlantic Period VI (1000 - 1550 A.D.)
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