User:Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy)/Art of Pre-Columbian Central America

Central America in this article refers to the areas that in Pre-Columbian times were south of the major Mesoamerican civilizations of Mexico, the Guatemalan highlands, and the Yucatan, while being to the north of the Andean civilizations. In the present day these ancient cultural areas include the states of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and occasionally also Belize and Guatemala. Often the West Indies are included as well. Not as much is known about the cultural and artistic traditions of these people because these regions have received little attention from archaeologists and art historians compared to the Mesoamerica and the Andes. One reason for this is the tropical rainforest that covers much of the area, which is inhospitable both to archaeologists and to the preservation of artifacts which they seek. Another reason is the lack of monumental architecture in stone, which makes it harder to target sites for excavation. Both of these contribute to an overall impression that conducting research in this area is likely to be less rewarding than in others.

Nevertheless the region is home to diverse artistic traditions in stone, ceramic, jade, gold, and other media. Most of these peoples operated on a tribal level, ruled by petty chiefdoms and following shamanic traditions. It is possible to categorize cultural areas and in part reconstruct cultural histories from language distributions. Generally, cultures toward the south of this "Intermediate Area" tended to be more influenced by Andean cultural models, while northern cultures bear more hallmarks of Mesoamerican influence. The collapse of the classic Mesoamerican civilizations in the second half of the first millennium of the common era caused in particular a wide diffusion of Mesoamerican influence as far south as Panama. This was carried by vectors such as trade in ceramics like the plumbate ware of the Toltecs, but also by mass migrations of peoples such as the Nicarao to the region in order to escape invading nomadic peoples from the north of Mexico.

Nicaragua

 * Three major zones: Mosquito coast, highlands, and Pacific coast.


 * Zapatera Island- expand that first, civilizations around Lake Nicaragua...


 * Pacific Coast (Rivas Region) at the time of conquest was mostly inhabited by the Nicarao, post classic invaders from Mexico who spoke a dialect of Nahuatl. It is believed that the Chorotega of Greater Nicoya originally inhabited this region and were driven out by the Nicarao, because there was an isolated pocket of Chorotegan speakers to the North of the region inhabited by the Nicarao, and because of the Nicarao's own origin myths.

Costa Rica
Greater Nicoya

The ancient Chorotegan-speaking (Branch of Oto-Manguean languages) peoples of the Nicoya Peninsula in present day Costa Rica traditionally sculpted birds in jade, which were used for funeral ornaments. Around 500 AD gold ornaments replaced jade, possibly because of the depletion of jade resources.

Panama

 * Chiriqui