Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-2jdt9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-24T11:29:59.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Formative-Period Architecture at the Site of Yarumela, Central Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Boyd Dixon ,
L. R. V. Joesink-Mandeville ,
Nobukatsu Hasebe ,
Michael Mucio ,
William Vincent ,
David James  and
Kenneth Petersen
Boyd Dixon
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI 96817
L. R. V. Joesink-Mandeville
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92634
Nobukatsu Hasebe
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92634
Michael Mucio
Affiliation:
457 Severn Lane, Lexington, KY 40506
William Vincent
Affiliation:
6715 E. Nixon St., Lakewood, CA 90713
David James
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92634
Kenneth Petersen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92634
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the Formative period (ca. 1000 B.C.-A.D. 250) at the site of Yarumela in central Honduras, an indigenous society developed that was constructing monumental architecture well before 400 B.C. Experimentation with new building materials and techniques reached a peak ca. A.D. 200 just prior to the site's abandonment, by which time religious temples and elite residences had undergone a transition from simple pole-and-thatch structures to more complex adobe and stone constructions. Overall labor investment in monumental architecture may, on the other hand, actually have declined during this same period.

Durante el período Formativo (ca. 1000 A.C.-250 D.C.) en el sitio de Yarumela en el centro de Honduras, una sociedad indígena se desarolló con la construcción de arquitectura monumental antes de 400 A.C. Se experimentó con nuevos métodos y materiales de construcción hacia aproximadamente 200 D.C., antes de abandonar el sitio, cuando los templos y residencias de la élite pasaron por una transición desde estructuras simples con materiales orgánicas hasta construcciones más complejas de adobe y piedra. En cambio, la cantidad de mano de obra relacionada con esta arquitectura monumental parece haber bajado durante esta misma época.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 70 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Baudez, C. 1966 Niveaux céramiques au Honduras: Une reconsideration de l’évolution culturelle. Journal de la Société des Américanistes 4:299–342.Google Scholar
Baudez, C. F., and Becquelin, P. 1973 Archéologie de Los Naranjos, Honduras. Collection Etudes Mésoaméricaines, Vol. 2. Mission Archéologique et Ethnologique Française au Mexique, Paris.Google Scholar
Braun, D., and Plog, S. 1982 Evolution of “Tribal” Social Networks: Theory and Prehistoric North American Evidence. American Antiquity 47:504–525.Google Scholar
Canby, J. 1949 Excavations at Yarumela, Spanish Honduras. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Canby, J. 1951 Possible Chronological Implications of the Long Ceramic Sequence Recovered at Yarumela, Spanish Honduras. Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth International Congress of Americanists 1:79–85.Google Scholar
Coe, M. 1961 La Victoria, An Early Site on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 53. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Colby, S. 1988 An Analysis of Faunal Remains from Yarumela, Honduras. Journal of New World Archaeology 7(2–3):71–94.Google Scholar
Demarest, A., and Sharer, R. 1982 The Origins and Evolution of the Usulutan Ceramic Style. American Antiquity 47:810–822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, A., and Sharer, R. 1986 Late Preclassic Ceramic Spheres, Culture Areas, and Cultural Evolution in the Southeastern Highlands of Mesoamerica. In The Southeast Maya Periphery, edited by P. Urban and E. Schortman, pp. 194–223. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Dixon, B. 1987 Conflict Along the Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery: A Defensive Wall System at the Site of Tenampua. In Interaction on the Southeast Mesoamerican Frontier, edited by E. Robinson, pp. 142–153. BAR International Series 327(i). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Dixon, B. 1989a Prehistoric Settlement Patterns on a Cultural Corridor: The Comayagua Valley, Honduras. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs.Google Scholar
Dixon, B. 1989b A Preliminary Settlement Pattern Study of a Prehistoric Cultural Corridor: The Comayagua Valley, Honduras. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:257–271.Google Scholar
Dixon, B. 1992 Political Variability on the Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery. Ancient Mesoamerica 3:11–25.Google Scholar
Dixon, B., and Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V. 1989 Archaeological Investigations at Yarumela, Honduras: 1989 Field Season. Manuscript on file, California State University Museum of Anthropology, Fullerton.Google Scholar
Elder, D. 1983 The Stone Tools of Yarumela and the Early Formative Period of Mesoamerica. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton.Google Scholar
Freidel, D., and Scheie, L. 1988 Kingship in the Late Preclassic Maya Lowlands: The Instruments and Places of Ritual Power. American Anthropologist 90:547–567.Google Scholar
Hasemann, G. 1987 Late Classic Settlement on the Sulaco River, Central Honduras. In Chiefdoms in the Americas, edited by R. Drennan and C. Uribe, pp. 85–104. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., and Gargett, R. 1990 Big Man, Big Heart? A Mesoamerican View of the Emergence of Complex Society. Ancient Mesoamerica 1:3–20.Google Scholar
Healy, P. 1974 The Cuyamel Caves: Preclassic Sites in Northeast Honduras. American Antiquity 39:435–447.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. 1981 The World of the Ancient Maya. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Hirth, K. 1988 Beyond the Maya Frontier: Cultural Interaction and Syncretism Along the Central Honduran Corridor. In The Southeast Classic Maya Zone, edited by E. Boone, pp. 297–334. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hirth, K. 1989 Ecological Relationships and Cultural Evolution. In Archaeological Research in the El Cajón Region, vol. 1, edited by K. Hirth, G. Lara Pinto, and G. Hasemann, pp. 233–252. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Hoopes, J. 1985 El complejo tronadora: Cerámica del Período Formativo Medio en la Cuenca de Arenal, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Vínculos 11(1–2):111–118.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V. 1986 Proyecto Arqueológico Valle de Comayagua: Investigaciones en Yarumela-Chilcal. Yaxkin 6(2): 17–42.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V. 1987a Yarumela, Honduras: Formative Period Cultural Conservatism and Diffusion. In Interaction on the Southeast Mesoamerican Frontier, edited by E. Robinson, pp. 196–214. BAR International Series 327(i). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V. 1987b The Ethnological Significance of the Copan Archaic. In The Periphery of the Southeastern Classic Maya Realm, edited by G. Pahl, pp. 1–26. UCLA Latin American Studies Series No. 61. UCLA Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V. 1991 Pre-Maya Outpost. Earthwatch February:98. Center for Field Research, Watertown, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V., and Dixon, B. 1988 Archaeological Investigations at Yarumela, Honduras: 1988 Field Season. Manuscript on file, California State University Museum of Anthropology, Fullerton.Google Scholar
Joesink-Mandeville, L. R. V., Greene, G., and Dixon, B. 1990 Archaeological Investigations at Yarumela, Honduras: 1990 Field Season. Manuscript on file, Museum of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton.Google Scholar
Kennedy, N. 1986 The Periphery Problem and Playa de Los Muertos: A Test Case, In The Southeast Maya Periphery, edited by P. Urban and E. Schortman, pp. 179–193, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Longyear, J. 1940 Copán Ceramics: The Chronological and Historical Significance. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Lothrop, S. 1927 The Museum Central American Expedition: 1925–1926. Indian Notes, pp. 12–32. The Heye Foundation, Museum of the American Indian, New York.Google Scholar
Lunardi, F. 1941 Los misterios del valle de Comayagua. Imprenta Calderón, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.Google Scholar
Lunardi, F. 1948 Honduras maya: Etnología y arqueología de Honduras. Imprenta Calderón, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.Google Scholar
Popenoe, D. 1934 Some Excavations at Playa de los Muertos. Maya Research 1:61–81.Google Scholar
Sanders, W., and Webster, D. 1988 The Mesoamerican Urban Tradition. American Anthropologist 90:521–546.Google Scholar
Sharer, R. 1985 Archaeology and Epigraphy Revisited: An Archaeological Enigma and the Origins of Maya Writing. Expedition 27(3): 16–19.Google Scholar
Sheets, P., Beaubien, H., Beaudry, M., Gerstle, A., McKee, B., Miller, C., Spetzler, H., and Tucker, D. 1990 Household Archaeology at Ceren, El Salvador. Ancient Mesoamerica 1:81–90.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. 1987 Rethinking the Chiefdom. In Chiefdoms in the Americas, edited by R. Drennan and C. Uribe, pp. 369–390. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Squier, E. 1855 Notes on Central America. Harper Brothers, New York.Google Scholar
Squier, E. 1859 A Visit to the Guajiquero Indians. Harpers New Monthly Magazine 14:602–619.Google Scholar
Stone, D. 1957 The Archaeology of Central and Southern Honduras. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 49, No. 3. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Stone, D. 1972 Precolumbian Man Finds Central America. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Strong, W., Kidder, A. II, and Paul, A. 1938 Preliminary Report on the Smithsonian Institution-Harvard University Expedition to Northwest Honduras. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 97(1). Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Yde, J. 1938 An Archaeological Reconnaissance of Northwestern Honduras. A Report of the Work of the Tulane University-Danish National Museum Expedition to Central America in 1935. Levin and Munksgaard, Copenhagen.Google Scholar