Students label various finds from the archaeological site in Nicaragua. Photograph by Alex Geurds
Posted on 05/19/2013 8:20:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...we’ll be working for the next few weeks at the site of Aguas Buenas, located to north of the city of Juigalpa. The Central Nicaragua Archaeological Project is an ongoing archaeological investigation to shed light on the prehistory of Nicaragua, in particular its extraordinary indigenous tradition of monumental stone sculptures and its poorly understood ceremonial complexes.
As part of this, the Aguas Buenas archaeological site holds special interest. Our recent explorations of the site have revealed its unequalled architectural characteristics and extraordinary number of mounds, spread out over the hilly Chontales landscape by means of wide concentric semi-circles. Current knowledge of prehistoric monumental architecture in Central America cannot tell us anything specific about why this site looks like it does. Nor is there a significant amount of previous archaeological research in the region to help us out in understanding Aguas Buenas. We’re basically working from scratch.
Today we kicked-off our 2013 field season featuring students from Leiden University, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the University of Calgary, geared towards completing our GPS mapping of the site and excavating several of the more than 500 mounds...
The day started around 6 AM, filling the pick-up with excited students, as well as shovels, sieves, levels, and the like. Rolling into the site a little bit later, everyone took a moment to take in the impressive landscape and trying to spot some of the mounds. Standing among the mound, one would never guess the 600-meter diameter semi-circular patterns these mounds clearly follow from an airborne perspective. We determined the mound to be excavated by working on creating an understanding of when distinct sectors of the site may have been built and how comparable the contents of mounds really are.
(Excerpt) Read more at newswatch.nationalgeographic.com ...
Students label various finds from the archaeological site in Nicaragua. Photograph by Alex Geurds
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. Almond Joy has nuts, Mounds don’t. (Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.)
Watch out...they might use it for highway gravel, a-la Belize!
“Do they serve a purpose as individual mounds or rather playing a role in the larger complex of the site itself?”
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Probably the latter. Obstacles could be part of a large field of play for sporting events similar to hazards on a golf course. LOL
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