NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls Veni Scheme

Dr. Alex Geurds 

Fixing history: Ancient cultural practices of stone sculpture in central Nicaragua

For three millennia, carved sculptures were ubiquitous among ancient peoples in the Americas. Sculpted in stone, metal or wood, they developed into the well-known totem poles, colossal Olmec heads, royal Maya stelae and golden Inca statues. Today, they remain central to local museum collections and cultural heritage management as iconic hallmarks of ancient American material culture. However, in several cases archaeological understanding has remained limited to stylistic comparison of individual sculptures, mainly due to poor documentation of the original archaeological context. This study instead draws on emerging approaches in archaeology to question what people in practice did with such large monoliths and how these stones related to people’s cultural identity.

While we know Maya stelae depicted rulers and referenced historical events; Inca statues represented gods of different cities (when conquered the statues were captured and taken to the Inca capital to be venerated or punished depending on the behaviour of the conquered towns), and Pacific Northwest Coast American totem poles depicted predominantly clan narratives, the function of Central American statuary and in particular of Nicaraguan sculptures remains largely unknown.

An unprecedented discovery made in Nicaragua in 2009 during my National Geographic Society funded research, now enables study of these sculptures in their original archaeological setting. The discovered archaeological site, a unique complex of stone human sculptures linked to monumental architecture, includes pyramid mounds and ceremonial open spaces. It is located in the archaeological terra incognita of central Nicaragua, and holds major promise to advance the understanding of how and when stone sculptures were produced and used during pre-Columbian times. The sculptures rank among the most significant -and threatened- archaeological materials of Central America. This places a high priority on efforts both to understand and protect these emblematic objects.

The research proposed here targets the following question regarding pre-Columbian cultural practices in Nicaragua: How did practices of stone sculpture shape cultural histories? The raised sub-questions are: How were raw materials converted into stone sculptures? How did the technology involved in their production develop? How were these massive sculptures –often weighing several hundred kilos- subsequently inserted in monumental settings? Who are the individuals depicted on them? Are they local rulers, ancestors or perhaps deities? How did stone sculpture take part in cultural identities? The practice-oriented approach is well-suited to incorporate the study of: (a) The technology required in procuring, fashioning, and placing these large sculptures; and (b) Improve understanding of the materiality of these sculptures as a mode to create, fix, or alter community identity.

As the first contextual analysis of pre-Columbian sculpture in Central America, this study examines the technology of procurement of raw materials and sculpture production. It further studies the relations between placement of sculptures, monumental architectural context and the surrounding landscape. It will investigate how people engaged with stone sculpture and how these monumental objects in turn shaped cultural identities.