` Proyecto

836-C1-168 Designing and pre-Hispanic iconography of the Central Region of Costa Rica: the anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, figurative and geometric

Objetivo:

To analyze pre-Hispanic iconography of the Central Region of Costa Rica through archeological pieces in national museums (300 A.D. to 1550 A.D.) to generate an anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, figurative and geometric taxonomy.

Descripción:

Since the eighties, in Costa Rica there hasn’t been published a single document that profoundly encompasses the pre-Hispanic iconography of archeological regions in which their characteristics based on site, phases, and region are determined. Michael J. Snarskis (1983) wa the last to do it on pre-Columbian ceramic in Costa Rica in 1983, and even though characteristic aspects of the three archeological regions are determined, only general aspects of ceramic styles are detailed, as well as fundamental data about the excavation sites, but without going into detail on the specific iconography and symbology. 

In the past decade, volumes in Mexico have been published called Geometrías de la imaginación (Geometry of the imagination), a series of catalogs that analyze pre-Columbian, colonial, and indigenous contemporary iconography through tomes that give us an approach and iconographic lecture to the varied figurative representations, such as anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, vegetal, etc. and all the way to the non-figurative or non-geometric. 

According to the regional objective, pre-Hispanic iconography of the Central Region of Costa Rica will be analyzed through archeological pieces (gold, stone, jade, and ceramic) museums in the country (300 A.D. to 1550 A.D.), to generate an anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, figurative and geometric taxonomy, with the goal of developing a catalog addressed to different researchers, artists, artisans, and people interested in Costa Rican pre-Hispanic iconography in the country. A iconographic catalog that understands the symbology of ancient history of the Central Region of the country.

The country has the Ley 6703 (Law 6703) on Cultural Patrimony, its purpose is to be purely social, if there is no approach, there is no heritage value. And so, a catalog of this type will be a contribution to the construction of indigenous cultural identities prior to the Spanish conquest. It would be divided in its two subregions and by archeological sites as are the Central Pacific Subregion and the Caribbean Subregion. A publication in which image and text will shape a visual dictionary on patrimonial representations of said region.

Costa Rica’s Central Region shapes the pre-Columbian archaeological zone of the center of the territory and at the same time makes up the Caribbean Subregion and the Central Pacific Subregion. Francisco Corrales provides detail on this region: Two subregions are distinguished: The Central Pacific, which includes the upper Central Valley, an extensive depression surrounded by volcanoes and hills (with differences between the western and eastern sectors), and the coast and the river valleys of the Central Pacific (between Quepos and Chomes), and the Caribbean, with its humid and wet climate that includes the fertile Valley of Turrialba, an the expansive Plains of the Central Caribbean (from Guápiles to Limón), showered by numerous rivers that descend the Central Volcanic Mountain Range. (pp.10-11).

 

Credits of the front page picture

National Museum of Costa Rica Collection 

Photograph:  Fernando Camacho Mora and Henry Vargas Benavides

Year: 2022

Vigencia:

From 03/08/2021 to 02/28/2023

Áreas de investigación relacionadas:

Regional Cultural and Linguistic Studies

Investigador principal:

Henry Vargas Benavides

Investigadores colaboradores:

Fernando Enrique Camacho Mora

Resultados obtenidos:

Research findings

Video in which the main findings of this research project are discussed.

Kérwá repository https://hdl.handle.net/10669/87407

https://youtu.be/00eoYB0WAZc