Officially launched in June 2012, in the framework of the 3rd Young Americanists’ Days, the Central America center is hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), in San José, Costa Rica.
Discover in 180 seconds the thesis of Pauline LOMELLO, coordinator of the Central America center (2024-2027), PhD student at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (ED 112)
PhD dissertation topic : « Ceramic production in Gran Nicoya (Costa Rica - Nicaragua) between the Bagaces and Sapoá periods (300-1350 CE). Study of the transition from bichromy to polychromy: technological characterization of chronological markers », under the direction of Brigitte FAUGERE
Located in the “intermediate” area, a region stretching from southern Honduras to northern Colombia, Gran Nicoya, between south-west Nicaragua and north-west Costa Rica, offers a highly original material culture, the result of multiple exchanges between Mesoamerica and South America. Ceramic production appeared around 1500 B.C. and is one of the markers favoured by archaeologists for sequencing human occupation. In fact, it was around 500 CE that polychrome decorations and surface treatments became the most varied and advanced, testifying to great technical mastery. The appearance of polychromy seems to coincide with the end of imports of jade objects from the Maya area, in favor of gold objects from the Chibcha area. Pauline Lomello therefore proposes to study this moment of transition using a technological approach. This analysis will enable us to identify technical continuities or ruptures, and thus gain a better understanding of the dynamics of production, as well as exchanges, that took place within the Gran Nicoya and its interactions with the North and South of the Americas. The challenge is also to question the notion of an “intermediate” area, a pejorative and undynamic denomination, in order to go beyond the Mesoamerica/South America binarity and finally apprehend this isthmo-Colombian area as such.
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