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Pre-Columbian land-use and relationships with the soil: an archaeological

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 Pre-Columbian land-use and relationships with the soil:
an archaeological study across different scales of landscape from the Mayales River Valley to Nicaragua

Bastiaan Johannes van Dalen

Candidate number: 1017622

Kellogg College

University of Oxford

This dissertation is submitted for the Degree of Master of Science

MSc in Applied Landscape Archaeology

September 2018
Acknowledgments
This dissertation would not have been possible without the support and courtesy of a number of people and
institutions. Without the financial support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Hendrik Muller Fonds, Sint
Geertruidsleen, Ketel1 Studiefonds, Genootschap Noorthey and Vreedefonds I would not have been able to
enrol in the MSc in Applied Landscape Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

I am also extremely grateful for the continued support of Dr David Griffiths and Dr Alexander Geurds in their
supervision of my research. This dissertation would moreover not have been possible without the PRISMA
project directed by Oxford University DPhil candidate Irene Torreggiani who allowed me to be in charge of my
own fieldwork project for this dissertation and the PACEN project including Alejandro Arteaga from the National
Autonomous University of Mexico and PhD candidate Natalia Donner of Leiden University granting me access to
their data. PhD candidate Adam Benfer at the University of Calgary and Dr Walter Witschey at Longwood
University are further deeply thanked for allowing me to use their archaeological databases for the
macroregional scale of my dissertation.

Finally, I take this opportunity to express my never-ending gratitude to my parents and sister for their everlasting
support and unfailing encouragement, which have allowed me to be where I am today.

Except where indicated otherwise, all figures have been created by this author.

i
Abstract
Research on pre-Columbian land-management is severely limited in lower Central America as the study of
human-environment relationships in this region is challenged by traditional archaeological paradigms and lack
of archaeological data and paleoenvironmental records. The poor understanding of its archaeological landscapes
is reflected by the fact that the connection between pre-Columbian and modern landscapes in lower Central
America is largely unknown.
As there is no evident archaeological explanation for the blank that this region presents in the extensive
spread of complex and intensive pre-Columbian land-management systems across the Americas, this dissertation
addresses this gap in land-use research by employing a multi-scalar and multi-method landscape methodology.
Focusing on the relationship between archaeology and soil fertility as a proxy for land-use, this dissertation
throws a new light on the engagement of pre-Columbian communities with their landscapes within the Mayales
River Valley as well as the wider region of Nicaragua.
Nicaragua is at the core of this study as it is arguably the least understood archaeological region in the
Americas and particularly symbolic and representative of the challenges of archaeology in lower Central America.
The Mayales River Valley further serves as an important case study as it is arguably and contrastingly the most
holistically studied archaeological landscape of Nicaragua.
This study demonstrates how pre-Columbian engagement in the Nicaraguan Mayales River Valley with
the landscape was informed by strong relationships between pre-Columbian activity and their soils, indicating
the existence of an intensive agricultural archaeological landscape that was actively managed by its
communities. These relationships appear moreover paramount across the highlands and Caribbean regions of
Nicaragua which are likely to have seen intensive pre-Columbian agricultural land-use throughout. The modern
engagement with the landscape can in relation to these results be understood to contrast distinctively with that
of its pre-Columbian predecessors within both the Mayales River Valley and across the country as a whole.

ii
Table of contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1

Chapter 2 The Case Studies: Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley...................................... 2

Chapter 3 The Archaeology of Nicaragua: Landscape Archaeology in a Challenging

Landscape ............................................................................................................................ 5

Chapter 4 The Research Framework – Overcoming the Challenges .................................................... 8

Chapter 5 Roberto Amador – Micro-scale Analysis in a Highly Fertile Landscape ............................. 11

Chapter 6 The Mayales River Valley – Land-use and (Dis)continuity in a Nicaraguan

Valley System ..................................................................................................................... 18

Chapter 7 Nicaragua and its Neighbours – Land-use Patterns on a Macroregional Scale ................. 26

Chapter 8 Discussion – Applied Landscape Archaeology and the Study of Land-use in

Nicaragua ........................................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 9 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 37

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 38

Literature .............................................................................................................................................. 39

iii
List of Figures

Figure 1.1: the gap of land-use research in lower Central America. ...................................................... 1

Figure 2.1: Nicaragua and its main geographical and cultural zones ..................................................... 2

Figure 2.2: The landscape of the Mayales River Valley. ......................................................................... 3

Figure 2.3: The landscape of Roberto Amador....................................................................................... 3

Figure 3.1: Soil Organic Carbon content across Nicaragua .................................................................... 6

Figure 5.1: Formation processes at Roberto Amador. ......................................................................... 11

Figure 5.2: Quantitative and qualitative distributions of material culture at Roberto Amador. ......... 11

Figure 5.3: The spatial distributions at Roberto Amador of all the material categories. ..................... 12

Figure 5.4: Concentrations of material culture and soil distributions at Roberto Amador. ................ 13

Figure 5.5: The natural soil distribution and relation to the archaeology at Roberto Amador. .......... 14

Figure 5.6: Qualitative distributions of archaeological material across the most common soils. ....... 15

Figure 6.1: the Mayales River Valley with the recorded main soil characteristics. .............................. 17

Figure 6.2: the average density of material culture clusters across the different zones of the Mayales
River Valley. .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Figure 6.3: archaeological distributions at zone A and B of the fertile alluvial plains. ........................ 20

Figure 6.4: Relationships between archaeology and soil moisture levels across the Mayales River
Valley. ................................................................................................................................................... 21

Figure 6.5: soil moisture levels as visualized by L-band JERS-1 SAR overlain with pre-Columbian
archaeological remains. ........................................................................................................................ 21

Figure 6.6: the relationship between hydrology and the archaeology in the Mayales River Valley.... 22

Figure 6.7: mean elevation of archaeological sites and material culture at the Mayales River Valley 23

Figure 6.8: the pre-Columbian and modern cultural distributions and patterns of land-use across the
Mayales River Valley............................................................................................................................. 24

Figure 7.1: The 14,691 archaeological sites of pre-Columbian Central America with the settlements
being analysed in this chapter highlighted. .......................................................................................... 26

Figure 7.2: Distribution of the three most common soil types related to soil fertility (see Driessen
2001) within the catchment (5km) of settlements and sites. .............................................................. 27

iv
Figure 7.3: Average soil distributions within site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the Pacific
cultural zone. ........................................................................................................................................ 28

Figure 7.4: Average soil distributions within the site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the
Highlands cultural zone. ....................................................................................................................... 28

Figure 7.5: Average soil distributions within the site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the
Caribbean cultural zone........................................................................................................................ 29

Figure 7.6: the main soil types against their natural distribution as present in the average site
catchment (5 km) of the Mayan landscapes. ....................................................................................... 30

Figure 7.7: the average distribution of soils (in 5km settlement catchments) that are highly effective
and unsuitable for agriculture. ............................................................................................................. 31

Figure 7.8: The average distribution above and below the natural distributions of soils within 5km
catchments of pre-Columbian and modern settlements. .................................................................... 32

v
List of Tables

Table 3.1: the challenges of archaeology in Nicaragua. ......................................................................... 7

Table 5.1: Distribution of the categories of archaeological material amongst the most common soil
types. .................................................................................................................................................... 15

Table 7.1: The soil potentials for agriculture related to the nomenclature of the scientific, national
and ethnopedological taxonomies. ...................................................................................................... 27

vi
Chapter 1

Introduction

Paleoenvironmental records are rare in Nicaragua and lower Central America and very little concrete
archaeological data exists on the pre-Columbian use of the landscape and relationships between human activity
and the soils in this region. The region moreover only takes a very marginal position within archaeological
research as is illustrated by its absence within general handbooks on the Americas (Nichols 2012; Silverman and
Isbell 2008) and dated literature on a synthesis of the overall region (Lange and Stone 1984; Linares 1979). The
understanding of these human-environment relationships is further problematized by the severely limited
knowledge on how the modern landscape reflects the pre-Columbian land-use patterns (Quilter 2004).
This situation is striking as pre-Columbian land management in neighbouring Mesoamerica and the
Amazonian lowlands are receiving ever increasing research due to the complex and intensive sustainable
agricultural systems they had in place (Balée 2015; Mayle and Iriarte 2014; Renard et al. 2012) while Nicaragua
and lower Central America in general remain a peculiar blank (Denevan 1992, 2011; McCafferty 2010).
Consequently, archaeologists either expect similar patterns of complexity or assume the region to never have
reached such a level of complexity.
As there is no evident explanation beyond the lack of research accounting for this gap in land
management within Nicaragua and lower Central America (Erickson 1994; Mann 2006) this study will address
the gap in land-use research (fig. 1.1) by employing a multi-scalar and multi-method landscape methodology.
Focusing on the relationship between archaeology and soil fertility, which acts as proxy-data for land-use to
circumvent the lack of data on the paleoenvironment (Wingard and Hayes 2013), this study aims to throw a new
light on the limited understanding of pre-Columbian engagements with their landscape in Nicaragua and its
(dis)continuation into the modern landscape.
The integration of micro- and macro-scale analysis of the case studies of Roberto Amador and the
Mayales River Valley and macroregional analysis of the entire country, will not only allow a first narrative on
land-use in this region but ultimately allow insights into whether its lack of intensive land management practices
can be supported by the archaeological data or
reflects an artefact of biased archaeological research.
Even though the macroregional approach of
this study will not allow in-depth understanding of
land-use practices beyond the Mayales River Valley,
the fact that no data exists yet on this level will render
the results valuable nonetheless and allow the case
studies to be framed in the patterns of their wider
region (see Allen 2000).
Being one of the least studied and
understood countries of the Americas (Baker 2010;
McCafferty 2010), Nicaragua is not only a case in point
of this gap in knowledge on land-use but also symbolic
of the challenges of archaeology in lower Central
America. Therefore, this study will further provide an
opportunity to review the potential of applied
landscape archaeology in the research landscape of
this region as well.

Figure 1.1: the gap of land-use research in lower Central

America. Although the map is dated, the blank is still
accurate (after Denevan 1992, 380).

1
Chapter 2

The Case Studies: Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley

The study area subject to analysis is comprised by both the entire archaeological landscape of Nicaragua as well
as the case studies of Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley. The country is characterised by three
distinct cultural zones which correspond to its main topographical and ecological zones (fig. 2.1); the narrow dry
and volcanic Pacific, the wetter and broad Caribbean lowlands covered in tropical forests and the central semi-
tropical highlands dividing the two (Arengi and Hodgson 2000; Lange 1984).
These main three cultural and geographical zones are continuous throughout lower Central America
(Dinerstein et al. 1995; Drolet 1980). The soil distributions in Nicaragua are dominated by acrisols, cambisols,
luvisols and regosols in the Pacific, andosols, cambisols and acrisols in the highlands, and acrisols, nitisols and
cambisols in the Caribbean (Hengl 2017; NRCS 1999). Especially the highlands demonstrate high soil fertility with
its dominance of andosols which are arguably the most fertile soils in Nicaragua (Taylor 1959).

Figure 2.1: Nicaragua, its main geographical and cultural zones and the location of the case studies (after Maphill 2011).

Throughout lower Central America there is a clear bias of archaeological research on the Pacific which is also
evident in Nicaragua concerning the Greater Nicoya cultural area which is confined to the southwest of the
country (Lange 1984). As archaeological research is severely limited in Nicaragua, it is unclear whether the higher
complexity along the Pacific is an archaeological reality or an artefact of the traditional focus on this area and
the greater inaccessibility of the highlands and particularly the Caribbean zone. The case studies are part of a
complex pre-Columbian archaeological landscape which is located within the little researched highlands zone of
Central Nicaragua (fig. 2.1).
The regional scale case study of the Mayales River Valley (44km2) is situated immediately north of the
modern town of Juigalpa (71,320 inhabitants) and west of the Amerrisque mountain range (fig. 2.2). The valley
is part of the Mayales river sub-basin with numerous rivers and stream connected to Lake Nicaragua running
through the area which is dominated by modern cattle ranching and pasture (Ullah 2011). The sparsely
populated area is further characterised by a rural semi-tropical savannah landscape (Kalvová 2003) with
dispersed thorny vegetation, moderate slopes and inclined bedrock formations (Taylor 1963).

2
Figure 2.2: The landscape of the Mayales River Valley (after data from PACEN).

Little is known however about the geology and soils of the valley with the only scientific surveys having been
conducted by Taylor (1959, 1963). Superficial references only indicate that the area mainly consists of
quaternary alluvium, tertiary volcanic rocks and ashes (Arengi and Hodgson 2000) with the relatively dry climate
coupled with the rich hydrology having resulted in fertile soils being mostly confined to the immediate areas
along the rivers (Taylor 1963).

Figure 2.3: The landscape of Roberto Amador. Unfortunately, the topography of the local area is yet unrecorded.

The second case study concerning the local level of analysis in this study consists of the pre-Columbian site of
Roberto Amador and its immediate landscape (1km2). The site is situated on a peninsula in the south of the
Mayales River Valley on the immediate north-western edge of Juigalpa while being bordered on its other sides
by the meandering Mayales river (fig. 2.3). Based on preliminary results, the site can be hypothesized to have
been habitational (see Donner et al. 2017), yet it is unclear whether the two mound clusters (Roberto Amador I

3
and II) are part of the same site (see Arteaga 2017; Torreggiani et al. 2018).
The site is medium-sized with a total of 30 mounds identified to date yet boasts an exceptional high
quantity of lithic and ceramic material (Torreggiani et al. 2018) and is located on an elevated highly fertile plain
(with lower areas across the river) which is in contrast with the majority of archaeological sites in the valley
being located on slopes, hills or natural rock formations (Donner et al. 2017). However, no records of its soils
existed, before the inception of fieldwork by this author for this study and the PRISMA project (Torreggiani et
al. 2018).

4
Chapter 3

The Archaeology of Nicaragua: Landscape Archaeology in a Challenging Landscape

3.1: the archaeology of human-environment relationships in Nicaragua

Addressing the engagement of pre-Columbian communities with their landscapes as evidenced through the
soils, this study will embrace four research questions at its core:

1) Are relationships of human activity with the landscape and its soils evident in the distribution of material
culture on the local level at Roberto Amador?
2) How did pre-Columbian communities in the Mayales River Valley engage with their soils as evidenced in the
archaeology of the valley?
3) Are land-use patterns unique or uniform across the site catchments of the cultural regions of Nicaragua
and can they be connected to agricultural practices?
4) To what degree is the modern landscape a reflection of pre-Columbian land-use?

These questions will be addressed through the different scales of analysis in this applied landscape archaeology
study to provide insights into the significance of soils within all levels of the landscape from the active
engagement with it to the patterning of settlements.
Previous research on these research questions is limited with systematic studies of pre-Columbian
human-environment relationships and landscape archaeology in general being sporadic and novel within
Nicaragua (van Dijk 2017; Torreggiani forthcoming). The lack of paleoenvironmental data in lower Central
America in particular is highly problematic (Balée and Erickson 2006) and it is still unclear whether climatic,
environmental and hydrological fluctuations had a major impact on pre-Columbian societies or were uncommon
(see Cooke 2005; Torreggiani et al. 2018). There have only been conducted a handful of paleoenvironmental
studies in selected areas of the country (Avnery et al. 2011; Sáez and Rueda 2007; Urquhart 1997) of which only
a very select few are related to archaeology and/or land-use (Slate et al. 2016).
Soil studies are moreover very localized and generally unrelated to archaeological inquiry and dated
(Arengi and Hodgson 2000; Taylor 1959). There are moreover very few historical references that provide further
insights in the pre-Columbian use of the landscape and its relation to modern activities (Bovallius 1886;
Fernández de Oviedo 1851). Literature on soils and archaeology within the Americas, which is already limited,
ubiquitously excludes the country and lower Central America in general (see Wingard and Hayes 2013). To the
awareness of this author, no previous studies have been conducted on the relationship of soils and archaeology
on a holistic landscape scale in Nicaragua.
The literature regarding pre-Columbian land-use activities in Nicaragua is thus ambiguous at best. Pre-
Columbian agricultural activities in the landscapes around Lake Nicaragua (Fig. 2.1) – including the Mayales River
Valley – being extensive and following patterns seen in neighbouring Mesoamerica has been alluded to (Dickau
et al. 2007; Magnus 1977; Sandweiss 2007) and even demonstrated (Slate et al. 2016) but no further
interpretation has been presented. The analysis of cores does suggest that the intensity of agricultural activity
around Lake Nicaragua was subtle and similar to current land-use practices, but shortcomings of the data have
been acknowledged (Slate et al. 2016). These interpretations have further been challenged by other scientific
non-archaeological data indicating moderate to high pre-Columbian land disturbance (Köster et al. 2005;
Potapova and Charles 2003), very likely the result of intensive agricultural activities.
Regarding the case studies, the Mayales River Valley which is situated in Chontales in Central Nicaragua
(fig. 2.1) has uncommonly been subject to an intensive archaeological programme in Nicaragua, the Proyecto
Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN) which studied the entire pre-Columbian landscape of the valley
system (Donner et al. 2018). The project has exposed a complex pre-Columbian social landscape (roughly AD
660 – contact period) with numerous archaeological sites, material culture and a total of 1,679 mounds (Donner
et al. 2018).
Nonetheless, understanding of occupation sequences and site functions is still fragmentary (Evans and
Webster 2001; Falk and Friberg 1999; Vlaskamp et al. 2014) while knowledge on the human-environment
relationships in the valley is severely limited. Apart from the ethnopedological study by van Dijk (2017) on a

5
sample of mounded sites and general observations of natural soil distributions made by the PACEN team (pers.
comm. Donner September 2018), no studies have been conducted on the relationship between the archaeology
and the soils. Landscape archaeology moreover has been limited to fieldwalking and GIS analysis with the
conspicuous absence of remote sensing techniques.
Roberto Amador moreover, being a medium-sized site in the south of this valley landscape, has seen
no previous research on human-environment relationships in Nicaragua. Besides the preliminary results of three
test-pit excavations (Torreggiani et al. 2018) and research on the classification of its mounds and fluvial changes
(see Torreggiani 2018; Torreggiani et al. 2018), little is known about its archaeology in general.
An understanding of (dis)continuity in land-use practices from the pre-Columbian period into the
modern landscape is even more fragmentary than the research on the pre-Columbian landscape with no
previous research directed specifically at this question and severely limited archaeological data on the colonial
period (see Benfer unpublished; van Broekhoven 2002). Within the Mayales River Valley for instance, local
communities identify as Chontaleños (after the municipality) or Nicaraguan rather than with their pre-
Columbian past and it is unclear whether this break is solely identity-based or also manifested in a shift in land-
use practices. Limited literature currently supports both possibilities (see Bovallius 1886, 3; Donner et al. 2017;
Slate et al. 2016).
Interestingly, although the modern landscape of Nicaragua is dominated by pasture in the central
highlands, tropical forest across the Caribbean lowlands and a mixture of agriculture and pasture in the Pacific
west (Ullah 2011), the country displays high rates of natural soil fertility throughout (fig. 3.1). Many of its soils
are however ineffectively utilized and degraded by chemical fertilizers due to the complications in the
management of the most fertile soils (Taylor 1959, 318; World Bank 2018). As vast amounts of knowledge on
complex land management have been lost all over the Americas during its colonialization which was commonly
more sophisticated, environmentally sound and culturally appropriate than western introduced systems (Davies
and M’Mbogori 2013), archaeological analysis thus further has the potential to provide valuable insights in
whether modern practices can gain from an understanding of past pre-Columbian land-use.

Figure 3.1: Soil Organic Carbon content (a strong indicator of fertility) and its
distribution throughout Nicaragua (the darker the colour, the higher the content).

6
3.2 The archaeology of Nicaragua and its challenges to land-use research
The limited research on pre-Columbian land-use in the archaeology of Nicaragua is largely the results of four issues (table
3.1) stemming from the traditional archaeological paradigm and the disconnection to the past of the region that pose a
challenge to archaeological inquiry on a landscape scale.

Challenges of Nicaraguan archaeology

1) Landscape archaeology is very rare and novel
2) Archaeological tradition is marked by a material-based paradigm focused on the site and the spectacular
3) Locals and authorities do not express an interest in their archaeological past
4) Chronologies are weakly developed and problematic

Table 3.1: the challenges of archaeology in Nicaragua and wider lower Central America.

Landscape archaeology is very uncommon in the region and systematic studies are mainly limited to the last
couple of years (Arteaga 2017; Donner et al. 2018; van Dijk 2017; Torreggiani et al. 2018) as the region suffers
from a material-based paradigm and a focus on the spectacular (Quilter 2004). Only two systematic
archaeological landscape projects have taken place in Nicaragua to date (Donner et al. 2018; Niemel 2003).
The study of archaeological landscapes is not only challenged by a lack of archaeological and
paleoenvironmental data, but moreover by the limited availability and national permission for the use of
advanced high-tech equipment, inexistence of archaeological databases, and the low resolution of data (e.g.
satellite imagery). Most problematically, the focus on traditional archaeology has further resulted in a strong
reliance on traditional excavation and site-based approaches with limited availability of non-conventional data
not directly pertaining to archaeology such as environmental and geological records and aerial imagery.
Moreover, as locals and authorities demonstrate a disinterest in the archaeological past, these issues
become part of a vicious cycle as the ‘spectacular’ is prioritized by both local authorities and archaeologists while
remaining mostly silent about the archaeological and environmental landscape these sites and monuments are
situated in (see Quintanilla 2004). This issue is reflected in the vast majority of archaeological research within
Nicaragua being directed at the Greater Nicoya region in the southwest which is characterised by an aesthetic
material culture and often related to the monumental civilizations in Mesoamerica (Lange 1984). Research in
the rest of the country is mainly limited to fieldwalking surveys, excavations and ceramic analysis (see Constenla
1994; Espinosa 1993; Geurds 2009; Hasagawi 1998; Lange et al. 1983; Rigat and Gorin 1987; Stone 1966).
In addition, the development of chronological frameworks is a problematic and ongoing event in
Nicaraguan archaeology (Donner and Geurds 2018; Lange and Stone 1984) inhibiting a diachronic approach.
Even within the Mayales River Valley, after more than a decade of intensive research, chronological sequences
are only weakly developed due to a lack of diagnostic surface material and reference systems (Geurds 2009,
2013). Consequently, these challenges inhibit a regional narrative and a holistic understanding of pre-Columbian
Nicaragua.

7
Chapter 4

The Research Framework – Overcoming the Challenges

4.1 Landscape archaeology as a methodological framework

To circumvent the challenges posed by the archaeological research traditions in Nicaragua, this study embraces
a methodology that relies on an applied landscape archaeology, synthesizing both field and desk-based methods
and techniques. The methodology comprises three scales of analysis ranging from the micro-scale concerning
the case study of Roberto Amador, to the macro-scale of the Mayales River Valley and wider Nicaragua. The
analysis throughout these different landscapes, which is grounded in spatial and statistical analysis, is integrated
within a GIS environment to foster a regional narrative (Neubauer 2004; Woodman and Woodward 2002). To
achieve successful results with this research framework, the study employs a multidisciplinary multi-method
toolset of both ground and aerial prospection combined with site catchment analysis and traditional methods
of fieldwalking – all of which are processed, modelled and analysed within ArcGIS.
Relying on soil types and indicators of fertility as proxy for land-use is moreover substantiated by the
fact that activities related to their potential such as agriculture can be evident across all levels of the
archaeological landscape (Wells et al. 2013). There are further no indications that climate and soils have changed
significantly in lower Central America since the pre-Columbian period (Cooke 2005; Lange 1984; Quintanilla
2004). Although on a local level, such processes are more influential, soil distributions at Roberto Amador are
also assumed to be relatively continuous since at least the late pre-Columbian period based on the low intensity
of land-use since colonial times and preliminary research (see Torreggiani et al. 2018).
The methodology employed here holds significant potential to circumvent the challenges posed to
conventional archaeological research within Nicaragua. Applying comparable elements of this methodology,
several studies have for instance achieved significant results in the Amazonian basin where traditional
archaeology is equally challenged (see Erickson 2000; Heckenberger et al. 2007; Roosevelt 1991). Four specific
qualities of landscape archaeology support its potential.
First, landscape archaeology allows a multi-scalar approach due to the flexibility of its methods which
can be applied on scales ranging from the local landscape to the analysis of an entire continent (Crumley 1995;
Hu 2011). The GIS environment furthermore allows these different layers of analysis to be connected (Allen
2000). Providing a regional narrative on multiple levels, the methodology will furthermore allow the research to
step away from the material-based archaeology.
Second, the multi-temporal analysis being permitted by the aerial prospection and GIS environment
further allow the past and present landscape to be studied together, thus making patterns of continuity and
contrasts immediately evident (Wheatley and Gillings 2002). This is a particularly valuable quality of landscape
archaeology as the different periods (pre-Columbian, colonial and modern) are traditionally studied in isolation
of each other (see Benfer unpublished; Lange and Stone 1984).
Third, the multidisciplinary character of the field offers the opportunity to borrow methods from other
fields and employ unconventional data such as machine learning soil distributions, Synthetic Aperture Radar and
the results of the Global Soil Organic Carbon project which foster the generation of alternative archaeologies
with novel and comprehensive perspectives regarding the relationship of pre-Columbian communities to their
landscape (see Schmidt and Patterson 1995, 23-24). Ultimately, the multidisciplinarity of the methodology
presented here allows the study of land-use throughout Nicaragua without the availability of conventional
datasets such as paleoenvironmental data (see Rostain 2013; van Dijk 2017).
Lastly, this methodology will allow decentralization and de-isolation of the site and the spectacular,
addressing both the material culture and the blanks in the landscape (Hooke 2000) with equal regard for both
the elite and common people of pre-Columbian Nicaragua (Aston 1993). Thus, presenting a more holistic
perspective on the pre-Columbian relationship with the landscape.

4.2 The methods and their caveats

In order for each level of analysis to be feasible and effective, the methodology employed in this study has been
tailored with specific methods to the three different scales of analysis. While the approach throughout this study
relies on spatial and statistical analysis within a GIS environment, the local micro-scale of analysis is specifically
built on a fieldwalking and collection survey conducted by this author, the regional macro-scale of analysis relies

8
on novel aerial prospection and data from previous survey work (Arteaga 2017; Donner et al. 2018), with the
macroregional analysis lastly being based on site catchment analysis.
On the local scale, systematic fieldwalking of Roberto Amador and its immediate hinterlands (1km 2)
was at the core of the fieldwork, with a sample strategy of 40m intervals and intensive collection of material
within a 1m radius of the sample points. The fieldwork was very low-tech with sample points being located with
hand-held GPS (error +/- 5m) after which the area was cleared of vegetation, material collected, and soil,
environmental qualities and formation processes recorded (see figure A in the appendix).
As scientific data on geology and soil types in the area is extremely fragmentary (Donner et al. 2017),
the soils were recorded on the basis of ethnopedological knowledge (i.e. the local system of soil classification)
by two local workers assisting the survey. As this ethnographic taxonomy is grounded in deep-time knowledge,
partially based on the functionality of soils and a local reference system has been constructed (van Dijk 2017),
the archaeological material distributions could be very effectively related to the potential of the soils, indicating
patterns of land-use (see Barrera-Bassols et al. 2006; Church et al. 2000). However, it should be noted that local
terminologies are often based on the topsoil (Krasilnikov and Tabor 2003) and prone to inconsistences (Barrera-
Bassols and Zinck 2003). Nonetheless, as ethnopedological knowledge has been successfully applied to
archaeological features in the Mayales River Valley before (van Dijk 2017), its potential on a landscape level is
promising.
The sampling strategy employed at the fieldwork project thus has the benefit of allowing the
visualization of relationships between archaeology and the soils, avoiding subjectivity (see Boismier 1991) by
investigating all areas of the landscape including both ‘blanks’ and archaeological features, and lastly factoring
out common issues such as visibility and experience in recognizing archaeological material (see Schofield 1991)
through the intensive clearance and recording of the sample points. This approach moreover provided an ideal
cost-benefit balance, as due to circumstances beyond control only two and a half weeks were available for the
fieldwork.
As the local landscape is not ploughed and fieldwalking is often lacking attention to the taphonomy of
landscape itself (Allen 1991) and prone to misrepresentations because of cultural and natural formation
processes (Schiffer 1987; Schofield 1991) – especially in areas of greater natural activity such as Roberto Amador
– modern disturbance, erosion and degree of slopes have been recorded and mapped to allow the integration
of these processes in the post-processing of the data in an attempt to mitigate bias in the outcome of the
fieldwork.
On a regional level, the analysis of the relationships of pre-Columbian archaeology with the soils is
mainly based on the existing data on material culture distribution collected by PACEN (Donner et al. 2018), the
limited data available on soils within the valley (Arteaga 2017; van Dijk 2017) and remote sensing data gathered
by this author, ranging from satellite imagery to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The availability of JERS-1 L-band
data (25m resolution), in particular, is promising for the analysis of soil qualities throughout the valley due to its
topsoil penetration capability (El-Baz 1998; Tapete and Cigna 2017) and potential to measure subsurface
moisture levels and sedimentation (Fung and Ulaby 1983; Holcomb 1992). Thus, being very effective in
visualizing paleolandscapes (see Adams et al. 1981; Kurtcebe et al. 2010; Lasaponara and Masini 2013) and
relationships between soil potential and land-use. Although such complex remote sensing techniques generally
require vast experience in their interpretation, the L-band data has the advantage of being significantly less
prone to caveats such as shadowing and phenomenologies influencing the return signal (Holcomb and Shingiray
2007). The assistance of the Earth Observation Research Center (JAXA-EORC) further assured its correct use in
this study.
Lastly, site catchment analysis is at the core of the macroregional scale of this study. This method not
only allows the integration of different datasets across the region (Williams 2004) but further is an effective
strategy to indicate the relationship between site locations and the soil distributions in their catchments (see
Chang and Koster 1986; Dibyopama 2010; Ullah 2011). However, there are several caveats that need to be
considered. First, the method is prone to generalization and reductionism in removing the subtleties of the
landscape while soils have commonly very localized characteristics which might make them more, or les suitable
to certain land-uses (Parikh and James 2012). Other factors accounting for the location of sites, such as access
to water are moreover neglected (Renfrew and Bahn 2005). Second, relying on Euclidian distances further
makes the analysis on this scale feasible but further ignores obstacles in the landscape (Seitsonen et al. 2014).
Third, the inherent Central Place Theory of site catchment analysis assumes the proximity of agricultural

9
activities to the sites (Metcalfe and Barlow 1992).
To address these issues, the site catchment analysis will be conducted on 1km and 5km catchments and
confined to sedentary settlement sites1 to allow the visualization of the relationship with the soils in those places
where they can be expected to be evident with subsistence being a key land-use factor and agricultural activities
being common within these distances (McAnany 1993; Roosevelt 1991; Vita-Finzi 1977). The extensive sample
size (+/- 4000 settlements) and different catchment scales will further decrease the influence of chance and bias
and allow the consideration of obstacles such as elevation decreasing site catchments. Mitigating reductionism
and generalisation is further attempted by respecting the main geographical and cultural zones of the Pacific,
Highlands and Caribbean (Lange and Stone 1984). The influence of other factors in settlement locations can be
further acknowledged on the basis of the results of the local and regional levels of analysis.

4.3 Theoretical caveats

Besides the methodological issues that could arise in the analysis, the non-critical application of GIS,
environmental determinism and generalization are the main theoretical elements that can bias the outcome
and interpretation of the analysis (see Johnson 2007).
Most critically, not only the macroregional scale of analysis is prone to generalization and reductionism,
but this study as a whole is as well. The limited data on land-use and the paleoenvironment and the scale of this
study jeopardizes conclusions to be superficial, generalising and reductionistic. While the multi-method and
multi-scalar analysis of this study will mitigate this caveat (see Woodman and Woodward 2002) and the diversity
of the environmental and archaeological landscapes of Nicaragua is partially acknowledged in the macroregional
consideration of its main geographical and cultural zones (Pacific, Highlands, Caribbean), the limits to the
conclusions that can be derived from the outcome of this study need to be acknowledged to avoid meaningless
and weak interpretations.
Moreover, the study of human-environment relationships is prone to fall prey to environmental
determinism (Livingstone 2012). Although, in the course of this study, care has been taken to weigh in multiple
factors to avoid deterministic conclusions, environmental determinism cannot be avoided completely at this
stage as knowledge on cultural factors is limited (Donner et al. 2018; McCafferty 2010).
In addition, erroneous non-critical and atheoretical analysis is a worryingly common issue in the
application of GIS (Brouwer Burg 2017; Eiteljorg 2000). To acknowledge the drawbacks and limits of this
technology, care has been taken in acquiring data from varying professional sources while building on multiple
variables and techniques of analysis with control studies. Inter-comparison and interpretation of the results
further respect the limits of the technology in regard to the data being available (see Ebert 2000).
Nonetheless, the premise of this study relies on an informed assumption that relationships of pre-
Columbian communities with their soils throughout Nicaragua demonstrate a degree of homogeneity (see Lange
and Stone 1984). Should this premise prove incorrect, the analysis will still provide valuable data on the actual
nature of these relationships within at least Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley.

1
As no data is available on the site type of the Mayan sites, only those classified as rank 1 and 2 in size have been considered to ensure a
convincing likelihood of the vast majority of those sites having been settlements. This has been tested and confirmed with the catchments
of the lower ranked sites not demonstrating patterns in soil distributions, while the sample dataset of rank 1 and 2 sites demonstrates
clear discrepancies between natural soil distributions and the cultural site catchments.

10
Chapter 5

Roberto Amador – Micro-scale Analysis in a Highly Fertile Landscape

5.1 The context of the archaeological distributions

As mentioned before, no previous research has been conducted on pre-Columbian land-use and soil distribution
at Roberto Amador. The fieldwork indicated that as expected, both natural and cultural formation processes
have strongly influenced the presence of surface material at Roberto Amador. Only 18% of all the archaeological
surface material at Roberto Amador is accounted for by the 12% of sample points (26% containing surface
material) in areas with very little formation processes. Contrastingly, 53% of the material has been found in
areas with strong formation processes which account for 18% of all sample points (35% containing surface
material).
However, as rates of disturbance are relatively equally spread across the study area (fig. 5.1) and
material distributions appear spatially largely indifferent to these processes (fig. 5.2) the results of the fieldwork
are expected to be fairly representative for the subsurface archaeology. Nonetheless, the analysis in this chapter
is informed both by the original dataset and a control study of a manipulated dataset including only those
locations that are expected to be comparable in their reflection of the subsurface archaeology due to strong
rates of formation processes. Moreover, quantitative distribution patterns have been visualized with kriging
techniques to interpolate those areas which are subject to less disturbance.

Figure 5.1: Rates of formation processes and their distribution across the sample locations of Roberto Amador.

As Roberto Amador comprises a dominantly alluvial landscape with the last significant change in the course of
the surrounding Mayales river being dated around 1300-1400 AD (Torreggiani et al. 2018) and preliminary
ceramic analysis (Torreggiani et al. 2018) indicating the majority of ceramic surface material to be confined to
800-1350 AD – the patterns discerned and results in this chapter are assumed to relate mainly to the later pre-
Columbian period.

5.2 Roberto Amador: patterns in the landscape

To understand the relationship of the archaeological material to the soils, it is first essential to understand the
archaeology itself as no previous research on material culture distributions has been conducted. In terms of

11
quantitative distributions, the archaeological material follows the general patterns across the southern half of
the Mayales River Valley (see Donner et al. 2018). Roberto Amador demonstrates a strong concentration of
chipped stone which comprises 51% of the 713 finds recorded, closely followed by ceramics (44%). The other
five percent consist of ground stone (1%), obsidian (only 0.2%) and mortar (4%). Concerning the sample locations
with surface material, 79% contain chipped stone (2.2% obsidian) and 53% contains ceramics, with mortar
(9.6%), ground stone (8.5%) and obsidian (2.2%) being far less common. Mortar is a problematic category
however as its identification as archaeological requires a specialist, yet as it is found in locations far from modern
households as well, this category is included in the analysis – albeit with caution. In addition, bone and shell
material has been found solely around the modern farm with further analysis of the material yet to be conducted
before it could be identified as archaeological and is therefore excluded from the analysis of this study.
Regarding the qualitative distributions, surface material scatters are extensive along most of the
peninsula with several strong concentrations yet very few beyond the Mayales river (fig. 5.2). There is however
a surprising blank in the centre of the peninsula that can cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of
formation processes alone.

Figure 5.2: Quantitative (left) and qualitative (right) spatial distributions at Roberto Amador. Several paleochannels can be
recognized by thin lines of trees.

The majority of archaeological material is located near the river banks, which although partially the result of
erosion and fluvial dynamics appears to reflect the regional pattern (see Donner et al. 2017) of pre-Columbian
activity being strongest near waterways as not only many finds are located in relatively undisturbed areas but
more interestingly, the few materials found east of the river follow the course of paleochannels (fig. 5.2). The
largest concentration being situated adjacent to the modern farm is, however, most likely an artefact of modern
disturbance with the vast majority of material having been collected from a road-cut.
Interestingly, although the areas around the mounds present large concentrations of material, their
direct surroundings are very sparse in archaeological material. Although low formation processes contribute,
the pattern correlates with 65.4% of mounds in the Mayales River Valley not yielding any surface material
(Donner et al. 2017). The area adjacent to the river in between Roberto Amador I and II contrastingly
demonstrates a continuing pattern of dense material scatters, supporting the hypothesis that the two clusters
are part of the same site (with mounds potentially being buried by alluvium).

12
Analysis of the mound clusters of Roberto Amador I and II and their immediate area (+/- 5m) further suggests
similar site functions related to the production of chipped stone which comprises the majority of their surface
material (respectively 82% and 89%) while only being present on 39.4% of mounds in the Mayales River Valley
(Donner et al. 2017).
However, although equal in formation processes and qualitative distributions, intensity of human
activity appears significantly higher at Roberto Amador II (11 mounds) exhibiting a total of 22 finds (82% chipped
stone) as opposed to Roberto Amador I (17 mounds) with only 9 finds (89% chipped stone). These different
intensities are reflected in the wider areas around the mound clusters as well with twice as many finds near
Roberto Amador II.
The concentration in the lower south-east of the study area is more enigmatic, presenting the only large
quantity of material located outside the peninsula. Although fluvial dynamics of the Mayales river (Torreggiani
et al. 2018) and multiple paleochannels suggest that this area could have been part of the peninsula during pre-
Columbian occupation, the distinct distribution of archaeological material (64% chipped stone, 36% ceramics)
within an area smaller than the mound clusters of Roberto Amador I and II is noteworthy and could indicate the
presence of a non-mounded site. This interpretation is further supported by a presence of early pre-Columbian
worked chipped stone (pers. comm. Samuel Castillo January 2018) and the fact that early sites in the Mayales
River Valley are often devoid of archaeological features and located on the banks of rivers (Donner et al. 2017).
In addition, a new mounded site that has been discovered during the fieldwalking survey (immediately
outside the survey area in the southwest) does not exhibit any surface material in between its mounds and
Roberto Amador, which supports the hypothesis by Alejandro Arteaga (Torreggiani et al. 2018) that this site
would (also) predate Roberto Amador. Further research is however required to establish this with certainty.

Figure 5.3: The spatial distributions at Roberto Amador of all the material categories.

Regarding the individual categories of material culture at Roberto Amador (fig. 5.3) it is noteworthy that while
the majority of find locations include both ceramics and chipped stone, the former is mostly concentrated in

13
areas adjacent to the mound clusters and in between Roberto Amador I and II along the riverbank. This pattern
is strikingly similar to the other sites in the south of the valley hypothesized as habitational (Donner et al. 2017).
Chipped stone on the other hand sees a more extensive spread throughout the study area (fig. 5.3).
The strongest densities of chipped stone are located near the two mound clusters and the potential non-
mounded site, further supporting the interpretation of the latter and the function of Roberto Amador being
related to lithic production. Obsidian, however, has only been found twice and in both cases far from the core
of Roberto Amador (fig. 5.3).
Ground stone – mainly related to food processing (hammerstones and metates) – is closely connected
with hydrology and located almost exclusively around the edges of the peninsula, across the Mayales river and
its paleochannels (fig. 5.3). Strikingly, the spatial distribution of ground stone is highly distinct in being mainly
located in isolation in areas without other material nearby. The two largest concentrations of mortar in contrast
show a conspicuous relationship with the mound clusters in each being located around 200m southeast of
respectively Roberto Amador I and II (fig. 5.3), strengthening their identification as archaeological material.

5.3 Roberto Amador: patterns in relation to the soils

As stated before, the local landscape of Roberto Amador boasts a highly fertile environment with its meandering
Mayales river, multiple paleochannels and alluvial soils. The mapping of the local soil distribution demonstrates
a strong relationship between the archaeological distributions discussed above and soil potential (fig. 5.4).

Figure 5.4: Concentrations of material culture and soil distributions at Roberto Amador. See van Dijk (2017) for further
information on the characteristics of the soil types.

Constituting the vast majority (fig. 5.5) of the soil distribution are arenoso (40.9%); a sandy unfertile soil with
little functional potential, tierra negra (37.9%); a highly fertile soil very effective for agriculture and barrial
(12.5%); a soil very ineffective for agriculture (see van Dijk 2017). The latter, however, only amounts to 3.8% of
the surface material while 93% of its total soil area is devoid of archaeology. Arenoso with 34.5% of all material
culture also sees less material than expected (accounting for only 29.8% of all sample locations with
archaeology), while tierra negra with 52.9% of all collected material (across 49% of sample locations with

14
archaeology) appears a preferred soil type for human activity 2 in the pre-Columbian landscape.
The other soil types present at Roberto Amador (see fig. 5.4) will not be considered in this study as they
only cover a total of 6.3% of the study area and represent an insufficient sample size, further lacking any surface
material or conspicuous patterns.
Regarding the qualitative spatial distributions, the majority of locations with arenoso soils are peculiarly
devoid of surface material with concentrations being only present near the edge of tierra negra soils or
paleochannels (fig. 5.4). The only exceptions are the area of the modern farmhouse which as discussed earlier
is likely heavily biased by formation processes and the potential non-mounded site in the southeast which is
located entirely on arenoso soils and further supports the hypothesis of the site predating Roberto Amador (see
Donner et al. 2017). Disregarding these locations in the results, there is strong shift in the pattern visible with
60% of all material culture being located on tierra negra and only 25% on arenoso (across 41% of the landscape).
Thus, the results indicate a potential shift in land-use in the later pre-Columbian landscape with an intensifying
relationship with soil fertility that could most logically be explained by agricultural activities (McKey et al. 2010).

Figure 5.5: The natural soil distribution at Roberto Amador (left) in relation to the archaeological material present (right) as
seen among the three most present soils.

This hypothesis is further supported by the mound clusters of Roberto Amador being situated centrally on the
tierra negra plain of the peninsula with patches of barrial and arenoso in between being almost devoid of any
surface archaeology (fig. 5.4). Interestingly, the mounds themselves appear to have been constructed out of a
different soil (Torreggiani 2018) which could be lanilla as interpreted by van Dijk (2017) – a soil commonly used
as construction material at other sites in the Mayales River Valley.
This would connote that these soils likely have been imported for the construction of the mounds as
none have been identified within the immediate landscape of Roberto Amador – a pattern which could be
evident at other sites in the valley as well as only the mounds and their direct areas have been sampled in the
ethnopedological study of the area (pers. comm. Kaz van Dijk August 2018).

Material type Tierra Negra Arenoso Barrial Grava Arena

Chipped Stone 52.3% 31.4% 5.1% 3.5% 1.4%
Ceramics 48.9% 47.5% 2.2% 1.2% 0.0%
Ground Stone 33.3% 22.2% 11.1% 11.1% 0.0%
Mortar 50.0% 7.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Table 5.1: Distribution of the categories of archaeological material amongst the most common soil types with archaeology.

Considering the categories of material culture and their quantitative distributions (table 5.1), ceramics are
distributed surprisingly equal over tierra negra and arenoso soils and do not demonstrate any obvious

2
As represented in the material culture.

15
relationships with the soil potentials. Chipped stone in contrast demonstrates a peculiarly strong dominance on
tierra negra. Notwithstanding the majority being located on tierra negra and arenoso, chipped stone is spatially
much more spread out over various soil types (11 in total) than ceramic material (5 in total). Mortar likewise
demonstrates a strong relationship with the fertile tierra negra soils. It is striking, however, that 38% of mortar
(mainly burned clay) is located in the only location identified as arcilla (i.e. ‘clay’) which is a source for raw
material and could be reflecting the production of mortar (e.g. bricks) in mainly the south of Roberto Amador I
and II. Ground stone, in contrast, sees a relatively even spread over the different soil types.
In addition, the relative absence of material on barrial is noteworthy, while grava (i.e. gravel) and arena
(i.e. riverbank pure sand) see relatively high distributions of chipped stone which can be related to these areas
acting as source for raw material and processing of lithics (pers. comm. Samuel Castillo January 2018).
The dominance of archaeological material on tierra negra soils is even higher when considering the
qualitative spatial distribution (fig. 5.6) with 50% of the sample locations with ceramic material and 49% of
chipped stone being located on tierra negra soils (against respectively 38% and 30% on arenoso). Find locations
with mortar moreover identify for 56% with tierra negra soils (against 22% on arenoso), while ground stone
again represents a more equal distribution along tierra negra (25%) and arenoso (25%) and is thus likely to be
correlated with the course of paleochannels as referred to earlier rather than with specific soil types.

Figure 5.6: Qualitative distributions of archaeological material in relation to the three most common soils
represented in percentages of the total locations with material culture.

As interesting as the spatial distributions are, the blanks are equally significant indicators of pre-Columbian land-
use dynamics corresponding strongly to the soil distributions. The general absence of material culture despite
widespread modern disturbance in the north-eastern segment of the survey area, for instance – which is part of
a large alluvial plain covering the central area of the Mayales River Valley and hypothesized as a seasonal lake
or swamp – does support this hypothesis. However, it is worth noting that this area is dominated by barrial and
cascajo (the fourth most common soil type – comprising only 2.7% of the study area and mostly used for grazing
(NCSS 1997) and could thus have been avoided for their low functionality as well.
The strong relationship between hydrology, soil fertility and human activity is particularly evident in the
blanks of the landscape as well as the lack of material in the central area of the peninsula and across the Mayales
river in the east and west further corresponds strongly to the distribution of arenoso and barrial (fig. 5.2 and
5.4), which are arguably the least fertile and ineffective soils for agriculture in the area (see van Dijk 2017). As
seen in the rate of formation processes (fig. 5.1) and the fact that material distributions are also present in lower
areas of the study area, this relationship can be understood as culturally intentional.
This conspicuous correlation between archaeology and soil fertility is moreover demonstrated in the
vast majority of material culture being located within the highly fertile alluvial zone which covers the peninsula
and west of the study area (fig. 5.4) as mapped by Alejandro Arteaga (unpublished). Meanwhile, the entire east

16
of the study area across the Mayales river (outside this fertile zone) sees almost no indicators of pre-Columbian
human activity, except along its paleochannels (fig. 5.2).
Other qualities regarding the soils such as composition do suggest that there was a preference at
Roberto Amador for soils mixed with stones as 35.8% of the material culture is located on soils with stone-
sediment and sediment-stone compositions which only comprise 9.3% of the total study area. This pattern could
be attributed to the fact that archaeological material is more likely to erode to the surface in such compositions,
but simultaneously reflects the dominance of such compositions (76.5%) in the mound distributions across the
Mayales River Valley (Arteaga 2017).

5.4 The past and present at Roberto Amador

While only little can be said about evidence for (dis)continuity on such a local level and with the data at hand,
the fieldwalking results of this local landscape significantly point towards a distinct pre-Columbian land-use that
was highly dependent on soil fertility and hydrology in a landscape that is today covered almost entirely by
pasture. The strong relationship of lithic material with soil fertility while ceramic material presents a much more
indifferent distribution, however, is in stark contrast with conventional indicators for agricultural activities and
the common use of the latter as soil fertilizer (Lehmann et al. 2003).
Although these patterns could be interpreted as a product of chance and relationships with the soils
being secondary in pre-Columbian activities at Roberto Amador, it is striking that lithic material can be very
effective as mulch in an alternative agricultural strategy uniquely suited to the constraints of dryland
environments such as present in the Mayales River Valley (see Lightfoot and Eddy 1994) which would further
explain the distribution of chipped stone being so extensively spread out at Roberto Amador and the apparent
preference for stone-sediment and sediment-stone compositions.
There are in fact multiple examples of lithic mulch having been used in gardens and agricultural fields
to bolster the soil productivity, moisture and temperature and reduce erosion in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican
and North American societies (Anschuetz and Maxwell 1986; Lightfoot 1996; Lightfoot and Eddy 1994; Lohse
and Findlay 2000) yet surprisingly this land management strategy has to date not been mentioned nor identified
in Nicaragua or lower Central America to this author’s knowledge. This interpretation is further strengthened by
lithic production sites in humid tropical zones in lower Central America not demonstrating a relationship
between soil fertility and chipped stone material (Mason 2008) and tierra negra being correlated to black
tropical soils which are highly effective for intensive agriculture but in need of complex management during dry
periods (Taylor 1965, 317).
Thus, the relationship with soil fertility can be most confidently explained by Roberto Amador having
functioned as both a lithics and agricultural production site with its pre-Columbian inhabitants using the lithic
residues and discarded material to practice an intensive and complex land management strategy throughout
the fertile areas of the landscape. Alternatively, the site might have seen at least two distinct phases with an
early non-mounded phase dominated by lithics production and activities near the rivers and streams related to
processing of raw material as seen in other areas of the Mayales River Valley (Donner et al. 2017) and a second
phase that saw a new focus on agricultural activities besides the continued lithic production.
Either way, the pre-Columbian inhabitants of Roberto Amador showcased a thorough understanding of
their environment and soils. Further archaeological fieldwork is necessary, however, to confirm or disprove
these hypotheses.
Regardless of the distinct pre-Columbian land-use patterns, there is also continuity evident in the
modern landscape such as seen in the location of settlement with the two modern farms in the study area being
located directly adjacent to the Roberto Amador I and II (fig. 2.3). Most interestingly, the in-depth knowledge of
soil qualities appears to be continuous in the modern ethnopedological taxonomies correlating with the
distributions of archaeological material. Nonetheless, the only areas of modern cultivation are in fact located in
the zones of arenoso across the Mayales river and land management strategies such as lithic mulching are not
practiced in the modern landscape.

17
Chapter 6

The Mayales River Valley – Land-use and (Dis)continuity in a Nicaraguan Valley System

6.1 The Mayales River Valley and its soils

To further understand the complexity of relationships between pre-Columbian soils and human activity, the
Mayales River Valley which Roberto Amador is part of (fig. 6.1) will be analysed in this chapter3 to identify
whether the patterns seen at the local level are evident in material culture and settlement patterns on a regional
scale as well.
Although knowledge on soil distributions in the study area is very limited, 250m resolution TAXNWRB
machine learning data by ISRIC (Hengl 2017), general observations by the PACEN team (pers. comm. Natalia
Donner September 2018) and the sample study of mounds by van Dijk (2017) all indicate the valley to consist
mainly out of soils that are of low fertility and limited suitability to agriculture.

Figure 6.1: the Mayales River Valley with the recorded main soil characteristics (after data from PACEN).

The detailed distribution of soils is however ambiguous and needs further research. Machine learning data
suggests vertisols (the scientific equivalent of barrial) to cover over 80% of the study area and is being supported
by the presence of the large barrial alluvial plain in the centre of the valley (fig. 6.1). General fieldwalking
observations have led to the conclusion of lanilla – a soil effective for construction but with limited fertility and
potential for agriculture – being dominant in the valley (~60%) and particularly in the north as supported by the
sample study of mounds. Both results, however, indicate the distribution of fertile soils suitable to agriculture
to be highly localized and mainly limited to the immediate areas of riverbanks (see Donner et al. 2017).
Strikingly, previous surveys by PACEN have mapped two relatively large and uncommon fertile alluvial
plains (Zone A and B) in the south of the valley (comprising 5.6% of the Mayales River Valley) on which Roberto
Amador is located as well (fig. 6.1) which are the most fertile and suitable areas to agriculture in the valley
currently recorded and most likely consist primarily out of tierra negra/black tropical soils (pers. comm.
Alejandro Arteaga January 2018).
Therefore, the analysis in this chapter will be mainly focusing on these zones in relation to the rest of

3
The archaeological data analysed in this chapter is provided by Alejandro Arteaga and Natalia Donner with the courtesy of PACEN. Any
other data is sourced and/or produced by this author.

18
the valley and its main hypothetical division of a northern (ritual) and southern (settlement) zone (see Donner
et al. 2017) to further understand the relationship between soil fertility and human activity on a regional level
in the Mayales River Valley.

6.2 Soil fertility and pre-Columbian engagement with the fertile alluvial zones
Interestingly, these fertile alluvial zones boast one of the highest densities (110 per km2) of archaeological
material clusters per square kilometre (fig. 6.2). As the material densities have been recorded qualitatively as
locations of material concentrations (with 20m intervals) rather than quantitatively (see Donner et al. 2017) it is
important to realize that the results in this chapter do reflect spatial distributions rather than actual quantities
of material as at Roberto Amador. This does however not inhibit the regional scale of analysis in this chapter as
the quantitative patterns of material culture recorded in Roberto Amador by this author are relatively congruous
with the qualitative observations by the earlier regional PACEN surveys (see Donner et al. 2018). The sites and
mounds, moreover, have been recorded quantitatively (Arteaga 2017).

Figure 6.2: the average density of material culture clusters within the valley against the distributions in the alluvial zones and
the rest of the south.

As seen in the diagram (fig. 6.2) both the number of sites (3 per km2) and mounds (80 per km2) are significantly
higher than would be expected for such a small area. Moreover, a fourth of the sites in the valley and 75% in the
south are located within a 500m catchment of these fertile alluvial zones (33.8% of all mounds in the valley and
95.6% in the south). However, standing out most is the concentration of clusters of material culture within the
alluvial zones (110 against an average of 22 per km2). Ceramics in particular exhibit a proportionally high
presence in relation to the average in the north and south of the valley, accounting for 43% of the material
culture in these zones (43%) against an average of 25.4% in the entire valley.
Another conspicuous pattern is the five times higher presence of ground stone material clusters in these
fertile alluvial plains (17 per km2) with many having been identified as food processing or agricultural tools
(Donner et al. 2017), while petroglyphs (not visualized here) which are associated with ritual activities and
dominant in the norther zone of the valley (Donner et al. 2018) comprise only 2.8% of these fertile alluvial plains
– which is more than 50% below the average of the valley.
Interestingly, akin to patterns at Roberto Amador, the clusters of ceramic (48 per km 2) and ground
stone material (17 per km2) are moreover not only most present within the alluvial zones but, where occurring
outside these areas, they are located directly along the rivers and paleochannels. Equally similar to Roberto
Amador, chipped stone clusters (44 per km2) are more extensively spread out in the immediate areas (+/- 500m)
beyond these fertile alluvial zones and further away from rivers which again could be explained by the lithic

19
mulching strategy being applied to retain soil moisture and/or improve fertility in those areas.
Although the results indicate a clear focus of pre-Columbian human activity in the valley (as evidenced
by the material culture) having been centred on these fertile areas in the landscape, further analysis of the
individual zones in the below is pivotal to better understand why they have been targeted.
Regardless of its smaller size, there is a clear dominance of archaeological activity and mound
construction present in zone B (fig. 6.3). The presence of ground stone clusters is moreover almost four times
higher as at zone A (38 against 10 per km2) while the average in the valley is as little as 3 per km 2. At zone A
meanwhile, the presence of material culture and particularly chipped stone is proportionally higher than at zone
B (2.4 clusters per mound against 0.8) when accounting for the size of the sites in zone A (38 mounds per km 2)
and zone B (203 mounds per km2).

Figure 6.3: archaeological distributions at zone A and B of the fertile alluvial plains.

The considerable higher distributions of material culture and particularly ceramics and ground stone at both
zones in comparison to the other areas of the valley, coupled with the results of the previous chapter, supports
the interpretation of these areas as habitational and production centres.
The differences among zone A and B, however, allude to different primary site functions. Although both
zones appear to have been production centres of ceramics and chipped stone material (fig. 6.2), zone A identifies
primarily as a centre of lithic production, as is evident in the smaller sites with a proportionally higher presence
of lithics – which is as seen in the previous chapter even higher within the site of Roberto Amador itself. Zone B
on the other hand, appears primarily as a site for settlement and subsistence activities as evidenced by the
significantly high density of mounds and relatively equal distribution of material culture.

6.3 Soil fertility and pre-Columbian engagement with the Mayales River Valley landscape
Although the archaeology demonstrates a core focus of pre-Columbian activity related to settlement and
subsistence practices within the most fertile zones of the Mayales River Valley in both density of sites and
material culture, this pattern alone is not sufficient in indicating whether these zones were selected purposively
for the quality of their fertile soils. Aerial prospection however, can provide further insights in the significance
of soil qualities throughout the Mayales River Valley.
Taking into account retained soil moisture levels (which can be related directly to soil fertility) as
measured through JERS-1 L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data at 25m resolution which visualizes

20
moisture levels and sedimentation by penetrating the topsoil4 (Gaber et al. 2017; Holcomb and Shingiray 2007,
23), does in fact indicate a strong relationship between pre-Columbian activity in the landscape and the quality
of the soils in terms of their agricultural potential (fig. 6.4).

Figure 6.4: Relationships between archaeology and soil moisture levels as recorded by L-band JERS-1 SAR (JAXA-EORC 1996).
The values (which on their own are meaningless) are deviations from the average moisture levels across the Mayales River
Valley. The lower the values, the more moisture is being retained in the sub-soil.

Strikingly, the distribution of material culture in relation to the moisture levels of the soils illustrates a clear
discrepancy between the north and south of the valley – thus further supporting the interpretation of these
areas in a ritual north and south – while the two main fertile alluvial zones remain standing out. Moreover, it is
noteworthy that the majority of archaeological activity is located in those areas demonstrating higher levels of
soil moisture with the location of mounds being particularly targeted at areas with high soil moisture.
Surprisingly, however, the southern area excluding the two main alluvial zones exhibits lower soil
moisture in the area than the rest of the valley – further supporting the concentration of archaeological activity
in these zones. Regardless, the location of mounds in the south appears to have been chosen intentionally in
relation to the soil qualities of the two main alluvial zones as they exhibit a substantially higher average in those
areas with high moisture levels.
Although the location of mounds in the fertile alluvial zones is relatively comparable to the rest of the
valley, the material culture exhibits an excessively higher presence on soils with high moisture levels. The
significant divergence in the locations of chipped stone in the fertile alluvial zones can partially be explained by
the function of its sites as lithic production centre but can simultaneously be an indicator for widespread lithic
mulch practices as well as can be expected in light of the results from the previous chapter. The relatively higher
presence of ground stone across all areas of the valley with human activity is a further indication of agricultural
practices as these materials are, as mentioned in the above, directly related to subsistence production.
Regarding the areas devoid of archaeology in the Mayales River Valley, it is moreover telling that those
areas with the lowest levels of soil moisture (15-54% below the average of locations with archaeological material
clusters) are those that do not exhibit any archaeology at all (fig. 6.5) – not even chipped stone which is
extensively spread across most of the valley regardless of elevation or proximity to waterways. The few other
areas without archaeological material that do express high levels of soil moisture appear largely complicated in
their soil potentials by steep elevations (fig. 2.2) and could be further explained by the presence of soils with
low functionality such as barrial and arenoso as seen at Roberto Amador.
Thus, soil qualities regarding fertility across the Mayales River Valley such as moisture levels further
indicate the significance that soils had in the engagement of pre-Columbian communities with their landscape.

4
Although soil moisture levels are likely to have changed through time, there are several indications that the study area sees a relative
continuity with at least the late pre-Columbian climatic and physical landscape (Cooke 2005; Slate et al. 2016).

21
Moreover, the aerial remote sensing SAR data further supports the interpretation of the fertile alluvial zones to
have been targeted for their soil qualities rather than any other factors and the expected dominance of pre-
Columbian agricultural activities in those zones. In fact, the Mayales River Valley as a whole appears to be one
of the most fertile areas in the wider municipality on the basis of its soil moisture levels (see JAXA-EORC 1996).

Figure 6.5: soil moisture levels as visualized by L-band JERS-1 SAR overlain with pre-Columbian archaeological remains. The
lower (darker) the value the higher the levels of moisture.

However, to further confirm the strong relationship between pre-Columbian activity and the soils, the two other
most influential factors5 – hydrology and elevation – should be considered.

6.4 Hydrology and the archaeological landscape of the Mayales River Valley
As proximity to water sources is naturally essential to the location of settlement and the majority of activities
(Renfrew and Bahn 2005), it is not surprising that the archaeological sites in the Mayales River Valley are
generally within 500 meters of rivers and streams (van Dijk 2017). Nonetheless, hydrology is abundant
throughout the valley and there are many locations with similar river networks as the fertile alluvial zones A and
B which do not exhibit pre-Columbian concentrations of sites and material culture.
Interestingly, although the strong relationship between hydrology and archaeology is apparent in both
the location of mounds and material culture (fig. 6.6), the patterns in the south and within the alluvial zones do
not exhibit a positive discrepancy with the averages across the valley. Instead, they even demonstrate a lesser
proximity between hydrological sources and the sites and mounds themselves (35% below average). The higher
proximity of archaeological material outside the alluvial zones further supports the targeting of these areas not
to have been primarily influenced by the hydrology.
Although activity within the Mayales River Valley is in many other areas than the fertile alluvial zones
in fact located in close proximity with the waterways (with 78% of all material culture within 200 meters), the
high rate of archaeological material clusters within 100-200m distance from the rivers (accounting for 70% of
the ceramic material) is noteworthy as these are the areas where the soils are expected to be most fertile.

5
As data on cultural factors is limited, these can unfortunately not be considered here until further research.

22
Figure 6.6: the relationship between hydrology and the archaeology in the Mayales River Valley as expressed in the
distributions within 100m buffer zones.

Thus, although hydrology is an important factor in the engagement of pre-Columbian communities with their
landscape, the quality of the soils appears to have been as much an important factor or even prioritized in the
Mayales River Valley and specifically in the fertile alluvial zones which, if anything, appears to demonstrate less
of a relationship with their hydrological sources.

6.5 Elevation and the archaeological landscape of the Mayales River Valley
Elevation is another basic environmental factor pivotal to not only the location of sites in the Mayales River
Valley as has been demonstrated by van Dijk (2017) with sites being mainly located on hillslopes (82%), but
equally as well for the distribution of material culture (fig. 6.7). Elevation data further indicates that the lower
plains of the Mayales River Valley have been almost entirely avoided by archaeological activity. This would
further explain the lack of material in the central barrial plain where some of the highest levels of soil moisture
are present (further supporting its interpretation as a seasonal paleolake or swamp) yet chipped stone is
contrastingly present along many of the lower areas in the valley and elevation can therefore only explain the
presence of lesser material culture.
Another observation further decreasing the
likeliness of elevation having been the primary factor for
activity in the valley is the fact that higher parts in these
areas of low soil moisture also do not exhibit archaeological
remains nor material culture. Rather than being reliant on
elevation, the absence of material seems mainly related to
lower soil moisture levels instead, as indicated in the above.
The continuation of the modern settlement patterns in
avoiding these specific areas with low soil moisture further
supports the pre-Columbian prioritization of soil quality over
elevation (fig. 6.5).
The fertile alluvial zones discussed in the above,
moreover, also exhibit low-lying areas prone to flooding with
both mounds and high concentrations of clusters of material
culture being present. In fact, the location of sites and
human activity in these zones deviates slightly from the
average of the Mayales River Valley (103 meters above sea-
level) in being at lower heights and flatter terrain, thus Figure 6.7: mean elevation of archaeological sites
providing an ideal setting for agricultural activities. and material culture at the two alluvial zones and the
However, as there are again several other areas whole Mayales River Valley.

23
along the rivers in the Mayales River Valley that present similar physical terrains, yet with significantly less
clusters of material culture (and ceramic and ground stone in particular) the focus of human activity in these
fertile alluvial zones appears to indeed have been selected for the higher quality of its soils.

6.6 The past and present at the Mayales River Valley

Akin to Roberto Amador on the local level, the pre-Columbian communities in the wider Mayales River Valley
showcase a strong relationship with their soils. Soil fertility appears to have been paramount in the human
activity within this landscape as other environmental factors such as hydrology and elevation cannot
satisfactorily explain the dynamics of the land-use patterns in the Mayales River Valley, while soil moisture levels
demonstrate a strong relationship with the archaeology and the most fertile areas that have been recorded are
also seeing the highest concentration of pre-Columbian activity.
The substantial focus of activity within the two most fertile zones that have been recorded in the valley
and the widespread correlation between soil fertility (as measured by soil moisture levels) and archaeological
material related to subsistence production such as ground stone indicates that agricultural activities are the
most logical explanation for the relationship between the soils and the archaeology. The results of the analysis
at Roberto Amador indicating land management strategies having been employed, further suggest that
particularly in alluvial zone B the land could very well have been used for intensive agriculture as distributions
of material culture related to these activities is significantly higher in this area.
The dominance of pragmatic activity (as mainly indicated by ceramics and ground stone) in the south
with the north being understood as mainly a ritual zone further supports the interpretation of agriculture being
central to the pre-Columbian communities in the valley as the latter is mostly covered in lanilla, which is very
unsuitable to agriculture (Taylor 1959, 318), while the south exhibit the most fertile zones (pers. comm. Natalia
Donner September 2018).
The results of the earlier sample study of mounds and their soils in the valley by van Dijk (2017), who
concluded that mainly lanilla soils had been targeted in site locations for their functionality as construction
material, can be understood to apply only to the mounds themselves while having taken a lower priority than
soil fertility.

Figure 6.8: the pre-Columbian and modern cultural distributions and patterns of land-use across the Mayales River Valley.
Modern land-use data has been acquired from INETER (2018).

24
Although, like at Roberto Amador, the pre-Columbian land-use patterns are in striking contrast with the modern
land-use with a land cover consisting mainly of pasture, there are a number of strong continuities in the
engagement with the landscape as well.
Interestingly, the blanks in the pre-Columbian landscape are reflected in the modern landscape (fig.
6.8) with the areas exhibiting the lowest soil fertility being devoid of modern structures and largely covered in
unmanaged pasture and natural vegetation. The main exception is the central area of the valley which further
supports its interpretation as a (seasonal) paleolake or swamp.
Previous analysis, moreover, indicated a close relationship between sampled mounds and modern
structures (van Dijk 2017) which is visible across the valley with a staggering 94.3% of modern sites positioned
within 1km of the pre-Columbian mounds (454m distance on average). The fact that this is also true for the north
of the valley suggests that ritual significance and knowledge continued into at least the colonial period as is
supported by the notion that modern folklore in the area still imbues places that appear significant as well in
the pre-Columbian landscape such as the Cerro la Cruz with animism and supernatural beings (pers. comm.
Alejandro Arteaga January 2018).
In addition, the average elevation at 107.9m and proximity to the hydrological sources (30.9% within
200m) of modern sites is very similar to their pre-Columbian counterparts (respectively 117.5m and 33.9% within
200m). The slightly higher average elevation of the latter likely only reflects higher water-levels in the pre-
Columbian period (see Torreggiani et al. 2018).
Although continuity appears strong at first hand, taking a closer look on a micro-scale also reveals stark
contrasts between the pre-Columbian and modern use of the landscape. Although the vast majority of modern
sites are located within 1km of the archaeological features, it is worth noting that only 15.7% of modern
structures are located within 100m of archaeological features with an average distance of the nearest evidence
of pre-Columbian activity being 300m away. Within the direct catchments of the modern structures moreover
(< 200m) the levels of soil moisture are 45.4% lower than at the pre-Columbian mounds. This is particularly
noteworthy as high rates of land division in the valley (pers. comm. Alexander Geurds May 2018) resulted in the
necessity of productive plots of land close to the modern farms.
The fertile alluvial zones in particular show a strong discontinuity in land-use. Although a slightly higher
intensity of managed pasture is practiced with limited cultivation in zone B, the area does not see a high density
of modern structures with ca. 11 structures per km2 in a radius of 500m outside these zones. This is even below
the average density of the valley (13 per km 2) and surprising in light of the proximity of the town of Juigalpa.
Even more contrastingly, the concentration of modern occupation is much higher in the barrial plain (16
structures per km2) which could however be explained by the existence of a former seasonal paleolake or
swamp. Cultivation and managed pasture being located indifferently in both areas of low and high archaeological
activity further suggests a strong difference in the past and present economical use of the land, as would be
expected (Erickson 1994).

25
Chapter 7

Nicaragua and its Neighbours – Land-use Patterns on a Macroregional Scale

7.1 Pre-Columbian relationships with the soil throughout Nicaragua and beyond
The preceding local and regional scales of analysis have presented a pre-Columbian landscape where soil fertility
and agricultural activities appear at the core of engagements with the landscape. As there is no data on such
patterns of land-use within Nicaragua, this chapter will employ a macroregional scale in analysing the soil
distributions in the catchment of settlements to further indicate whether these strong relationships are unique
to the Mayales River Valley or present throughout the country and its neighbours as they have been in
Mesoamerica and the Amazonian basin (Ford and Nigh 2009; Heckenberger et al. 2007).
Reflecting the paucity of research, this chapter brings together for the first time the two largest
archaeological databases (fig. 7.1) on sites within lower Central America (Benfer unpublished) and Mesoamerica
(Witschey and Brown 2012) not only to further understand the relationships of pre-Columbian societies in
Nicaragua with their soils, but moreover to relate these relationships to agricultural practices as these do have
been recorded with hard evidence in Mesoamerica (Coe 2011). The scarcity of data on archaeological sites in
Nicaragua is specifically worrying and warrants the integration of neighbouring Costa Rican pre-Columbian
settlements which are subject to the same main cultural and geographical zones as Nicaragua in the analysis of
this chapter.
Throughout this chapter both low-resolution (1km) conventional SOTERLAC (FAO-UNESCO-ISRIC 1988)
and high-resolution (250m) TAXNWRB experimental machine learning (Hengl 2017) datasets have been
integrated to allow a more nuanced analysis.

Figure 7.1: The 14,691 archaeological sites of pre-Columbian Central America as recorded to date by Benfer (unpublished)
and Witschey and Brown (2012) – with the settlements being analysed in this chapter highlighted (+/- 4000) – transfixed on
the TAXNWRB soil map (Hengl 2017). As 117 different soils are identified they have not been labelled here.

26
7.2 Nicaragua and its neighbours: the relationship of sites and their soils across the three main cultural zones
The expectation taken by this study that of all sites those classified as settlements show the strongest
relationships with their soils appears not only valid at Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley (albeit their
status still being unconfirmed) but is confirmed on the macroregional scale (fig. 7.2).

Figure 7.2: Distribution of the four most common soil types related to soil fertility (see Driessen 2001) within the catchment
(5km) of settlements and sites with other classifications represented in percentages above or below the natural distributions.

The high presence (~53%) of the soils that are generally very fertile and suitable for agriculture (Delvaux and
Brahy 2001) in the catchments (< 5km) of the habitational sites, while only comprising circa 39% of the total
distribution of the study area is particularly noteworthy. Soils which are known for their low fertility and
agricultural potential moreover, such as vertisols and acrisols which both need intensive management to be
productive (Driessen 2001) are moreover low in presence (~43%) as compared to their higher natural
distributions (~ 52%).
Interestingly, the substantially higher presence of the highly fertile andosols in the catchments of
habitational sites as demonstrated by both datasets – which is the scientific equivalent of the black tropical
soils/tierra negra (table 7.1) – reflects the patterns of targeting the most fertile areas seen at both Roberto
Amador and the Mayales River Valley. It is noteworthy that these soils have traditionally been used for intensive
cropping in other areas of the Americas (Chesworth 2001).

Scientific National Ethnopedological Potential use

Acrisols Clayish shallow soils Granza amarilla Limited use for agriculture
Andosols Black tropical soils Tierra negra (Irrigated) intensive agriculture
Cambisols Brown tropical soils Granza normal Good for agriculture
Ferralsols Weathered clayish soils - Limited to shifting cultivation
Leptosols Shallow gravelly soils - Unattractive soils for agriculture
Luvisols Irrigated alluvial soils - Good for wide range of agricultural uses
Nitisols Red tropical soils - Moderately suitable to agriculture
Phaeozems Humus-rich dark soils - Unsuitable (savannah) / shifting cultivation (tropical)
Regosols Young volcanic soils Lanilla Minimal agricultural significance
Vertisols Expansive clay soils Barrial Unsuitabe without intensive management

Table 7.1: The soil potentials for agriculture related to the nomenclature of the scientific, national and ethnopedological
taxonomies employed in this study (after Driessen 2001; Taylor 1959; van Dijk 2017).

27
Figure 7.3: Average soil distributions within site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the Pacific cultural zone according to
the TAXNWRB (left) and SOTERLAC (right) datasets. In this chapter, only distributions around or higher than 5% have been
considered to factor out unrepresentatively low sample sizes.

Surprisingly, this relationship between settlements and soils is less evident within the Pacific cultural zone, with
catchments according to both TAXNWRB and SOTERLAC data mainly following patterns in the natural soil
distribution (fig. 7.3). Although the conspicuous low presence of vertisols (linked to barrial) in the catchments is
reminiscent of patterns observed at the local and regional level and the fertile cambisols and luvisols are present
slightly above average, the SOTERLAC data reveals a surprising lower presence of andosols within the
catchments while indicating a higher rate of acrisols (up to 23% within 1km catchments) which are significantly
less effective for agricultural land-use and are strikingly little represented in the average catchments of
settlements in the whole study area (fig. 7.2). Within 1km of the settlements the rate of fertile soils such as
andosols and cambisols is even lower (respectively 13-27% and 9-10%).

Figure 7.4: Average soil distributions within the site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the Highlands cultural zone
according to the TAXNWRB (left) and SOTERLAC (right) datasets.

The site catchments within the central cultural zone of the highlands (including the Mayales River Valley) are
contrastingly very much in line with the patterns discerned at the local and regional levels of this study. The
settlements appear to have specifically avoided vertisols (only up to 1% within 1km) while targeting the andosols
(up to 45% within the 1km catchments).
The latter is especially noteworthy as steep slopes are a serious constraint to the land-use potentials of
these soils (Deckers et al. 1998) indicating that andosols might very well be at the core of soil relationships within

28
the valleys of this cultural zone, which is supported by the patterns evident at the Mayales River Valley. Acrisols
lastly, although demonstrating significant disparity between the datasets regarding its total distribution, also
appears avoided intentionally in the location of settlements (4% within 1km) according to the TAXNWRB dataset.

Figure 7.5: Average soil distributions within the site catchments (< 5km) of settlements in the Caribbean cultural zone
according to the TAXNWRB (left) and SOTERLAC (right) datasets.

The Caribbean zone, lastly, boasts a significantly higher distribution of the most productive soils (andosols and
fluvisols) within the site catchments of its settlements while evidently avoiding the low-quality soils such as
acrisols and vertisols (up to half as less within 1km). Interestingly, although the datasets demonstrate worryingly
diverging distributions of cambisols and andosols, these soils demonstrate a substantially higher presence within
1km of the settlements in both datasets (respectively 33-40% and 8-21% higher).
The high distribution of ferralsols increasing over distance from the site cores (17.6% higher beyond
5km) could be a further indication for lower-intensive shifting agriculture in the surrounding landscapes of the
settlements (Delvaux and Brahy 2001). However, the smaller number of settlements recorded in the Caribbean
(fig. 7.1) and the fact that the distribution of fluvisols according to the SOTERLAC data is debatable as its natural
distribution only accounts for 0.03% within the TAXNWRB dataset, demonstrate the need for further research.
Thus, although the strong relationship with soil fertility on the local and regional scale is again evident
on the macroregional scale throughout the highlands and Caribbean zones of Nicaragua and its Costa Rican
neighbour, the Pacific zone strongly contrasts with these patterns with soils appearing only as a secondary factor
in settlement locations. This could be partially explained by the presence of the densely settled and complex
cultural areas of Greater Nicoya and Chiriquí in the Pacific which were both heavily involved in trade and other
practices while having many alternative sources of subsistence available (Haberland 1984; Lange 1984).
Moreover, the contrast between the Pacific with lower rates of highly fertile soils within 1km of the
settlements against the higher rate of such soils in the 1km catchments of highlands and Caribbean settlements
indicates a potential difference in the catchment sizes of settlements. This pattern corresponds however with
the majority of pre-Columbian settlements in the Mayales River Valley being located within 500 meters of the
most fertile areas and could further be explained by the elevation and forest cover in the latter two zones acting
as obstructions to movement.

7.3 Mayan Mesoamerica: connecting the relationships with soil fertility to agriculture
The dynamics of agricultural land-use and its relationship to the targeting of those soils most effective for
agriculture in the contemporary Mayan landscapes of Mesoamerica have been studied for decades (Adams et
al. 1981; Pohl and Bloom 1996). As unconventional and novel this may be – relating the site catchment analysis
of Nicaragua and its Costa Rican neighbour to a site catchment analysis of the Mayan landscapes will allow to
further interpret the pre-Columbian relationships with the soils as evident throughout highland and Caribbean
Nicaragua. It is however important to realize that although modern soil distributions in the latter can be assumed
to be relatively similar to their pre-Columbian landscape as discussed before, past and modern anthropogenic

29
and geomorphological processes in Mesoamerica are locally much more problematic (Burnett et al. 2012).
Nonetheless, for the purpose of this study, these factors are acceptable (Allen 2000).
Interestingly, although the main soil types in the natural distributions differ, many of the main patterns
in the site catchments related to agricultural soil potential are relatively similar (fig. 7.6 and 7.7).

Figure 7.6: the main soil types against their natural distribution as present in the average site catchment (5 km) of the Mayan
landscapes.

Unsurprisingly, as the archaeological landscapes in Mayan Mesoamerica are known for their intensive
agricultural systems (Sedov et al. 2007; Turner 1983), the high-quality soils (34.5-61.5%) which are very effective
for agriculture (table 7.1) substantially outweigh those which are unsuitable (26.6-35.1%). Although both
datasets again differ significantly – an issue that has to be acknowledged – they do both indicate that Mayan
societies did target their most fertile soils significantly more (18.9-35.2% above natural distributions) than
Nicaragua and its neighbours (14% higher than natural distributions). The lower rate of Andosols within site
catchments as compared to Nicaragua and its neighbours can be explained in this soil being mainly present in
the Mesoamerican Pacific which does not demonstrate a strong relationship with its soils (fig. 7.7).
Nonetheless, the pre-Columbian societies in the latter avoided the soils with little potential for
agriculture substantially more than in Mayan Mesoamerica (fig. 7.7), a pattern which can be explained by the
active management of anthropogenic soils and irrigation systems in much of Mesoamerica (Ford and Nigh 2009)
that allowed low-quality soils to be rendered productive as well. The Caribbean data representing exceptionally
strong soil relationships should be considered with strong reservations due to the limitations of the datasets
mentioned earlier in the above.
Regardless of the quantitative differences, the relative similarities in relationships with soil fertility and
suitability for agriculture across the cultural and geographical zones of Mesoamerican and lower Central
American archaeological landscapes is striking (fig. 7.7) and strengthen the interpretation of these relationships
in Nicaragua and the Mayales River Valley as being evidence for intensive agricultural land-use. The Mayan
lowlands and Yucatan plains are particularly akin to the site catchments of pre-Columbian settlements in the
highlands of Nicaragua and its neighbours with settlements in all three zones evidently targeting high quality
soils and avoiding low quality ones.
The Pacific zones seeing a lesser relationship with their soil potentials (up to 36% more low quality soils
within 1km site catchments) – with ample evidence for lesser agricultural intensity in Pacific Mesoamerica
(Arroyo 2012; Cartwright 2015) – is a further strong indicator of the validity of this interpretation and the
agricultural focus of land-use in the Mayales River Valley and highland and Caribbean Nicaragua in general.

30
Figure 7.7: the average distribution of soils (in 5km settlement catchments) that are highly effective and unsuitable for
agriculture above and below the natural distributions across the main cultural zones of Mayan Mesoamerica and lower
Central America. The results of both TAXNWRB and SOTERLAC datasets have been combined for clarity.

The similarity between these regions concerning other indicators of soil fertility such as the soil moisture levels
within the catchments (< 5km) are almost identical with the Mayan settlements in Mesoamerica only seeing
0.6% higher soil moisture levels. The latter are on average seeing 13.4% higher soil moisture in their catchments
than in the natural distribution of their landscapes, while in the Nicaraguan region the settlements are on
average within catchments with 21.4% higher moisture levels than the natural distributions. These results again
underscore the strong relationship with pre-Columbian settlements with their soils.

7.4 The past and present within Nicaragua: a changing landscape

Strong relationships between soil fertility and pre-Columbian activity are as seen in this chapter not only evident
on a local and regional level within Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley but extensive along the
highlands and Caribbean cultural zones of Nicaragua and its neighbouring archaeological landscapes. The
likeness with relationships of settlements and soil potential in Mayan Mesoamerica moreover support the
interpretation of these relationships as being evidence for intensive agricultural land-use.
Although these results should by no means be taken as hard evidence for similar complexity in the
human-environment relationships at Nicaragua and lower Central America in general as at Mesoamerica, they
do provide yet again a striking contrast with the modern land-use of Nicaragua and particularly its pasture-
dominated highlands zone (including the case studies of this study).
Site catchment analysis of the modern villages and hamlets (1669 sampled) across the study area,
moreover, reveals a much lesser relationship to soil fertility, even within the Pacific zone (fig. 7.8). Along all three
geographical and cultural zones, soil fertility and agricultural suitability within the catchments (5km) is
substantially lower compared to the pre-Columbian predecessors.
Strikingly, arguably the least fertile soil in the study area (regosols) is also one of the most
representative soil types among the modern settlements (32.5% higher than in the pre-Columbian catchments),
while andosols are significantly less represented (13.1-13.6%) as in the pre-Columbian catchments (19.7-21.9%).
Higher mobility in the modern landscape cannot satisfactorily account for these differences as the highlands and
Caribbean are subject to a lack of infrastructure and poverty constraining movement (CIA 2017).

31
Figure 7.8: The average distribution above and below the natural distributions of soils as valued for their fertility and
agricultural potential within 5km catchments of pre-Columbian and modern settlements.

This discontinuity in soil relationships is further reflected in the soil moisture levels of the modern catchments,
which is up to 25.9% lower than at pre-Columbian settlements (9.3% on average), while the soil organic carbon
distribution interestingly is only 3-8% lower among the Pacific and Caribbean with equal distributions along the
Highlands.

32
Chapter 8

Discussion – Applied Landscape Archaeology and the Study of Land-use in Nicaragua

8.1 A reflection on pre-Columbian soil relationships in a dynamic Nicaraguan landscape

Since the last decade of archaeological research the statement by Erickson (1994, 147) that “in many cases,
archaeological and traditional systems may be more sophisticated, more environmentally sound, more culturally
appropriate, and more productive than those introduced from outside” is increasingly being proven right
throughout the Americas (see Balée 2015; Heckenberger et al. 2007; Rostain 2013).
This study set out to address the gap in archaeological knowledge on land-use within lower Central
America by questioning the dynamics of the relationship between pre-Columbian communities and their soils
on both a local and regional scale within the case studies of Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley and
on a macro-scale throughout the country. Synthesising the results across these different scales of landscape in
this chapter will allow a first regional narrative on land-use within pre-Columbian Nicaragua. Reflecting on the
research aims and results of this study, the below will demonstrate that the statement by Erickson appears very
applicable to Nicaragua as well. The detailed results of the case studies of Roberto Amador and the Mayales
River Valley, in particular, provide an in-depth insight into the significance of soils in the pre-Columbian
engagement with the landscape.
Deriving at conclusions can, however, be very challenging for a landscape archaeology study which has
to rely on limited data and novel methods and resources while addressing questions largely unaddressed in
previous research. Although the different scales of analysis employed in this study allow to move beyond
hypothesis, the insights generated with the research questions and methodology of this study will have to be
limited to basic conclusions until further research.

8.2 Pre-Columbian land-use in relation to the soils: from Roberto Amador to wider Nicaragua
The results of this study evidently demonstrate that relationships with the soils were at the core of pre-
Columbian engagement with the landscape from the human activity in the local landscape of Roberto Amador
to the settlement patterns on a macro-scale in the Mayales River Valley and most likely throughout the whole
of the highlands and Caribbean of Nicaragua and beyond as well.
Not only is there a strong positive correlation between archaeological settlements and material culture
with the fertility of the soils as is evident in the soil distributions as well as other related qualities of the soils
such as soil organic carbon and moisture levels, there is moreover a striking lack of archaeological activity in
those areas that demonstrate a low quality of their soils in terms of fertility and suitability to agriculture. These
correlations are again evident through all scales of landscape with zones of arenoso and barrial (vertisols) being
devoid of material culture in Roberto Amador to site catchments across Nicaragua seeing a negative
disproportional distribution of similar low-quality soils.
As the potential evidence for active land management strategies such as lithic mulching at the local
landscape of Roberto Amador and the similarities in settlement-soil relationships at the macroregional scale of
Mesoamerica and lower Central America indicate, these relationships to soil fertility can be fairly confidently
interpreted as evidence for intensive agricultural activity.
The results of the local level of analysis appear to demonstrate a complex pre-Columbian understanding
of the environment as even on this micro-scale the soils appear intentionally targeted for their fertility while
(even very localized) soils with low fertility were actively avoided. The high presence of lithics in the fertile tierra
negra soils is moreover a strong indicator of complex understandings of the soils and for the active practicing of
lithic mulch land management strategies in the local landscape. This strategy could be a further explanation for
the widespread distribution of lithics around the fertile alluvial zones and throughout other areas of the Mayales
River Valley as their locations correlate strongly with low soil moisture levels.
Strikingly, the tierra negra (andosols) on which this strategy mainly appears to have been practiced is
one of the most fertile soils in Nicaragua, yet nowadays sees major issues with its sustainability and management
during droughts and dry seasons and is therefore mainly used for unmanaged pasture (Taylor 1959, 311;
Bermúdez et al. 2015). As these soils are highly present within the catchments of pre-Columbian settlements
throughout Nicaragua and specifically in the highland valleys were Roberto Amador is located as well, pre-
Columbian lithic mulching with its moisture retaining and fertility enhancing qualities could be a vital clue to

33
how these soils can be and were managed while being kept sustainable in pre-Columbian Nicaragua.
The land-use patterns at the regional scale of the Mayales River Valley further support the
interpretation of these relationships with the soils being intentional and indicative of an active agricultural land
management rather than being an artefact of archaeological research. The results demonstrate how these
relationships are furthermore not limited to local activity but paramount on a larger scale of engagement with
the landscape as well.
As the distribution of fertile soils is limited and highly localized within the valley and the division of the
landscape in a ritual north and habitational/productional south follows soil potentials with evidence of
agricultural activities within those areas that exhibit higher soil moisture levels and fertility, they appear to have
been targeted intentionally and to have informed the layout of the cultural landscape. The substantially higher
rate of material culture and what most likely can be classified as settlement in and around the most fertile alluvial
plains that have been recorded, moreover points to the likeliness of these relationships indicating intensive
agricultural land-use. Although other factors such as elevation and hydrology were important as well, they
appear secondary to soil potentials in the engagement of pre-Columbian communities with the landscape of the
Mayales River Valley.
Although further local and regional studies are vital to confirm the patterns observed at the
macroregional scale, it is telling that the pre-Columbian relationships with the soils in the highlands cultural zone
are strikingly similar to those observed at the case studies of Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley
which are located within this region (such as in the targeting of tierra negra (andosols). These relationships
appear moreover fairly uniform throughout Nicaragua and beyond with the distinct exception of the Pacific zone
where relationships with soil fertility are significantly less prevalent. Although alternative subsistence strategies
could explain this pattern, as a similar lesser relationship can be seen in Pacific Mesoamerica, further research
would be necessary to derive at meaningful interpretation.

8.3 Continuity and contrast across the landscapes of Nicaragua

Notwithstanding the modern deep understanding of soil potentials and continuation of cultural practices such
as construction and ceramic production among rural communities in the Mayales River Valley (Casale 2016;
Donner et al. 2017), the engagement with the landscape itself demonstrates substantial discontinuity.
The location of modern farms in areas of lower levels of soil moisture with significantly less activity in
the most fertile zones and the general disparity in the locations of pre-Columbian and modern sites and activity,
all point towards a distinctly different relationship with the landscape. The dominant modern land-use of
livestock grazing and pasture, moreover, appears as expected a colonial invention rather than a continuation of
similar low-intensive practices in the pre-Columbian period.
Although colonial data which to date is significantly neglected (pers. comm. Adam Benfer March 2018)
would be crucial to provide further insight into when and how this shift occurred, the observations of dispersed
agricultural communities in colonial Central Nicaragua (van Broekhoven 2002) indicate that this shift occurred
gradually. This would explain the prevailing knowledge of the functionality of the soils and cultural traditions,
while relationships with the soils appear degraded with land management strategies such as lithic mulching
being lost. Again, however, further research on the colonial archaeology and landscape would be essential to
move beyond hypothesis.
This pattern appears evident across the country as the catchments of modern settlements generally
show a much lesser relationship to the fertility of the soils as their pre-Columbian predecessors. Changing needs
and dynamics in the landscape can, however, partially account for these discontinuities and would be in line
with the shift from predominantly agricultural landscapes relying on fertility and moisture to a mixture of
agriculture and mainly pasture where these qualities are less essential. Regardless, it is striking that in many
areas of Nicaragua where cultivation is being practiced, productivity is highly dependent on chemical fertilizers
and problematized by a lack of irrigation (MAGINTA 2018).

34
8.4 Applied landscape archaeology and the future of archaeology in Nicaragua
Besides providing first insights in the pre-Columbian human-environment relationships regarding land-use in
Nicaragua, this study also demonstrates the value of an applied landscape archaeology for those regions that
only receive marginal attention within archaeological research and therefore are still situated within traditional
archaeological paradigms with a lack of official databases, conventional archaeological data and
paleoenvironmental records – of which Nicaragua is a prime example.
As proven by this study, the interdisciplinarity and versatile toolset of landscape archaeology – with
techniques such as machine learning and Synthetic Aperture Radar that are novel to even the more intensively
studied Mayales River Valley – allow new lines of inquiry and analysis of human-environment relationships
without paleoenvironment data and on scales that would be unattainable by conventional archaeological
studies. Even when inaccessible in the event of political unrest such as at the time of writing, aerial prospection
methods and GIS analysis allowed for the continued investigation of the archaeological landscapes of Nicaragua
(see Richason III and Hritz 2007).
However, this study is also an example of how archaeological excavation is still essential in confirming
and clarifying patterns discerned through studies relying on landscape archaeology. A collaboration between
traditional and landscape archaeology methods is pivotal in the way forward for the archaeology of not only the
Mayales River Valley and Nicaragua, but any archaeological landscape that is marked by a marginal position
within archaeological research.
Regardless, the results of this study warrant further research on pre-Columbian land-use within
Nicaragua and beyond. This study could be used as a stepping stone in understanding the gap that Nicaragua
and lower Central America present within the widespread pattern of intensive pre-Columbian land management
systems across the Americas (see Barlow et al. 2012; Ford and Nigh 2009). Although based on the results of this
study alone not too much can be said about the position of the entire region of lower Central America within
the Americas, it is promising that the strong pre-Columbian relationship to their soils and the apparent intensive
agricultural land-use as observed by this study in the Mayales River Valley and across Nicaragua appear to close
this gap. Notwithstanding the need of significant further research on such a scale, it is telling that less than fifty
years ago, Maya archaeology saw a similar lack of research on land-use which resulted in the misinterpretation
of its complex agricultural managed landscapes as only evident of low-intensive shifting agriculture (see Wilken
1971).
As this study alludes to the likelihood of the gap in intensive agricultural land management being an
artefact resulting from the marginal position that Nicaragua receives in archaeological research and the
challenges this situation poses, further local and regional archaeological studies within the main cultural zones
of Nicaragua coupled with progress in paleoenvironmental research would be the next step towards a more
complete understanding of the human-environment relationships in the promising archaeology of Nicaragua.
The near future of smaller-scale research on human-environment relationships in the Mayales River
Valley is also highly promising, with a reference system for pollen (Torreggiani forthcoming) and a chronological
framework (Donner and Geurds 2018) being currently in preparation. The resulting data could be used to
acknowledge other land-use factors in this landscape such as climate change, precipitation and environmental
dynamics, to add more nuance to the land-use narrative of the valley through the integration of time-depth and
ultimately to confirm or discredit the results of this study.
Further archaeological excavations and test-pitting are moreover necessary to conclusively confirm the
strong relationship between human activity and soil fertility to be indeed related to intensive agricultural
activities within the Mayales River Valley and the existence of active land management strategies such as lithic
mulching. Additionally, further research on cultural patterns in this archaeological landscape would be ideal to
acknowledge cultural factors in the engagement with the landscape, allowing archaeological studies to step
away from the inescapable overly environmentally deterministic interpretations that research is currently
subject to.
Reaching beyond the discipline, this study moreover indicates the potential that archaeological studies
of pre-Columbian human-environment relationships have in addressing the current challenges that Nicaragua is
facing and to learn from the past, such as has been done successfully in other regions of the Americas (Balée
2013; Barton et al. 2012; Erickson 1992; Heckenberger et al. 2007; Stump 2013). The country faces the second
highest rate of poverty within the Americas (CIA 2017) and fundamental issues regarding environmental
sustainability and land and water management (Foges 2011; McCann et al. 2003).

35
As referred to in the above, current agricultural productivity in the country is challenged by complications in the
management of the soils. Further research on, for instance, pre-Columbian land-use strategies such as lithic
mulching – that are not practiced anymore in the modern landscape – could be highly valuable in the application
of archaeological knowledge to these modern challenges and to provide potential solutions towards a more
efficient and sustainable land management. The advancement of landscape methods and approaches within the
archaeology of Nicaragua with further research on pre-Columbian land-use would be a very first step in achieving
this.

36
Chapter 9

Conclusion

Through a multi-scalar landscape archaeology study this dissertation has demonstrated how relationships with
the soils were paramount throughout all scales of landscape within the case studies of Roberto Amador and the
whole Mayales River Valley and appear largely uniform throughout Nicaragua with the notable exception of the
Pacific. Reflecting on the results of the analysis this pattern can be interpreted as an indicator of active
management of the landscape and intensive agricultural activities within the Mayales River Valley, with the
archaeological landscapes of highland and Caribbean Nicaragua and beyond demonstrating similar patterns on
a macroregional scale.
Meanwhile, the results also demonstrate how the modern engagement with the landscape exhibits a
stark discontinuity with its pre-Columbian predecessor in the Mayales River Valley concerning both the
relationship with the soils and land-use practices, regardless of continuity in cultural traditions and knowledge.
Throughout the country these lesser relationships with the soils are evident and can in the light of the pre-
Columbian land-use patterns in the Mayales River Valley and the rest of the country be interpreted as a gradual
shift from predominantly pre-Columbian active agricultural engagements with the landscape to a modern
landscape with a mixture of low-intensive pasture and cultivation challenged by complications in its
management.
Besides providing novel insights in the pre-Columbian archaeology of The Mayales River Valley and
wider Nicaragua, this study is moreover an example of how a multi-method and multi-scalar applied landscape
archaeology can have a bright future in the archaeology of regions that are challenged by traditional paradigms
or a lack of previous research. Even within the Mayales River Valley – arguably the most in-depth studied
archaeological landscape of Nicaragua – this methodology has allowed for new lines of archaeological inquiry
and novel insights.
Although this study is the first to analyse the archaeological landscape of Nicaragua on such a large
scale and conclusions on a macro-level therefore have to be limited to basic interpretations, the results are
promising and suggest that the blank that pre-Columbian Nicaragua represents in the presence of intensive
agricultural land management systems evident throughout the Americas is an artificial result of its marginal
position within archaeological research rather than anything else. The more in-depth analysis of the case studies
of Roberto Amador and the Mayales River Valley are a case in point.
Notwithstanding the substantial further archaeological research that is necessary to derive at further
confirmative interpretations and conclusions, the results of this study provide an exciting prospect for the future
of archaeology in Nicaragua. Further research could not only deliver more in-depth insights in the human-
environment relationships of this exciting region but has the opportunity to move even beyond archaeology in
addressing the challenges of the 21st century that Nicaragua faces by applying the knowledge from the past.

37
Appendix

Figure A: The form that was created by this author for the micro-scale fieldwork at Roberto Amador.

This form was used in the fieldwalking survey at Roberto Amador and illustrates how the fieldwork at this local
landscape was structured in the recording and collection of the archaeological material culture and the
environment and its soils.

38
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