THE EARLY POTTERY OF SAN ANTONIO, DEPARTMENT OF CHINANDEGA, NICARAGUA

I analyzed the potsherds (n=732) recovered from the 2009 archaeological excavations at the site of San Antonio in Chinandega, Nicaragua. I classified the pottery in accordance with the Type: Variety-Mode system that is used almost exclusively in Mesoamerica and the Greater Nicoya Sub-Region. Identifications of known ceramic wares, groups, types, and varieties were made through comparisons with reference specimens from type collections housed at several institutions. New taxa were defined as needed in accordance with the established protocols of the Type: Variety system (e.g., Smith et al. 1960) and as subsequently amended (e.g., Rice 1976). In the thesis, I describe the composition of the pottery assemblage from the earliest complex found at the site because it represents the most significant finding from the analysis. I identified a suite of Late Preclassic ceramic groups and types identical to those known from western El Salvador and eastern Guatemala including abundant Jicalapa Usulután, Pinos Black-brown, Santa Tecla Red, and Olocuitla Orange, all of which form part of the Chul Complex of that region. Statistical analysis implies that the ceramic complex most similar to that of San Antonio are not those from adjacent regions, such as the Uapala Complex of eastern El Salvador or the Aviles Complex of Rivas (Healy 1980), but rather those further west, i.e., the Chul Providencia Complex of Santa Leticia. The near identity of the San Antonio materials to those of the Chul Complex, which is part of the Providencia Ceramic Sphere, leads us to denominate them the Cosigüina Providencia Complex. Current dating places the Chul Complex chronologically between 400 B.C. and 50 B.C. (Inomata et al. 2014). The early occupation of San Antonio may extend into the succeeding Caynac Complex as well (ca. 50 B.C. to A.D. 50 or 100). The pottery suggests that inhabitants of the site were probably ethnically an ancestral Ch’olan or proto-Ch’orti’ Maya group (Sharer 2009).