NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG I/I 



I Strongly doubt that they were the people who were responsible for 

 the majority of the so-called " Chorotegan " remains in northern 

 Honduras and on the Bay Islands. The chroniclers of Columbus and 

 other early writers describe a native culture on the Bay Islands and 

 the adjacent Honduras mainland that fits the known archeological 

 evidence remarkably well. Jicaque and Paya tribes (with a few im- 

 migrant Nahuatl groups) were then in possesion of these regions and 

 must have been the people encountered by the early explorers. As 

 Spinden points out, and Conzemius demonstrates at considerable 

 length, the ethnology of these native peoples, along with the Sumu, 

 shows strong affiliations with northern South America. Similarly, 

 most of the archeological remains on the Bay Islands and the adjacent 

 mainland show strong connections with the prehistoric Highland 

 area of Costa Rica, and Lothrop has demonstrated that in this area 

 South American traits are most abundant. In fact the only people 

 of the Highland region at the time of the conquest were the Guetar, 

 who belong to the Chibchan linguistic stock of South America, and 

 to them Hartman and Lothrop ascribe most of the archeological re- 

 mains. Lehmann, although his evidence is not entirely conclusive, 

 links the Lenca, Jicaque, Paya, Sumu, and Miskito in the Talamancan 

 subdivision of the Chibchan stock, to which the Guetar also belong. 

 Thus, historical evidence, ethnology, archeology, and linguistics all 

 combine to suggest that peoples of South American affiliations must 

 have been responsible for most of the archeological remains on the 

 Bay Islands and probably in northern Honduras as well. For this 

 reason I cannot agree with Spinden that the historic tribes of this 

 region were late immigrants replacing an older population of Chiapane- 

 can speech. The problem as to who were the main originators of the 

 " Chorotegan Culture " in its southern centers, whether Chiapanecan, 

 Subtiaban, or Chibchan, is outside our province, but that peoples of 

 Chibchan or affiliated speech at least served as carriers of the culture 

 seems clearly demonstrable. 



As to the age of the " Chorotegan Culture ", or as it might be 

 called, " Western Nicaragua-Northern Costa Rica Culture ", either in 

 its centers or in the Bay Islands, there are as yet few direct clues. 

 Certain of its manifestations are believed by some to antedate the 

 Maya occupation of Copan, whereas the Highland aspect in Costa 

 Rica seems relatively recent, and the same may be true of its at- 

 tenuated manifestations in eastern Nicaragua and northern Honduras. 

 As for the Bay Islands, the southern influences apparently antedate 

 the influx of northern traits via the Uloa region. These are matters 

 which can only be satisfactorily determined by future excavations. 



