10 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
in San José, Johann Friedrich Lahmann, and which in the year 1862 was sold to 
the Museum of Natural History in Bremen for the sum of ten thousand marks. 
Two publications founded upon part of this material have seen the light, one by 
Dr. Strebel,’ the other by Professor Fischer.” The former work only describes the 
ceramic material from the territory of the Giietares. The latter is devoted to a 
study and description of all the small sculptured objects of stone, amulets, beads, 
tubes, etc., comprising sixty-three specimens. Most of these objects are from locali- 
ties on the mainland adjoining the peninsula of Nicoya. Some eighteen specimens, 
however, were obtained from the province of Santa Cruz in Nicoya. ‘There are five 
plates with forty-nine figures, all of which resemble objects of the typical ‘“ Las 
Guacas”’ culture. 
In the year 1865 Professor Carl von Seebach visited Guanacaste and mentions 
the occurrence of Indian graves, but he undertook no excavations. 
The first archeologist, who made any investigations in Nicoya, was the explorer 
of Nicaragua, Dr. J. F. Bransford, who in the year 1877, accompanied by Dr. Earl 
Flint, entered the peninsula from the Nicaraguan frontier, and made an exploring 
trip as far south as the pueblo of Nicoya. Pages 73-79 in his work ‘ Archeological 
Researches in Nicaragua,” are devoted to a description of his observations. He men- 
tions the presence of stone- and shell-heaps in various localities and the discovery of 
ancient relics, but his investigations in Costa Rica were in no place as extensive or 
detailed asin Nicaragua. His relation of excavations near the pueblo of Nicoya are 
here quoted in full: “ At the town of Nicoya a turtle-shaped whistle and two small 
vessels were obtained, and a little further south in the valleys among the mountains 
were observed many mounds and other remains of antiquity. The mounds were 
usually about five feet in height and forty in diameter at the base. In the road- 
cuts and gullies fragments of stone implements and terra-cotta were abundant. A 
piece of a fine long celt of tremolite was lying in the rut, broken by a cart wheel. We 
purchased two whistles and some little vessels in this neighborhood, and were shown 
the locality where they had been discovered with human bones and several metates. 
I employed four men at work there for half a day, and unearthed three whistles, 
four small vessels, and bones of several skeletons. Hach body appeared to have been 
interred with a small earthen vessel and a whistle. This place, about a mile and a 
half southeast of the town, where the crest of the ridge was crossed by the road, was 
called Punta de Monte. The specimens were lying in red clay on a yellowish trap 
‘Strebel, Hermann. ‘“‘ Bericht tiber die Sammlung Alterthitimer aus Costa Rica in Bremer Museum.’’ — Abh. v. 
Naturw. Verein zu Bremen, VIII., 1883, p. 233-253. 
?Fischer, H. ‘‘ Bericht tiber eine Anzahl Steinsculpturen aus Costa Rica.’’ — Abh. v. Naturw. Verein zu Bremen, 
VII, 1881, p. 152-175. 
