Unit I geographically includes the areas of Central America (specifically Costa Rica and Panama), and the northern portion of South America (Colombia, Ecuador and Northern Peru).
Despite the distance separating Mesoamerica and Peru, the great Pre-Columbian civilizations of these areas did not evolve totally independent of one another. A geographical and cultural bridge was formed by the peoples of Central America (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama) and the Northern Andes (Colombia and Ecuador). While Mesoamerican peoples such as the Olmec, Maya, Toltecs, and Aztecs moved southward, Panamanian and Colombian goldwork traveled to northward to the Yucatan.
As the northernmost of the Central American nations, Costa Rica displays the greatest assimilation of Mesoamerican traits: the Costa Rican Nicoya language is related to Nahua and Otomi (Mexican languages); chacmool reclining stone figures exhibit Toltec influence; Mesoamerican feathered serpents and jaguars commonly appear as artistic motifs. However, Costa Rica developed its own unique traditions as well as adopting those of other cultures; finely carved stone metates of jaguars and other animal forms, ceremonial stone maceheads, and amorphous jade celts with human features are unique to the area (see next image).
These celts, which are often called "ax-gods" show little evidence of wear and are frequently pierced as though serving as pectorals; thus they were likely used as status symbols rather than as actual tools. The type of jade found in the Nicoya region was particularly treasured by the Olmec, who left traces of their presence (artifacts) behind in Costa Rica.
Most Central American Pre-Columbian cultures produced little in the way of large scale stone sculpture. Costa Rica is an exception to the rule in its seated figural works such as this one; these figures have been interpreted by contemporary indigenous populations as sukia or shamans.
Other typical stone sculptures from Costa Rica include beautifully rendered animal- and bird-headed ceremonial maces. These objects, along with the ceremonial metates (next image), and celts or "ax gods" seem to be part and parcel of a cluster of elite signifiers in this area. They are most often discovered in tombs of the wealthy.
Ceremonial metates (ceremonial grinding stones) are among the most interesting and characteristic of Costa Rican forms. These metates take jaguar, saurian (crocodilian), and occasionally bird form and have been found in groups of two or three in tombs, supporting the body of the deceased. The animal symbolism of the pieces seems to link them with the spheres of existence (upper=bird, earthly =jaguar, and underworld=saurian. This example represents a jaguar. On the more elaborate types, the so-called "flying panel" metates, several types of animals may co-exist on one sculpture along with representations of trophy heads (supposed symbols of fertility and regeneration).
From Nicoya come a series of globular ceramics on tripod feet brightly painted in red, orange, and black on a white or yellow background. Their high polish is the result of quartz particles in the clay fusing with firing, and of subsequent rubbing of the surface with smooth stones. A negative or wax resist technique is often used in these vessels, a technique which seemingly originated in Peru.
Panama spawned several distinct art traditions, including Veraguas and Cocle. Veraguas goldwork is typified by lost wax castings of smooth, rounded forms contrasted with hammered flat protrusions in the form of limbs or wings. Frogs, eagles, monkeys, and turtles are among the favored motifs (the image to the right is a Veraguas frog). Tumbaga, a gold-copper alloy, was often employed, its surface gilded by leaching out the copper with an acidic substance. Like wax-resist ceramics, goldworking seems to have begun in Peru, perhaps as early as 1500 B.C. Knowledge of casting, hammering, repoussé, and inlay spread from Peru and possibly Colombia northward, passing through Panama and Costa Rica on its way to Mesoamerica, where it finally arrived in the 10th century A.D.
Cocle was a source of magnificent goldwork (a spectacular cache of grave objects were found at Sitio Conte) AND a remarkably modern-appearing pottery style. Stylized crocodiles and snakes mingle on Cocle ceramics with bold, geometric scrolls and chevrons painted in red, black, and white. Pedestal plates, their interiors carefully partitioned into zones, were especially popular
Colombia and Ecuador comprise the Northern Andean area of South America. Fine ceramics and goldwork were present in this Northern Andes region, along with occasional rich traditions of large scale stone sculpture, such as that at San Agustin, Colombia.
Because of Colombia's location at the northern tip of South America, early hunters surely settled here before moving further south, yet datable remains from this period are nonexistent. By 3000 B.C, small groups of people, the shell mound dwellers, were living on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia at sites such as Puerto Harmiga. They produced some of the earliest pottery in the Americas.
San Agustin was the most spectacular and distinctive culture to emerge in the Colombian highlands. Approximately thirty San Agustín sites have been found, possessing earthen mounds up to 90' in diameter, stone temples, shrines and tombs. Monolithic stone sculptures as large as 12' high have also been uncovered. Architecture and sculpture of such scale is unusual for the corridor region. Much of it appears to date between the 5th and 12th centuries A.D. The images shown here include a map of the San Agustin area, a shrine and a line drawing of one of the San Agustin sculptures.
San Agustin sculptures frequently represent part jaguar-part human beings with large heads and compact bodies (as in this illustration). A wide, often fanged mouth, and broad, splayed nose present an aggressive powerful effect. Facial features and accessories such as necklaces, bracelets, weapons of war, and trophy heads have given rise to varying interpretations: warriors, chiefs, priests, ancestor spirits, or tribal deities. Visual similarities between San Agustin's were-jaguars and those of the Olmec to the North have fueled speculations that the Olmec jaguar cult traveled from Mesoamerica through the corridor to Peru, where it sparked a similar cult at Chavin de Huantar. However, the San Agustin images may be explained equally well by attributing them to widespread shamanic beliefs that were shared with the Olmec, Chavin culture and Amazonian traditions from the east.
The Spanish conquistadors spoke of Colombia as the Land of El Dorado, the "Land of the Gilded Man." That title is well deserved, for many fine examples of Pre-Columbian metallurgy originated here. The legend, however, was associated with one particular Colombian group, the Chibcha or Muisca culture. Chibcha was one of the politically more advanced corridor cultures; it was arranged into two or three somewhat loose federations ruled by divine kings. Chibcha leaders were carried about by their subordinates on gold litters, lived in palatial houses and made offerings to the sun and moon at shrines and temples. Gold figurines, called tunjos, were crude, flattened forms with wire-like features . These were given to the gods as sacrificial offerings. Special human sacrifices to the sun, and child sacrifices to increase rainfall were also performed, perhaps in emulation of Mesoamerican rites.
The "Golden Man" story of the Spanish derived from the Chibchas' rituals consecrating a new king. The leader-elect's body was covered with resin and gold dust, then was paddled out to the center of Lake Guatavita (near today’s Bogota). As the crowd on shore threw offerings into the lake by firelight, the young man plunged into the water. When he emerged, cleansed of the gold, he was proclaimed the new chief. The choice of Lake Guatavita for this ceremony may not be purely coincidental. A meteorite originally formed the lake and, in the minds of the Chibcha, the gold-encrusted body of their king diving into the waters may have been seen as a re-enactment of the flaming meteorite’s fall to earth.
As with Colombia, archaeological excavation in Ecuador seems limited in comparison with the all-out assault launched on Peruvian sites. However, increasing evidence shows early inventive cultures such as Valdivia prospered here. Somewhat more recent Ecuadoran cultures, such as Machalilla (ca. 1800 B.C.) and Chorrera (ca. 1600), produced outstanding human and animal effigy vessels which may have inspired Peruvian ceramics of the Pre-Classic period.
The Valdivia culture (3200-1800 B.C.), especially, has drawn attention as the location of what may be the earliest ceramics and clay figurines in the New World. Several Valdivia female effigies display doubled facial features or two heads like those found at Tlatilco in Mesoamerica. They may well have served fertility or regenerative purposes.
After Valdivia, the Machalilla culture introduced stirrup spout and anthropomorphic vessels such as this example. Both features later appear in Peruvian
ceramics.
Chorrera's zoomorphic (animal-shaped) vessel forms and incised zoning techniques also appear to antedate those of their Peruvian neighbors and conceivably served as prototypes for them.