Nicaraguan Antiquities

Nicaragua is a very rich field for research to the student of American Archæology, and so I found it during my two years stay in Central America. I had there the good fortune several times to meet with localities more or less rich in remains from the prehistoric or rather pre-spanish period. Not very much being known about Central American antiquities, and the literature on this subject being very poor, especially with regard to the Nicaraguan ones, I purpose here to describe briefly and to figure the more important statues, rock-carvings, ceramic objects etc., found by me in Nicaragua and partly delineated or photographed on the spot, partly brought home to Sweden. Unfortunately I wanted the means of carrying home any of the statues; but my Nicaraguan collections contain a number of more easily transportable relics, mostly examples of pottery. These are now deposited in the ethnographic collection of the R. Swedish State Museum. The accompanying plates are all executed after my original sketches or photographs taken on the spot. Most of the statues have never before been figured or described; some of them are mentioned and figured by E. G. Squier in his splendid work on Nicaragua. As it turned out, however, on comparisons being made by me on the spot, that some of Squier’s figures do not quite agree with the originals, I have thought fit to publish also my own drawings of these previously figured statues, 6 in number.

Although this sketch is certainly not the place for an account of the history of Central America or Nicaragua, yet I may be permitted to give a brief statement of those few and disconnected notices that we possess with regard to the nations inhabiting Nicaragua at that period, when the antiquities here spoken of were probably executed. The sources of our knowledge of these people and their culture are, besides the above quoted work of Squier, the old Spanish chroniclers, Oviedo, Torquemada, Herrera, and Guarros, the memoirs of Las Casas and Peter Martyr, the relation of Thomas Gage, and scattered notices in the works of Gomara, Ixtlilxochitl, Dampier a. o.

At the time of the Spanish invasion under the command of Don Gil Gonzales de Avilain the years 1521 and 1522, the region now occupied by the republic of Nicaragua and the north-eastern part of the republic of Costa Rica, was inhabited by Indian nations of four different stocks, which very probably may be considered as being of different origin and having immigrated into the country at widely separated periods.

The Atlantic coast with its luxuriant vegetation but damp climate and the adjacent mountainous country with its vast primeval forests were the home of more or less nomadic tribes, remaining at a low stage of civilization. It may be inferred, however, from certain indications in the account of the third voyage of Columbus, and from the scanty notices of several of the so-called buccaneers or filibusters, that those Indians were more advanced in culture and manner of life than the hordes, that may be regarded as their descendants at the present day: the Moscos, the Ramas, the Simoos orSmoos a. o.