been noted that since its insertion in the social sciences in the nineteenth century, archaeology has been part of a paternalistic civilizing process. In this sense, the Internet offers the great possibility of radical changes in the hierarchical structure of archaeological knowledge. In the view of these specialists, the growing accessibility to the Internet poses new possibilities in the dissemination and creation of new knowledge, thus making it more difficult for the academy (those professionals inside of universities) to have exclusive control of it.

Armando Anaya Hernández

References

Dingwall, Lucie, Sally Exon, Vince Gaffney, Sue Laflin, and Martjin van Leusen, eds. 1999. Archaeology in the Age of the Internet. Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Conference, University of Birmingham, April 1997. BAR International Series 750. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

Reilly Paul, and Sebastian Rahtz, eds. 1992. Archaeology and the Information Age, A Global Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.

Costa Rica and Nicaragua

In her history of Central American archaeology, doris stone observed that “early archaeology in lower Central America was primarily a part of exploration; sites and surface finds were discovered and described by observant travellers, engineers (and) art historians” (1984, 13). It is true that in the earlier days of exploration and initial investigation—the early and mid-twentieth century—Central American archaeologists were widely traveled and conversant with the prehistoric sites and artifacts of more than one, and frequently all, of the Central American countries. For example, Harvard archaeologist Samuel Lothrop worked in guatemala, el salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and panama, and one of his final publications was a synthesis of lower Central America. Harvard ethnologist Herbert Spinden worked in El Salvador and mexico, but also wrote extensively about Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Harvard student Doris Stone worked in Costa Rica and Honduras, but has also published widely about the prehistory of other countries in the isthmus.

Of present-day researchers, perhaps only Payson Sheets, who excavated in Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador and conducted survey activities in Nicaragua, or Ronald L. Bishop, who conducted extensive analytical programs with jade and ceramic data from Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, approach this breadth of coverage.

Beginning in the early twentieth century, regional syntheses included Costa Rica and Nicaragua (see Joyce 1916; Spinden 1917; Lothrop 1966; Baudez 1970; Willey 1971; Stone 1972, 1977; Ferrero 1977). Joyce’s synthesis was based on museum collections, while Lothrop, Baudez, gordon willey, Stone, and Ferrero reflected the gradual growth of the archaeological database; their regional syntheses became increasingly data-based through time.

A number of summary volumes on research in the area have appeared since 1980 (see Lange and Stone 1984; Lange 1984; Lange, Sheets, Martinez, and Abel-Vidor 1992; Lange 1992; Graham 1993). In addition to regional overviews, the publications have more complete bibliographic resources for Costa Rican and Nicaraguan archaeology. An annotated bibliography of Central American archaeology and pre-Columbian art is in preparation.

Improved transportation and logistical conditions, as well as changes in archaeological paradigms, methodologies, and analytical possibilities, have affected Nicaraguan and Costa Rican archaeology, just as they have elsewhere. Where entire regions were once available only by horse, mule, on foot, or by dug-out canoe, there are now paved roads. Expanding populations and new communities provide communications and other support in what were once vast empty spaces. Where the dating of ceramic types, or entire sites, was once dependent on cross-association with the better-studied adjacent areas on the southern and eastern frontier of the Maya lowlands, radiocarbon dating has provided a firm chronological basis.

This entry places the history of Costa Rican and Nicaraguan archaeology within the broad outlines established for American archaeology (Willey and Sabloff 1993). However, archaeologists who are nationals of Central American