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this period, although various authors continued to publish on the trinity of stone statuary, footprints, and petroglyphs.
In the development of Nicaraguan archaeology, the concerns with context and function of the preceding period were combined with the first efforts at explanation. In addition to their chronology building efforts, Haberland and Schmidt also contributed to the explanation of certain aspects of the archaeological record including shamanism and specialized site use, such as the Concepcion volcano site, El Respiradero.
Lydia Wyckoff continued chronology building on the Pacific Coast, while Richard Magnus initiated the first survey and stratigraphic testing on the Atlantic watershed and produced the first chronological sequence for that region. He also searched for data to explain coastal adaptation and to interpret possible connections with other cultural areas. Magnus was instrumental in bringing Nicaraguan nationals such as Silvia Montealegre Osorio, Anibal Martinez, and Franzella Wilson into active participation in archaeological research. In 1973 and 1974, Neil Hughes salvaged mortuary remains and related ceramic and ecological data from a sewer installation in downtown Managua.
Karen Olsen Bruhns initiated a project to study the interrelationships of various styles of Chontales statuary, but lacked a firm chronological linkage between the statues and the established ceramic sequence. She also conducted some work on Zapatera Island in conjunction with the statuary research.
Healy (1980) analyzed part of the collections from Willey and Norweb’s efforts and significantly refined the typology and sequence from the Rivas area of Nicaragua. Nonetheless, the gap between the time of excavation and the time of analysis and publication clearly transcends the era of emphasis on chronological sequence and local/regional cultural histories and the era of more expansive, if somewhat less precise, model building and systematic explanation.
The first intensive effort to train Nicaraguan nationals in archaeology occurred during the first years of the revolutionary Sandinista government (1979–1985). Most of the archaeologists currently working for the National Museum of Nicaragua received their first opportunities during this era. Various rescue projects were conducted at different sites, primarily on the Pacific Coast by Rigoberto Navarro, Anibal Martinez, Edgar Espinoza, Ronaldo Salgado, Rafael Gonzalez, and Jorge Zambrana. The initial development of a national park system also provided brief protection for important sites such as Isla el Muerto, Isla Zapatera, and Isla Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. A group from the Milwaukee Public Museum recorded the important petroglpyhs from Isla el Muerto. Much of this research was motivated by the interest and dedication of Amelia Barahona, then director of cultural patrimony.
In 1983, Frederick W. Lange, Payson D. Sheets, and Anibal Martinez carried out a rapid reconnaissance of sites on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, as well as some sites to the east of lakes Managua and Nicaragua. These studies produced a better map of local Nicaraguan prehistoric development, as well as gathering the obsidian and ceramic specimens that integrated Nicaraguan data with similar databases from southern Mesoamerica and northwestern Costa Rica.
Other important projects carried out by the National Museum of Nicaragua in the 1980s included excavations at the colonial site of Leon Viejo, and at other sites in the Managua urban and Pacific coastal regions. In 1987, Mario Molina and Jorge Levano developed a master plan for the management of the Leon Viejo site. The economic situation that developed during the 1980s made archaeological research increasingly opportunistic and salvage oriented.
These projects were dependent almost exclusively on foreign funding and initiatives, although they were required to involve Nicaraguan counterparts in the fieldwork. Primary among these was the French Archaeological
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