In 1977, Costa Rican author Luis Ferrero published the first detailed summary of Costa Rican prehistory. In conjunction with the beginning of the publication of the journal Vinculos by the National Museum of Costa Rica in 1975, Ferrero’s volume complemented the important function of placing essential data, in Spanish, about Costa Rican prehistory in the hands of Costa Rican students and public.

In the early 1980s Robert Drolet initiated the Boruca Dam–Rio Terraba project in southern Costa Rica, and research on the Bay of Culebra continued under a cooperative arrangement between the National Museum of Costa Rica and the University of California, Los Angeles. Payson Sheets initiated the Lake Arena project in the cordillera of Guanacaste and demonstrated the utility of applying remote sensing technology to Costa Rican archaeology. Winifred Creamer conducted an extensive survey and testing program on the Gulf of Nicoya.

The late 1970s and 1980s saw the definitive transition to vesting principal research responsibilities with Costa Rican archaeologists at the University of Costa Rica and at the National Museum of Costa Rica. Aida Blanco conducted research at the site of Ochomogo in the central highlands, and collaborated with Maritza Gutierrez and Silvia Salgado in the rescue archaeology of the Cenada market site in the metropolitan San Jose area. Magdalena Leon focused on the archaeology of the metropolitan area. Ricardo Vazquez conducted research at the central highland site of Agua Caliente. Sergio Chavez, Ana Cecilia Arias, Maureen Sanchez, Myrna Rojas, Carlos Valdesperras, and Floria Arrea conducted research at central valley sites. Francisco Corrales and Ifigenia Quintanilla developed long-term research in the Central Pacific region, and Olman Solis conducted microsettlement research at one of the sites in the area. Blanco and Juan Vicente Guerrero conducted extensive rescue operations at the La Ceiba in Guanacaste. Marlin Calvo, Leidy Bonilla, and Silvia Salgado mapped and tested a salt production site on the south shore of the Bay of Culebra.

Some of these projects were rescue oriented, while some were pure research in orientation (see Lange and Norr 1986). Corrales (1987) has discussed this transition in more detail. Of particular importance were the expansion of research efforts into the Central Pacific coastal region and greatly increased efforts in the Central Valley.

Recent Developments, 1990s.

The construction on the Bay of Culebra tourist project began, and research directed by Ellen Hardy was conducted under a contract between the Ministry of Tourism and the National Museum of Costa Rica. There were also signs that the long waiting Boruca Dam impoundment was under reconsideration. Jeffrey Quilter has continued Drolet’s research in the Rio Grande de Terraba region, and Aida Blanco is both conducting research and directing a regional museum in the San Isidro region.

In addition, Ifigenia Quintanilla is developing a greatly expanded contextual database for one of Costa Rica’s best known prehistoric enigmas, the stone balls of the Diquis region. The French team of Claude Baudez, Sophie Laligant, Natcha Borgnino, and Valerie Lauthel conducted stratigraphic research in the Diquis area that helped to refine the sequences developed by Lothrop and Haberland. John Hoopes has initiated long-term research in the Golfito area.

In an ongoing collaboration between rescue and academic archaeology, the National Museum is also involved in a massive salvage project in the area of the Cañas-Liberia irrigation project in the northwestern region. Research by University of Costa Rica archaeologists is largely restricted to the Central Valley, and the teaching program at the university has been weakened by the departure of some key professors and by a shift in emphasis by the social science division of the university. While not an archaeologist, Adolfo Constenla is making important linguistic contributions (1991) to our understanding of the period immediately preceding the Spanish invasion.

The 1990s saw the first steps toward collaboration between the archaeologists of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In 1993 they participated in a National Science Foundation–sponsored workshop to discuss the future of research in