NEW APPROACHES IN STYLISTIC ANALYSIS: THE LATE POLYCHROME PERIOD CERAMICS FROM HACIENDA TEMPISQUE, GUANACASTE PROVINCE, COSTA RICA

This dissertation is based on the personal and professional conviction that public and private collections of artifacts all over the world are under-utilized and that anthropology as a discipline must adopt non-traditional approaches in order to unlock the rich potential of such material. The associated research proposition states that a less than well provenienced collection of archaeological material can, with appropriate research design and analysis, address problems of an anthropological nature and add new information to the prehistory of a designated area.;Results of this multidisciplinary methodology provided information for refining the ceramic typology and temporal sequences in the region. Furthermore, it produced evidence that elaborate polychrome burial vessels were being imported into the area from southwestern Nicaragua and their decorative elements and iconography carefully copied on local pottery. Trace element and petrographic analysis of the pastes corroborated this stylistic and artistic evidence. Archaeological data from mortuary context demonstrated that the two distinct ceramic groups were associated in elite burials of the period.;Cultural implications based on the new data indicated a growing political and economic relationship between groups in western Nicaragua and villages in Guanacaste during the last prehistoric period in the area. In addition, it strongly suggested the presence of shared religious and ethnic ties as evidenced by the mutually understood iconography painted on funerary pottery.;A partially provenienced private collection of Late Period (A.D. 1200-1550) decorated mortuary ceramics from Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, was chosen for study. The research was based on the use of multidisciplinary tools of research: archaeology, stylistic analysis, art history, iconography, and instrumental analysis.