Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica - Hardcover

Sheets, Payson D.

9780292776678: Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0292776675 ISBN 13: 9780292776678

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1994

How humans adapt to life in an area prone to natural disasters is an intriguing study for the social sciences. In this volume, experts from several disciplines explore the adaptation process of prehistoric societies in the Arenal region of Costa Rica, an area that has experienced numerous volcanic eruptions during the last several millennia. The data in this volume come from a survey of the region conducted under the leadership of Payson Sheets. Using the latest remote sensing technology, including color infrared photography and the Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner, researchers have compiled a detailed record of human settlement patterns in the area from about 2000 BC to the Spanish Conquest at about AD 1500. Combining remote sensing technology with traditional techniques of archaeology, the researchers found dozens of previously unknown archaeological sites and a network of prehistoric footpaths that reveals patterns of human travel and communication across the region. They excavated numerous villages, some dating to before 2000 BC, around the shores of Lake Arenal, uncovering significant data about the food sources, sophisticated pottery, and stone-working techniques of the people. From these findings, the authors conclude that the Arenal peoples prospered in their precarious environment by taking advantage of diverse food and lithic resources, keeping population levels low, and avoiding environmental degradation. Indeed, their societies evidently maintained far greater social stability than did those in Mesoamerica or the Andes. This book will interest a wide interdisciplinary audience in anthropology and archaeology, earth sciences, technology, geography, and human ecology.Numerous line drawings, photographs, maps, and tables accompany the text.

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Synopsis:

"This book contains 17 chapters by 13 authors; 10 are single-authored and the others by various combinations of multiple authors. The work is meticulous ranging from regional to site descriptions, and covering remote sensing applications, chipped stone, ground stone, jewelry, phytoliths, pollen, and macrobotanicals. An excellent account of the arch

About the Author:

Payson Sheets is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Brian R. McKee received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Arizona.

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