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 volcanic Arenal region of Costa Rica from about 2000 BC to the Spanish Conquest at about AD 1500.
The data in this volume come from a survey of the region conducted with the latest remote sensing technology. Sheets and his coauthors have compiled a detailed record of human settlements in the area, including dozens of archaeological sites and a network of prehistoric footpaths that reveals patterns of travel and communication across the region. The Arenal peoples prospered in their precarious environment apparently by taking advantage of food and lithic resources, keeping population levels low, and avoiding environmental degradation. These findings will interest a wide interdisciplinary audience in anthropology and archaeology, earth sciences, technology, geography, and human ecology.
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.
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.
- Chapter 1. The Proyecto Prehistórico Arenal: An Introduction (Payson D. Sheets)
- Chapter 2. The Eruption of 1968 and Tephra Stratigraphy of Arenal Volcano (William G. Melson)
- Chapter 3. Archaeological Survey in the Arenal Basin (Marilynn Mueller)
- Chapter 4. Tronadora Vieja: An Archaic and Early Formative Site in the Arenal Region (John E. Bradley)
- Chapter 5. Excavations at Sitio Bolívar: A Late Formative Village in the Arenal Basin (John W. Hoopes and Mark L. Chenault)
- Chapter 6. The ls-
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