Central America before the Spanish Conquest has often been considered by North American archaeologists as a “backwater” of peripheral importance located between the advanced ancient civilizations of South America and Mesoamerica (Mexican–Maya country). Recent archaeological research has revealed that this area played a much more significant role in New World cultural history than was previously thought. Healy’s study examines the archaeological record of one subarea of Southern Central America, the Rivas region of Pacific Nicaragua. The work gives a detailed analysis of excavations and of artifacts recovered at seven significant prehistoric sites. A critical pioneering effort, the monograph documents cultural changes occurring over a 2,000–year time period—changes in technology, material culture, settlement, subsistence, and socio–political organization.

Paul F. Healy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, has conducted research on the archaeology of Belize, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. He holds the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard. His articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as Archaeology, American Anthropologist, and American Antiquity.

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