Nuevo Corinto: A Chiefly Village in Northeastern Costa Rica

Archaeological research at Nuevo Corinto has provided information on the emergence of complex village patterns in northeastern Costa Rica. This includes an improved chronology of in situ culture change over a 3000-year period. The consolidation of an architectural core began ca. AD 400-600 with the principal period of construction of circular elevated platforms for supporting domestic structures, reaching peak construction ca. AD 700-1100. Nuevo Corinto, together with neighboring sites, appears to have been a major node in trade networks extending from the Caribbean to the Pacific coasts. Our research has provided details on the emergence and growth of architectural units and hydraulic features in this village, a center of manufacturing, trade, and social hierarchy in the Caribbean lowlands.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Centro de Investigaciones Antropológicas (CIAN)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Antropologí

Climate change increases the risk of fisheries conflict

The effects of climate change on the ocean environment – especially ocean warming, acidification, and sea level rise – will impact fish stocks and fishers in important ways. Likely impacts include changes in fish stocks’ productivity and distribution, human migration to and away from coastal areas, stresses on coastal fisheries infrastructure, and challenges to prevailing maritime boundaries. In this paper, we explore these and other related phenomena, in order to assess whether and how the impacts of climate change on fisheries will contribute to the risk of fisheries conflict. We argue that climate change will entail an increase in the conditions that may precipitate fisheries conflict, and thereby create new challenges for existing fisheries management institutions. Several potential changes in fisheries management policy are recommended to avert the growing risk of fisheries-related conflicts

Computer programs for simulating the line intersect process for residue inventory

This paper describes the concepts and operations of two programs, SLASH, which simulates forest-residue populations, and INTRSCT, which performs line intersect residue inventories on these populations. Program SLASH creates residue pieces on a 5.07 -acre square area to specified orientation and spatial distributions. The user can specify constant geometric piece shapes,or create populations with length /diameter distributions based on actual residue inventories. Program INTRSCT samples this population, using a user -determined number and configuration of sample legs per transect and transects per experiment. The results of these simulations may be used to plan residue inventories and perform technique studies to determine optimum sample designs. Edge effects, boundary problems, and program calibration are discussed. Keywords: Residue surveys, sampling design, population sampling, computer programs/programing

Ford revisited: A critical review of the chronology and relationships of the earliest ceramic complexes in the New World, 6000-1500 B.C.

In 1969, Ford offered a comprehensive model for the diffusion of ceramic production and Formative lifeways in the New World. Although criticized as simplistic, it was echoed by other "unitary" models, such as Lathrap's spread of Tropical Forest culture outward from a lowland South American hearth. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the earliest American pottery appears in the Amazon basin as early as 6000 B.C. However, there is little support for an "ex Amazonas lux" spread of pottery technology. Diffu¬sionary models predict early complexes will resemble one another at first and then diverge over time, but comparative analysis reveals substantial variability even at the earliest time level. Heterogeneity among the earliest complexes indicates several likely hearths for the independent evolution of ceramic production, including: 1) lowland Brazil, 2) northern Colombia; 3) coastal Ecuador, 4) coastal Peru, 5) central Panama, 6) southern Mesoamerica, 7) the southeastern U.S., and 8) the central U.S