Cave research in Nicaragua

This should be a short post because there has been very little archaeological research on caves in Nicaragua. One probable reason for the dearth of research is the paucity of caves in Nicaragua, which is mostly volcanic. There are a few caves of volcanic origin, but they are not common. The only limestone area of the country, where caves should be (and may be) more common, is a small expanse of karst in a remote and inaccessible stretch along the northern border. There, Suzanne Baker recently discovered a significant cave with paintings that she named Cueva la Conga. There's a fine article on it in the new number of Latin American Antiquity that just came in the mail.

Baker, Suzanne M. and Ruth Ann Armitage (2013). Cueva La Conga: First Karst Cave Archaeology in Nicaragua. Latin American Antiquity Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 302-329.

This is not the first article published about the cave. You can also see

Li, Ran, Suzanne Baker, Cathy Selvius DeRoo, and Ruth Ann Armitage (2012). Characterization of the Binders and Pigments in the Rock Paintings of Cueva La Conga, Nicaragua. In Collaborative Endeavors in the Chemical Analysis of Art and Cultural Heritage Materials, edited Patricia L. Lang and Ruth A. Armitage, pp. 75-89. American Chemical Society. ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 1103. DOI: 10.1021/bk-2012-1103.ch004.

Here you can find a nice web site about the project too.

Continuing on the theme of Nicaraguan cave research, I'm in the process of translating (from Spanish to English) long excerpts from the reports of Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús and Fray Rodrigo Betancourt describing their attempt to evangelize the central highlands of Nicaragua in 1703. Transcriptions of the documents have been published by both Ruz and Van Broekhoven. The latter transcription appears to be more complete and is certainly easier to parse because of the highly creative but unconventional organization of Ruz's article. The two transcriptions also differ, at least slightly, because they come from two different copies of the reports. Ruz found his copies in the Franciscan archives in Rome, the Archivio Generale de la Ordine dei Fratri Minori, while Van Broekhoven's come from a conventual archive in Querétaro, México. What do these have to do with cave archaeology? They contain remarkable descriptions of cave worship and rites, so much so that the majority of the text concerns the religious use of caves in one way or another. It's great stuff! The cultural-religious patterns they describe sound very Mesoamerican, so it is relevant to all those Mayanist and Mexicanist cave archaeologists, though I have never seen it cited by them. I plan to include my translations in a book, the manuscript of which is nearing completion. Wish me luck in the proposal and submission process. Here are the full references for Ruz and Van Broekhoven:


Ruz, Mario Humberto (1994). Atajar los ríos, poner puertas al campo. Loa sacramental para los dioses de Nicaragua, 1703. Estudios de Cultura Novohispana, Vol. 14, pp. 61-115, México, UNAM: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.

Electronic copies of Ruz's article are available on the internet.

Van Broekhoven, Laura N. K. (2002) Conquistando Lo Invencible: Fuentes Históricas sobre las Culturas Indígenas de la Región Central de Nicaragua.Leiden (The Netherlands): CNWS Publications.

This book is out of print and difficult to obtain, except through InterLibrary Loan here in the United States.  It merits reprinting.

Cave Paintings in Cueva La Conga, Nicaragua

Some months ago, reports appeared in the media announcing the discovery of cave paintings in the Department of Jinotega, Nicaragua, by Suzanne Baker, who has been working in the country for many years, mainly studying petroglyphs. The discovery of Cueva la Conga was interesting for several reasons. First, most of Nicaragua is volcanic, and so most of the caves are lava tubes, but Cueva la Conga is a limestone solution cavern, located in a small region of karst near the border with Honduras. Second, cave paintings, as opposed to petroglyphs, are rare in Nicaragua. Third, the central and eastern parts of Jinotega are remote, dangerous, and almost completely unexplored. So, any archaeological discovery in the region is interesting news. Here is a link to Suzanne Baker’s website describing the discovery.

I bring this up because of a new report on an effort to radiocarbon date the paintings by Dr. Ruth Ann Armitage at Eastern Michigan University. She is using new techniques that I haven’t heard of, so it will be interesting to find out how they work. Here’s the article.

I would love to visit Jinotega. It’s reputed to be a beautiful, coffee-growing region is the cool, misty highlands. Jinotega is supposed to mean “City of the Mists” (Ciudad de las Brumas). The closest I’ve been to Jinotega is the Finca Selva Negra, north of Matagalpa, which was indeed lovely.

Check out Jinotga on Google Earth. See how the eastern part is all green? This is a large patch of rainforest that has not been explored archaeologically. Much of it falls with the Boswas Biosphere Reserve, a protected conservation area. One reason Jinotega has not been surveyed is that it was heavily mined during the Contra War and it has not been completely demined. Demining efforts were significantly complicated by the effects of Hurricane Mitch, which caused extensive erosion and landslides that moved mines around. A couple of days ago, I watched Carla’s Song, a very powerful movie about the Contra War. It’s worth watching.