Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T02:30:34.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patolli Petroglyphs in Northeast Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Franziska Fecher Open the ORCID record for Franziska Fecher [Opens in a new window]
Franziska Fecher*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Zurich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Patolli petroglyphs were recently identified at two archaeological sites in northeast Honduras. Patolli is a Mesoamerican game of chance described in ethnohistoric sources and documented in archaeological contexts in many parts of Mesoamerica. Thus, it has been characterized as an important element of Mesoamerican culture. The existence of patolli boards at Plan Grande, on the island of Guanaja, and at Sawacito in northeast Honduras shows that the practice of the game extended farther to the east than earlier presumed and indicates long-distance interaction. Given the considerable number of five patolli petroglyphs at Plan Grande, I characterize the site as an important center.

Recientemente se han identificado petroglifos de patolli en dos sitios arqueológicos en el noreste de Honduras. Patolli es un juego de azar prehispánico descrito en fuentes etnohistóricas y documentado en contextos arqueológicos en muchas zonas de Mesoamérica. Ha sido reconocido como un elemento importante de la cultura mesoamericana y la existencia de varios tableros de patolli en los sitios de Plan Grande, Guanaja y Sawacito, Olancho, demuestra que la práctica de este juego se extendió más allá de las fronteras tradicionales de Mesoamérica e indica un intercambio a larga distancia. La presencia de cinco petroglifos de patolli en Plan Grande sugiere que éste era un centro de encuentro importante.

Keywords

northeast HondurasIsthmo-Colombian Areaprehispanic gamespetroglyphsnoreste de Hondurasárea istmo-colombianajuegos prehispánicospetroglifos
Type
Report
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 624 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Begley, Christopher 1999 Elite Power Strategies and External Connections in Ancient Eastern Honduras. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1925 Un antiguo juego mexicano: El Patolli. El México Antiguo 2:203–211.Google Scholar
Craig, Alan K. 1977 Contribución a la prehistoria de las Islas de la Bahía. Yaxkin 2:19–27.Google Scholar
Cruz Castillo, Oscar N. 1999 Informe de inspección a los sitios arqueológicos de Plan Grande y Marble Hill, Guanaja, Islas de la Bahía, Honduras. Manuscript on file, Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Tegucigalpa.Google Scholar
Durán, Diego 1971 [1574–1579] Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar. Translated and edited by Horcasitas, Fernando and Heyden, Doris. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
ELAP (Escuela Latinoamericana de Áreas Protegidas) 2006 Plan de manejo y gestión: Parque Arqueológico Plan Grande, Isla Guanaja, Islas de la Bahía, Honduras. ELAP, San José, Costa Rica.Google Scholar
Feachem, Richard W. 1940 The Bay Islands, Gulf of Honduras. Geographical Journal 96:181–189.Google Scholar
Fisher, Christopher T., Fernández-Diaz, Juan Carlos, Cohen, Anna S., Cruz, Oscar N., Gonzáles, Alicia M., Leisz, Stephen J., Pezzutti, Florencia, Shrestha, Ramesh, and Carter, William 2016 Identifying Ancient Settlement Patterns through LiDAR in the Mosquitia Region of Honduras. PloS ONE 11(8):e0159890. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159890.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul 1984 Northeast Honduras: A Precolumbian Frontier Zone. In Recent Developments in Isthmian Archaeology. Advances in the Prehistory of Lower Central America. Proceedings of the 44th International Congress of Americanists, edited by Lange, Frederick and Hammond, Norman, pp. 227–241. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lara Pinto, Gloria, and Hasemann, George 1991 Leyendas y arqueología: Cuantas ciudades blancas hay en la Mosquitia? In La Reserva de la Biósfera del Río Plátano: Herencia de nuestro pasado, edited by Murphy, Vicente, pp. 16–19. Ventanas Tropicales, Tegucigalpa.Google Scholar
Mountjoy, Joseph B., and Smith, John P. 1985 An Archaeological Patolli from Tomatlan, Jalisco, Mexico. In Contributions to the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Greater Mesoamerica. Publications in Archaeology, edited by Folan, William J. and Riley, Carroll L., pp. 240–262. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Reindel, Markus, Fux, Peter, and Fecher, Franziska 2018 Archäologisches Projekt Guadalupe: Bericht über die Feldkampagne 2017. In Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinische Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland, Jahresbericht 2017, edited by Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinische Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland, pp. 31–47. Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinische Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland, Zurich.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Bernardino de 1938 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Vol II. Pedro Robredo, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Smith, A. Ledyard 1977 Patolli, at the Ruins of Seibal, Petén, Guatemala. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory: Studies in Honour of Sir Eric Thompson, edited by Hammond, Norman, pp. 349–364. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Spinden, Herbert J. 1925 The Chorotegan Culture Area. Proceedings of the Twenty-first International Congress of Americanists 2:529–545. Brill, Leiden.Google Scholar
Strong, William D. 1934 Hunting Ancient Ruins in Northeast Honduras. In Explorations and Fieldwork of the Smithsonian Institution in 1933, edited by True, W. P., pp. 44–47. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Strong, William D. 1935 Archaeological Investigations in the Bay Islands, Spanish Honduras. Smithsonian Institution Publication 3290. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Swezey, William R., and Bittman, Bente 1983 El rectángulo de cintas y el patolli: Nueva evidencia de la antigüedad, distribución, variedad y formas de practicar este juego precolombino. Mesoamérica 4:373–416.Google Scholar
Voorhies, Barbara 2013 The Deep Prehistory of Indian Gaming: Possible Late Archaic Period Game Boards at the Tlacuachero Shellmound, Chiapas, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 24:98–115.Google Scholar
Walden, John, and Voorhies, Barbara 2017 Ancient Maya Patolli. In Prehistoric Games of North American Indians: Subarctic to Mesoamerica, edited by Voorhies, Barbara, pp. 197–218. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Young, Thomas 1842 Narrative of a Residence on the Mosquito Shore, During the Years 1839, 1840, & 1841: With an Account of Truxillo, and the Adjacent Islands of Bonacca and Roatan; and a Vocabulary of the Mosquitian Language. Smith, Elder & Co, London.Google Scholar