Statues of Zapatera

Hello

I'd like to introduce the statues of Zapatera

In 1849 Zapatera was visited by American diplomat and archaeologist Ephraim George Squier, who noted the presence of a considerable amount of statues and petroglyphs in an area known as Punta de las Figuras. More than 30 years later, in 1883, Squier's report encouraged Swedish naturalist Carl Bovallius to undertake a more extensive survey of the island. Bovallius discovered 25 statues in Sonzapote and a number of petroglyphs on the islet of La Ceiba. Mexican Felipe Pardines also published a series of articles on the El Muerto island petroglyphs in the 1930s. The most recent archaeological investigations were carried out in the 1980s and involved a number of small excavations, but an in depth study of the island is still lacking

I thought I'd like to let you the reader investigate the available information on this unique site first. Rather cool eh? Often jokingly referred to as Nicaragua's 'Easter Island' here we have a now extinct group of people leaving us their art and statues for us to view and imagine what they were trying to convey. Here is a bit more about the site and people.

The statues and the majority of the petroglyphs and pottery at Zapatera have been dated to between 800 to 1350 CE, and is ascribed to the Chorotega, an indigenous Mesoamerican culture. Finds from this period also include utensils and zoomorphic figurines in a similar style to examples from the mainland. Some of the petroglyphs and pottery may date back as far as 500 BCE, and others are contemporary with Spanish colonies.

The most prominent finds from Zapatera were statues. According to records, they were carved of black basalt, generally between 1 to 2.25 metres (3 ft 3 in to 7 ft 5 in) high, and more than 150 centimetres (59 inches) in diameter. They depicted both humans and animals and are speculated to represent either deities or high-status individuals. Most are found around earthen or stone mounds, facing outwards, suggesting they formed part of a ceremonial installation. On the basis of engravings near these sites it has been proposed that they may have been host to human sacrifices

Some speculate the site to be much older than is presently believed. For me the verdict is still out on that but it is a very interesting site with many more intriguing possibilities to who these people were.



There are quite a few images available online if you care to search for them but whats lacking is a real sense of who these people really were and where they may have originated from. There is much speculation as to their origins, Some see Polynesian in their artistic sculptures, others see Phoenician influence etc. I don't know what to make of all that. I just thought I'd post them here and let you decide for yourselves.

Who might they have been? These two images I've found are unconfirmed but may lend us a possible clue if genuine. They were found at a now abandoned wealthy home in the area. The original collector may have absconded with these to display on the property? Which is very possible since there are still supposedly many more statues/relics yet discovered in the area. A large scale proper excavation would yield many more discoveries.

So, if genuine, Can we deduce anything as to who they may have been or originated from? Were these the Chorotega people?

reply to post by SLAYER69


Very nice. Had not heard of this before. Time to dig out my thinking cap and do some reading!

reply to post by SLAYER69

Slayer (or anyone): I've often wondered if the statues are representative of someone 'possessed' by an entity ... rather than simply decorated. Ever read that take on your intellectual wanderings?

reply to post by Snarl


I'm pretty sure there were some 'Mind Altering' ceremonies and these may have been created as a result. Being taken over by Animal deity as they perceived during the events?

reply to post by SLAYER69


I agree and think youre on the money. The Maya were pretty deft with their hallucinogenic concoctions and they were used not just in ritual practices but also for pain management purposes. They made a nifty concoction involving certain substances not to be named here combined with tobacco and alcohol into a pretty debilitating beverage and also ingested these lovely beverages via enema for more rabid onset of the desired affect. From what I've been reading lately(some preemptive research for my upcoming trip), the Maya who still live in Central America and Southern Mexico still utilize some of these practices along with the occasional bloodletting ritual minus the human sacrifice aspect. Factor that in with the proliferation of similar rituals still utilized by other indigenous MesoAmerican/South American people and its kind of a slam dunk that a great deal of anthropomorphic art is heavily Influenced by ritualized medication practices.

Yea they didnt outlaw things that helped their women with "cramps."

Is the US a sadist society? Just curious.

I still have trouble believing they were doing "human" sacrifice. btw.

reply to post by Nephalim


The Mayans, like the Toltecs, weren't interested in just human sacrifice and bloodletting. They would sacrifice just about anything from crocodiles to tapirs to orphaned children. The evidence of human sacrifice in classical mayan art however is prolific enough that they leave no doubt as to their religious experiences involving ritual sacrifice and bloodletting. ,te me just add though that as well depicted as it is in their art, human sacrifice was reserved for specific and special occasions. Animal sacrifice was far more common and human sacrifices were usually tied to events such as ill fortune, warfare and the consecration of new leaders or temples. The practice was also far less common than in the neighbouring Aztec societies. the Maya performed child sacrifice in specific circumstances, most commonly as foundation dedications for temples and other structures. Maya art from the Classic period also depicts the extraction of children's hearts during the ascension to the throne of the new kings, or at the beginnings of the Maya calendar. In one of these cases, Stele 11 in Piedras Negras, Guatemala, a sacrificed boy can be seen. Other scenes of sacrificed boys are visible on painted jars.

Hmm, yea what about these folks?

fpb.case.edu...

Are we 100% positive they were "sacrifices?"

Look at your added info above, isnt that colonics?

Nephalim
Hmm, yea what about these folks?

fpb.case.edu...

Are we 100% positive they were "sacrifices?"

100% positive? No, I myself can't say that 100% of suspected cases of ritualized human sacrifice are just that. But one big difference I'm seeing between the images ive plsted and the one you did is that I've never seen a surgical theater located in the open air atop a pyramid. If all of these cases of open heart surgery with the removal of the organ are not part of a religious ceremony then I would hate to know what the malpractice premiums were for Mayan physicians! Ad that's not even getting into the mass graves where there are pretty clear signs of sacrifice. It's kind of hard to accidentally break the hyoid bone and vertebrae from C3-C6 on several dozen individuals. While it doesn't pertain to the Maya, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a literate soldier who served under Cortes, wrote a contemporary eye witness report of an Aztec human sacrifice...

"We looked over toward the Great Pyramids and watched as [the Aztecs] ... dragged [our comrades] up the steps and prepared to sacrifice them," he wrote in his Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain), published posthumously in 1632. "After they danced, they placed our comrades face up atop square, narrow stones erected for the sacrifices. Then, with obsidian knives, they sawed their breasts open, pulled out their still-beating hearts, and offered these to their idols."

reply to post by peter vlar


Mhmm, but you're linking maya info then switching over to aztec info and we know a little more abou why the Aztecs were doing this in open view

See the word "comrades" and we also know the aztecs were not interested in "mosques"

What youre telling me brother is that there are no ocelots in Texas.
You'll have problems figuring that one out. Im sorry.

Nephalim
reply to post by peter vlar

 

Mhmm, but you're linking maya info then switching over to aztec info and we know a little more abou why the Aztecs were doing this in open view

See the word "comrades"

Exactly the point I was attempting to make. We can say with 100% certainty that the Aztec took part in ritual human sacrifice because we had contemporary eye witnesses. While we did not have eye witnesses to 100% ascertain that the Maya also used these practices in religious ceremony, all of the other pieces of evidence line up including written pieces by the Maya themselves and the vast amount of artwork they left behind depicting human sacrifice and the burial pits and grave sites associated with these rituals and the additional correlation with several other pre and post Maya cultures all practicing human sacrifice. Hey, I'm not trying to change your mind, just sharing information from recent research I've done for an upcoming trip to Belize, Honduras and Mexico to see some of these sites first hand. But in my opinion, there's nothing to indicate that the artwork and remains that have been located and studied are related to anything other than what they are purported to be, especially in a comparison to legitimate medical practice. Long before the Maya and well after, Trepanation was practiced and the vast majority of patients survived this primitive brain surgery. It seems to me a bit incomprehensible that earlier and later cultures would be able to perform cranial procedures successfully yet an intermediate culture with the only verified written language as well as very accurate astronomical calculations managed to kill 1000's trying to perform medical procedures, often times on captured enemy prisoners. Who bothers trying to do random heart surgery on their enemies? Just my view of the scenario.

reply to post by peter vlar

It seems to me a bit incomprehensible that earlier and later cultures would be able to perform cranial procedures successfully yet an intermediate culture with the only verified written language as well as very accurate astronomical calculations managed to kill 1000's trying to perform medical procedures, often times on captured enemy prisoners. Who bothers trying to do random heart surgery on their enemies? Just my view of the scenario.

Free peoples who want to be left alone possibly? Not forced into outside religions, languages, ways of life, people who didnt want outsiders coming into their home lands and telling them who to worship, where to walk, how to speak? What to grow, what not to grow... what to trade what not to trade.. Its fairly comprehensible. I know of 300 million plus people who feel the same way. Same continent too. This continent has a southern half (which you mention)and great number of that southern half agrees, to this day with the northern half.

Just wanted to thank everybody for making this an interesting read.

SLAYER69
Just wanted to thank everybody for making this an interesting read.

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Christoph Weiditz
sort of off sub but on sub