THE STONE STATUES 01 
 
 LAGUA 
 
 By S. k; LOTHROP 
 
 Reprinted from The American Anthropologist, Vol. 23, No. 3, July-September, 
 
 1921. 
 

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[Reprinted from the American Anthroiologist, Vol. 23, No. 3, July- Sept., 1921.] 
 
 >s THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 
 
 By S. K. LOTHROP 
 
 A RCHAEOLOGISTS have known for many years that large 
 
 Jr\ stone statues are found in the region of the great lakes of 
 
 Nicaragua. However, as yet no serious study of the 
 
 problems raised by these figures has been made, and I therefore 
 
 propose to discuss a few points in connection with them. 
 
 In height the statues range from three to twelve feet, and the 
 subject is invariably a human being, usually male, and often shown 
 in conjunction with an animal figure. The types of particular in- 
 terest are as follows : 
 
 I. A human figure, to the back and shoulders of which clings 
 
 an animal (fig. 67, d). 
 II. A human figure bearing on its head the head of an animal 
 (fig. 67, b). 
 III. A human figure shown in conjunction with an animal or 
 an animal head, within the jaws of which appears the 
 human head (fig. 67, c). Sometimes the animal head 
 of this type is partially conventionalized (fig. 67, a). 
 
 These three types form a unit series in which certain changes 
 take place. Thus, starting with a complete animal figure carried 
 on the back of the man, we end up with the human head within 
 the animal jaws. This series is obviously connected with a con- 
 ception common among the ancient Mexicans and Maya, but it 
 is distinguished from the Mexican and Mayan treatment in that the 
 Nicaraguan body is always human, even when the head is enclosed 
 in animal jaws, while the Mexican and Mayan body is character- 
 istically an animal, within the jaws of which appears a human head. 
 
 In addition to the above types there are: 
 
 IV. A human figure seated on the top of a tall column. 
 
 311 
 
312 
 
 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 
 
 [n. s., 23, 1921 
 
LOTHROP] 
 
 THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 
 
 313 
 
 V. A human figure with a large gorget held in the hand or 
 
 suspended from the neck: 
 VI. A human figure with the arms folded across the chest. 
 VII. Stone columns with pictographs. 
 
 In distribution these statues come into direct contact with the 
 Maya area. Dr. Gordon discovered in the Uloa Valley a rather 
 crude sculpture (figure 68, a) which is comparable to a figure dis- 
 covered by Squier on Zapatero Island in Lake Nicaragua (fig. 68, b). 
 
 Fig. 68. — ^A stone statue (a) from the Uloa Valley Honduras, compared 
 with a figure (b) found on Zapatero Island, Nicaragua. 
 
 Seler found near Comitan, a town in southwestern Mexico, a statue 
 (fig. 69, a) stylistically very close to one of the Nicaraguan types 
 (fig. 69, b and c). This form, the fourth of our classificatory system, 
 represents a man seated on the top of a tall column. .The capital 
 of this column is round while the shaft is usually square. 
 
 A third pair of statues of greater significance is seen in figure 70. 
 The standing figure (a) was found on Zapatero Island and is en- 
 
314 
 
 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 
 
 [n. s., 23, 1921 
 
 tirely typical of that region. A seated figure (b) was found by the 
 writer at La Florida, a town some sixty miles from the great Maya 
 city of Copan and itself surrounded by ruins of Maya type. The 
 La Florida sculpture bears on its back a small animal figure, which, 
 we have seen, is a Nicaraguan feature and is not characteristic of 
 Mayan art. 
 
 While the La Florida figure belongs in the same group with 
 what we have called the Nicaraguan figures, it also is stylistically 
 
 Fig. 6g. — A stone statue from southwestern Mexico (a) compared with 
 statues of Nicaraguan type (b, c). 
 
 affiliated with a group of 'crude sculptures found principally in the 
 highlands of Guatemala (fig. 70, c), which are probably a local 
 development of the Nicaraguan type. The method of representing 
 the hands and arms as well as their position on the body indicate 
 stylistic affiliation, and, furthermore, similar subjects, among which 
 should be mentioned crude figures with a plate or disk held on the 
 belly, are represented all the way from Guatemala to Costa Rica. 
 This, perhaps, is the germ of the idea which later developed into 
 the reclining human figure type commonly called the Chac Mool, 
 
LOTHROp] THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 
 
 315 
 
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3l6 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 23, 1921 
 
 now proved to have been evolved as early as the Maya Great 
 Period (sixth century A.D.) by its discovery by Prof. M. H. Saville 
 at the ruins of Quirigua. 
 
 Two statues of the Guatemalan sub-type (fig. 70, d and e) have 
 been found at the ruins of Copan, where they had been built into 
 the foundations of stelae 5 and 4 which are dated 9.14.0.0.0 and 
 9. 17. 12. 13.0 in the Mayan system or 452 and 523 A.D. From this 
 we may safely infer that these two monuments, and indeed the 
 whole group under discussion, are comparatively early, and that 
 their makers occupied the Copan region before the arrival of the 
 Maya. 
 
 The small jade figure known as the Tuxtla statuette (fig. 71, a) 
 bears the date corresponding to 96 B.C. Mr. S. G. Morley, on the 
 evidence of the glyphs themselves, believes that this date is contem- 
 porary. It is therefore the earliest date yet known on the American 
 continent which is not of obviously legendary character. It has 
 been recognized that the Tuxtla statuette did not accord stylistically 
 with other Mayan remains of any period whatsoever. However, it 
 can be connected with two large stone figures from the Nicaraguan 
 area (fig. 71, b and c) and with certain jade pendants from the 
 nearby peninsula of Nicoya. The distinguishing characteristic 
 of the Tuxtla statuette is the appendage which covers the mouth, 
 which may be a beard but more probably represents the bill of a 
 bird." The two Nicaraguan statues here represented are marked 
 by the presence of objects on the lower part of the face which I 
 feel confident are intended to represent the bill of a bird, for when 
 we examine the jade pendants from Nicoya (fig. 72) we find forms 
 almost identical with those of the statues, the evolution of which 
 into bird types can be definitely traced. It is also of interest to 
 note that in the Nicoya jades we can trace the transformation of 
 this bird type into forms which are well known in South America 
 in the early Peruvian cultures. 
 
 The question who made these statues now arises. On artistic 
 grounds our search can at once be limited to three peoples, the 
 Maya, Nahua, and Chorotega, and I believe that they may be 
 definitely ascribed to the Chorotega for the following reasons: 
 
LOTHROP] 
 
 THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 
 
 317 
 
 I. The majority of the statues are in territory not known to 
 have been occupied by anybody but Chorotega, while all the statues 
 occur within the extreme limits of this stock, i.e. between the State 
 of Chiapas in Mexico and northwestern Costa Rica. 
 
 Fig. 71. — The Tuxtla statuette (a) compared with two large stone figures 
 from the Nicaraguan area (b, c). 
 
 II. We may eliminate the Maya, because it is certain that they 
 never came to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. From archaeological 
 remains it seems that Maya art once dominated Salvador, and 
 certain Mayan motives appear on Costa Rican and Nicaraguan 
 pottery, but, in the words of Dr. Spinden, these designs are "carried 
 so far from the original that only an expert can see the connections." 
 
 III. The Nahua came to Nicaragua at a comparatively late 
 period — probably in the early part of the fifteenth century — and 
 surely never occupied more territory than at the time of the con- 
 quest. They certainly did not settle near La Florida and in the 
 Uloa Valley, so they could not well have been the makers of the 
 statues. 
 
 IV. While the statues are not Maya or Mexican in style, yet 
 they are related to ceramic and jade remains from Nicaragua and 
 Costa Rica which are universally ascribed to the Chorotega. 
 
3t8 
 
 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 
 
 [n. s., 23, 1921 
 
 A word must now be said about the Chorotega. At the time 
 of the Spanish conquest they were divided into four geographical 
 groups consisting of: (i) the Chiapanecs in Chiapas, or southwestern 
 Mexico, (2) the Choluteca in the Honduranean Department of 
 Choluteca, (3) the Mangue in the region between Leon, Managua, 
 and the Pacific in Nicaragua, and (4) the Orotiiians in north- 
 western Costa Rica. Their language bears relationship to that of 
 no other people, although at one time Brinton thought that it 
 might be a branch of the Aymara tongue of Peru. The Chiapanec 
 possessed a legend that they had come from Nicaragua, while all 
 the Spanish historians of Nicaragua agree that the Chorotega were 
 the "ancient and indigenous" inhabitants of that land. 
 
 Fig. 72. — Jade pendants from Nicoya. 
 
 With this information before us, we are now prepared to ad- 
 vance certain hypotheses as to the movements of population in 
 Middle America: 
 
 I. The Chorotega, who on archaeological grounds show relation- 
 ship with South America, probably moved from that continent 
 into Central America in very early times. Archaeological remains 
 show that they occupied, at one time or another, the highlands of 
 Chiapas and Guatemala, the eastern and northern portions of 
 Honduras, the central and western parts of Nicaragua, and the 
 northwestern corner of Costa Rica. 
 
 II. The Maya, who probably came originally from the district 
 to the south of Vera Cruz, in the centuries immediately preceding 
 the Christian era occupied the region of the Peten in northern 
 
LOTHROP] THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 3 19 
 
 Guatemala. At the beginning of the first century A.D. they ex- 
 panded to the southeast, and settled in the Copan-Quirigua-Uloa 
 Valley region, driving out the previous inhabitants, who were 
 Chorotega. 
 
 III. In the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. the Maya civiliza- 
 tion was uprooted, probably through the failure of agriculture, 
 and the population moved into Yucatan and the highlands of 
 Guatemala. In the latter region they again encountered and drove 
 out Chorotegan tribes, of which the remnants today are the Chi- 
 apanecs and Mazatecs. 
 
 IV. Various tribes of which ■ we have not spoken, the Lenca, 
 Xicaque, Ulva, etc., are almost certainly of South American origin 
 and perhaps speak a South American language. They appear to 
 have moved northward in the wake of the Chorotega, whom they 
 drove out of Honduras and central Nicaragua. 
 
 V. A third migratory wave from South America consisted of 
 such Chibchan tribes as the Corobici, Guetar, and Talamanca. At 
 the time of the Spanish conquest the Corobici and Guetar had come 
 into contact with the Chorotega of Costa Rica, and were rapidly 
 exterminating them. 
 
 VI. Nahua tribes started to work down the west coast of Central 
 America in comparatively early times, yet no group of this people 
 passed the Lempa River in Salvador until the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century. At that time, however, the Nicarao entered 
 Nicaragua and displaced the Chorotegan tribes occupying the 
 Isthmus of Rivas, the narrow strip of land which separates the 
 Lake of Nicaragua from the Pacific. 
 
 The hypotheses which have been advanced above rest on a 
 complex of facts, for which as yet no other explanation has been 
 offered. The outstanding features to which attention is invited 
 are: (i) that stone figures of several distinct types distributed 
 from southern Mexico to Costa Rica apparently form a unified 
 group; (2) that this group, in part at least, is very early, as is shown 
 by the presence of these statues under the Copan altars and by 
 their artistic connection with the Tuxtla Statuette; and (3) that 
 one and only one race, the Chorotega, has ever occupied the full 
 and exact limits of the region wherein these statues occur. 
 
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