Where Does Mesoamerica End? Rock Art and Cultural Boundaries in Ancient Honduras by Alejandro Figueroa, PhD, University of Missouri

Honduras has long occupied an ambiguous place in archaeological definitions of Mesoamerica, often portrayed as a frontier between Mesoamerican societies to the north and Indigenous traditions of Lower Central America to the south. Rock art complicates that picture. Drawing on archaeological, iconographic, and archaeometric research at rock art sites across central and southern Honduras, this presentation examines how ancient communities transformed caves, rockshelters, rivers, and other landscape features into places of social memory and ritual practice. Rather than marking clear cultural boundaries, imagery ranging from locally distinctive motifs to symbols shared across Mesoamerica and Central America reveals overlapping networks of interaction, demonstrating how regional ideas were continually reworked within local landscapes and ways of viewing and experiencing the world.

Alejandro J. Figueroa, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri. His research explores ow people interact with, transform, and give meaning to landscapes, with a particular focus on Honduras and southeastern Mesoamerica. Drawing on zooarchaeology, geoarchaeology, archaeometry, landscape archaeology, and iconographic analysis, his work examines topics ranging from the earliest inhabitants of Central America and changing human-environment relationships to rock art and networks of mineral pigment and obsidian exchange. He has conducted archaeological and cultural heritage work in Honduras for more than two decades and is deeply committed to community-engaged archaeology and science communication in both Honduras and the United States.

This lecture will be presented virtually on the Society’s Zoom platform. You must be preregistered to attend. A registration link will be posted here early in November.

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