Scientific research

The southern border of Mesoamerica is traditionally drawn at the Ulua river of western Honduras, before dipping southward to include El Salvador, Pacific Nicaragua, and northwest Costa Rica. Recent work in the Department of Colon, Honduras, provides the earliest evidence of aboriginal occupation in the region and extends the established chronological sequence back more than a thousand years. A preliminary examination of the ceramics, and a comparison to other Preclassic sites, indicates that eastern Honduras, despite its later affiliation with Lower Central American cultural patterns, was probably participating in the cultural development and long-distance trade network of Early and Middle Preclassic Mesoamerican neighbors. Using ethno-historic analogy, the possibility of cacao as a Preclassic trade commodity is raised. Finally, it is suggested that the cultural frontier of Mesoamerica in the southeast be extended for the Preclassic time horizon.