History of Nicoya

ed in the hamlet of Sabana Grande, six kilometers north of Nicoya. This site appears to be larger than the rest; it exhibits low earthen mounds, and is particularly prized by local looters for its high-quality polychrome pottery and gold artifacts. Apparently a much greater quantity of high-quality artifacts have been removed from the vicinity of Sabana Grande than from Nicoya or anywhere else in the valley. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the colonial ejido (lands held in common by the indigenous community) of the Indian community of Nicoya was in Sabana Grande, not Nicoya

It is only possible to consider either of these sites as protohistoic Nicoya if we discard the notion that it was a single community of over 6,000+ souls. Neither site is near the size necessary to hold that number of people if we accept even as an approximate Newson's (1987:87) estimates of 0.045 to 0.06 persons/hectare for Pacific Nicaragua at Spanish contact, and as little as 0.02 persons/hectare for Nicoya.

An alternative interpretation of Cereceda's figures would understand them as representing the inhabitants of several settlements politically affiliated with Nicoya but not the members of one massive community. The cacique Nicoya may not have had tributary villages under his direct control, but it is not unlikely that there were several villages within his orbit of influence that he could persuade to treat with the Spanish. A model of dispersed settlement of politically affiliated villages rather than one large nucleated town better fits the archaeological and ethnohistoric information at hand. It should be noted that Oviedo, who visited Nicoya in 1529 and recorded aspects of the town's layout, never remarked on the great size of the settlement. Oviedo was in Nicoya before precipitous population decline had taken its effect, and one would expect