Cobble Circles and Standing Stones: Archaeology at the Rivas Site, Costa Rica [Paperback]

Jeffrey Quilter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

In this lively tale of archaeological adventure in the tropical forest, Jeffrey Quilter tells the story of his excavation of Rivas, a great ceremonial center at the foot of the Talamanca Mountain range, which flourished between a.d. 900 and 1300, and its fabled gold-filled cemetery, the Panteón de La Reina. Beginning with the 1992 field season and ending with the last excavations in 1998, Quilter discusses Rivas’s builders and users, theories on chiefdom societies, and the daily interactions and surprises of modern archaeological fieldwork.

Writing in the first person with a balance between informal language and academic theory, Quilter concludes that Rivas was a ceremonial center for mortuary rituals to bury chiefly elite on the Panteón. Through the use of his narrative technique, he provides the reader with accounts of discoveries as they occurred in fieldwork and the development of interpretations to explain the ancient refuse and cobble architecture his team uncovered. As his story progresses amid the enchantment of the Costa Rican landscape, research plans are adjusted and sometimes completely overturned as new discoveries, often serendipitous ones, are made. Such changing circumstances lead to new insights into the rise and fall of the people who built the cobble circles and raised the standing stones at Rivas a thousand years ago.

The only book in English that focuses on a single archaeological site in Costa Rica, which continues to develop as a destination for archaeological tourism, Cobble Circles and Standing Stones will appeal to laypeople and professionals alike.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Jeffrey Quilter has written a masterpiece describing how archaeological projects happen. The fieldwork is easy—it is the family commitments, fundraising, professional relationships, for-eign government, and foreign local community relations that are complicated to manage. This book should be required reading for students, especially those planning to go on international archaeological projects, as well as participants in Earth Watch and similar endeavors."—Frederick W. Lange, Vanderbilt University

"Quilter is to be congratulated on his careful documentation of a meticulous and highly productive field project. . . . It is clear that he had numerous and considerable obstacles to overcome in his investigations at Rivas, but he dealt with these handily and has emerged with a valuable contribution to Central American archaeology."—John Hoopes, University of Kansas, co-author of The Emergence of Pottery --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jeffrey Quilter is the author of Life and Death at Paloma: Society and Mortuary Practices in a Preceramic Peruvian Village (Iowa 1989), co-editor of Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia and Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu, and director of Pre-Columbian Studies and curator of the Pre-Columbian Collection at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877458936
• ISBN-13: 978-0877458937
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in New York City. I grew up in Queensbridge Housing Projects. When I was young, two experiences developed my interests in the past. One was my trips to England with my mother to visit my grandmother and other relatives. I became fascinated in castles, Roman ruins, Stonehenge, and many other ancient and historic sites. Back in New York, my father and I would regularly make the rounds of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and all of the other museums. These childhood experiences eventually led to my becoming an archaeologist. The single most important experience that influenced me, however, was my trip to Peru as an exchange student on my 17th birthday, an experience that came about through my volunteering as a "Junior Curator" at the Brooklyn Children's Museum and also because my parents encouraged me to go.
I went to Brooklyn Technical High School, spent a year at NYU, and then finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago. I went to graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara where I received by M.A. and Ph.D. My research projects mostly have been in Peru although I spent almost a decade in Costa Rica when political conditions made conducting research in Peru difficult. I have taught at a number of colleges and universities as a visiting professor but I spent 15 years at Ripon College, Wisconsin, and then served as Director of Pre-Columbian Studies and Curator of the Pre-Columbian Collection at Dumbarton Oaks. I have been at Harvard as Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at the Peabody Museum since 2005.
My research has been somewhat diverse although all focused in the New World. Although I do like diversity, my work in Preceramic Peru, late prehistoric Costa Rica, Moche iconography, and Colonial Period archaeology is less due to restlessness than combination of serendipity and an interest in fields of study that intrigue me and that often were slightly off-center of the focus of most scholarship when I first became interested in them. Most interesting things happen on the edges, not in the centers.
I enjoy writing very much and I particularly like to write books for educated laypeople. My wife pointed out many years ago that what one publishes is the most public and long-lasting legacy one can leave as a scholar. I hope you will find my books enjoyable and interesting.