Simulating Prehistoric Sea Contacts between Costa Rica and Colombia

Abstract

Computer simulations of prehistoric voyaging are used to examine direct cultural contacts and possible movements of people between the Caribbean Coast of Colombia and Costa Rica. Contact is recognized archaeologically in the first millennium BC. Between about AD 200 and AD 800/900, and in the succeeding Tairona period of Colombia (ninth century to Spanish conquest), the closest cultural similarities are seen in Costa Rica and Colombia with less similarity occurring in the intervening regions. Artifact assemblages suggest direct contacts between the two regions. Direct, open-sea voyages between Costa Rica and the Tairona region are simulated. The following questions are asked. (1) Are such voyages feasible, and under what condition? (2) Could they have been made in both directions? Should we think of planned and continuous contacts or of a one-way migration, accidental, or deliberate? If the latter, in which direction? The simulated voyages demonstrate that it is feasible to drift accidentally from the Tairona region to Costa Rica. Intentional voyages from the Tairona region to Costa Rica can be accomplished almost year round; the same is true from Costa Rica. The simulation does not provide an explanation for the archaeological patterning, but it is consistent with strong contact between Costa Rica and the Tairona region, and some contact in-between.

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