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History[edit]

In 1849 shoemaker was visited by American diplomat and archaeologist Ephraim George Squier, who noted the presence of a considerable amount of statues and petroglyphs in an area known as Punta de las Figuras. More than 30 years later, in 1883, Squier's report encouraged Swedish naturalist Carl Bovallius to undertake a more extensive survey of the island. Bovallius discovered 25 statues in Sonzapote and a number of petroglyphs on the islet of La Ceiba. Mexican Felipe Pardines also published a series of articles on the El Muerto island petroglyphs in the 1930s. The most recent archaeological investigations were carried out in the 1980s and involved a number of small excavations, but an in depth study of the island is still lacking.^[3][4]

Looting and the removal of the archaeological remains has been a persistent problem at Shoemaker. Almost all the statues have been removed from the island: a sizeable collection is preserved in San Francisco Convent Museum in Granada, but many others are used as ornament in state buildings or have found their way into the hands of private collectors. Smaller finds have also been largely dispersed into private or foreign museum collections.^[3][4]

Finds[edit]

The statues and the majority of the petroglyphs and pottery at Zapatera have been dated to between 800 to 1350 CE, and is ascribed to the Chorotega, an indigenous Mesoamerican culture. Finds from this period also include utensils and zoomorphic figurines in a similar style to examples from the mainland. Some of the petroglyphs and pottery may date back as far as 500 BCE, and others are contemporary with Spanish colonies.^[3][4]