Roberto Alexander Herrera

The Osa Peninsula comparative archaeology project is a collaboration between US and Costa Rican archaeologists as well as local communities in the Osa Peninsula. It is currently shedding light on an under studied area of Central America, focusing on understanding the interplay of subsistence, exchange, and socio-ceremonial dynamics. The project involves sampling two approximately 1400-year-old archaeological sites and their surrounding areas to compare the way inhabitants of each settlement behaved on the landscape. Fieldwork includes survey and excavation, detailing the spatial relationships of artifact assemblages to associated architecture and collecting artifact and sediment samples to reconstruct environmental and dietary contexts. The resulting comparisons are the first of their kind for the area.