The mysterious mounds of Nicaragua
18 May 2013
The mysterious mounds of Nicaragua
National Geographic explorer and archaeologist Alex Geurds is currently in the field investigating a prehistoric, ceremonial center of stone circles in Central Nicaragua.
Researchers will be working for the next few weeks at the site of Aguas Buenas, located to north of the city of Juigalpa. In that area, stone and earthen mounds are visible at regular intervals. The Central Nicaragua Archaeological Project is an ongoing archaeological investigation to shed light on the prehistory of Nicaragua, in particular its extraordinary indigenous tradition of monumental stone sculptures and its poorly understood ceremonial complexes.
As part of this, the Aguas Buenas archaeological site holds special interest. Recent explorations of the site have revealed its unequalled architectural characteristics and extraordinary number of mounds, spread out over the hilly Chontales landscape by means of wide concentric semi-circles. Current knowledge of prehistoric monumental architecture in Central America cannot tell us anything specific about why this site looks like it does. Nor is there a significant amount of previous archaeological research in the region to help us out in understanding Aguas Buenas.
The 2013 field season features students from Leiden University, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the University of Calgary, geared towards completing a GPS mapping of the site and excavating several of the more than 500 mounds. What are these mounds actually? When were they built and how? Do they serve a purpose as individual mounds or rather playing a role in the larger complex of the site itself? These are just some of the questions fuelling the effort to withstand scorching heat, prickly shrubs and the occasional snake and scorpion.
More:
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005027.html
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Link in the article above leads to this:
Mysterious Mounds: Uncovering Matagalpa Archaeology in Central Nicaragua
Posted by Alex Guerds on May 13, 2013
National Geographic explorer and archaeologist Alex Geurds is currently in the field investigating a unique, prehistoric, ceremonial center of stone circles in Central Nicaragua. Follow the expedition here on Explorers Journal through updates from him and his team.
Ashes are drifting across the gray agricultural field, purposefully set ablaze some time ago. In the field, stone and earthen mounds are visible at regular intervals. In this setting, we’ll be working for the next few weeks at the site of Aguas Buenas, located to north of the city of Juigalpa. The Central Nicaragua Archaeological Project is an ongoing archaeological investigation to shed light on the prehistory of Nicaragua, in particular its extraordinary indigenous tradition of monumental stone sculptures and its poorly understood ceremonial complexes.
As part of this, the Aguas Buenas archaeological site holds special interest. Our recent explorations of the site have revealed its unequalled architectural characteristics and extraordinary number of mounds, spread out over the hilly Chontales landscape by means of wide concentric semi-circles. Current knowledge of prehistoric monumental architecture in Central America cannot tell us anything specific about why this site looks like it does. Nor is there a significant amount of previous archaeological research in the region to help us out in understanding Aguas Buenas. We’re basically working from scratch.
More:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/13/mysterious-mounds-uncovering-matagalpa-archaeology-in-central-nicaragua/
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Aguas Buenas
By Roosmarie Vlaskamp (2012)
The archaeological site of Aguas Buenas (Fig 1) is located north-northwest of Juigalpa, the provincial capital of the Chontales region. It is estimated that the site measures 29 hectares and is spread out over numerous small hills and along a river.
Archaeologists visiting in the 1980s approximated that the site consisted of 200 to 300 mounds (Lange et al. 1992:49) and based on surface finds they estimated that the dating of the site would be between AD 1400-1600 (Gorin 1989). Later on, materials found in several test pits indicated that this time period should be expanded to AD 400-1600 (Geurds 2009). The artifacts found were quite diverse and recognizably from different areas in Nicaragua, including the Rivas region and Northern Nicaragua, alongside a clearly more local component.
More recent research done by Alex Geurds in 2011 and 2012 has focused on mapping the site and performing test excavations, as well as trench and quadrant excavations on individual mounds. The site was discovered to be much larger in extension and number of mounds than expected, and the map generated during these field seasons (see Fig 1) is to be seen as preliminary, as during the 2013 field season mapping will be completed with a differential GPS and a Digital Elevation Model will be constructed. More surveys and excavations will then also be executed, as well as follow-up documentation and investigation of the petroglyphs present.
Fig 1 - Map of the site Aguas Buenas, the black dots represent mounds
The total amount of mounds on the site has been revised to 574 (Fig. 2), so that the site of Aguas Buenas now surpasses any other known archaeological site in Nicaragua in terms of sheer number of mounds. The cultural nature of the mounds remains undetermined, whether housing, ceremonial or both, though a multicomponent occupation has been established (Fig. 3). What is even more striking is that during the mapping of the mounds they were found to be arranged in concentric circles, and in the western part of the site the mounds form an almost perfect geometric circle. In that area the mounds are positioned almost equidistant from each other as well. The diameter of the outer circle measures some 500 meters.
More:
http://arky.ucalgary.ca/mccafferty/nicaragua/archaeological-sites/aguas-buenas
= new reply since forum marked as read
It seems more plausible to me that they are ceremonial/burials than housing, given the regularity of their distribution, but that's just a guess. Thanks for sharing. 
