Collection Overview 

Overview of Collection

Title: The Four Valleys Archive

Size: 172 linear feet

Inclusive Dates: c1975-2022

Language: English, Spanish

Repository: Special Collections and Archives, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio

Scope and Content Notes

The Four Valleys Archive consists of all records resulting from archaeological investigations conducted from 1983-2022 across 180km2 (ca. 70 miles2) within five distinct drainages in northwestern and western Honduras. These basins include: the Naco valley along the Chamelecon river; the lower Cacaulapa drainage, a tributary of the Chamelecon situated 9km southwest of the Naco Valley; the middle Chamelecon valley, linking the Naco and lower Cacaulapa valleys; the middle Ulua river basin ca. 40km south of the Naco valley; and, the El Paraíso valley lying 93 km to the southwest of Naco and 27 km northeast of the lowland Maya center of Copan. The materials recorded in the course of this work span three millennia (1200BC-AD1532). The archive contains data pertaining to the configurations, sizes, and locations of more than 900 sites recorded on survey along with the results of excavations at over 180 settlements and the analysis of roughly one million artifacts.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation: HP[series number].[box number].[file number], The Four Valleys Archive. Special Collections and Archives, Keyon College.

Acquisition Information: The materials were deposited to the archives directly from the Professor of Anthropology, Ed Schortman.

Digital Collection: digital.kenyon.edu/honduras

Finding Aid Information:

Created by: Abigail Tayse, College Archivist

Date: Spring 2024

Arrangement of Collection 

• Series I: Documentation

• Series II: Lot Cards

• Series III: Maps

  • Sub-series 1: Drawers

  • Sub-series 2: Tubes

Historical Note 

The original work in the Four Valleys basins, the primary objective was to define phases of regional and site-specific occupation, based primarily on changes in artifact styles supplemented with C-14 assays of samples associated with these materials. Explanations of the cultural, social, and political transformations noted in these sequences tended, at first, to favor such processes as local emulations of practices associated with large lowland Maya polities, some as close as the realms centered around the massive capitals of Copan in western Honduras and Quirigua, in northeastern Guatemala (both within 120 km of the studied valleys). This causal emphasis was strongly influenced by the designation of western Honduras as part of the Southeast Maya 

The research contained in this archive takes several forms. In each valley, the content creators tried to complete comprehensive ground surveys to describe the full range of surviving ancient settlements within the multiple environments that characterized the different basins. Results of those surveys are available in this archive as are the findings of excavations conducted across a sample of sites that encompass the observed array of settlement sizes, forms, and locations in each area. Digging within sites focused on investigating the continuum of building forms, sizes, and locations on the assumption that such variation might well correlate with different periods and types of structure use. Investigated buildings were cleared as much as possible, this practice becoming more widespread as the field seasons progressed and funding levels increased. Attempts were also made to dig at least parts of these trenches deep enough to reach culturally sterile levels though that goal was not always achieved. Lateral clearing of edifices and their immediate environs was generally favored over digging deep probes because we grew ever more interested in inferring ancient behaviors from observed relations among artifacts, architecture, and other remains. In addition, pursuing this common strategy facilitated comparing activity and architectural patterns across areas where we worked.

The research in the Naco, middle Chamelecón, lower Cacaulapa, El Paraiso, and middle Ulúa valleys, along with the construction of this archive, was generously supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Geographic Society, the Margaret Cullinan-Wray Fund of the American Anthropological Association, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Mr. James Hawkens, California State University, Stanislaus, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and Kenyon College. All of the investigations were conducted in collaboration with the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e História, project staff, and native Hondurans.