[Aztlan] on ports and boats.

[Lennert van Oorschot]

Hallo,
   
  First of all I want to thank Aztlan and all the people behind it. Keep on doing the good work!
   
  Secondly, I have a lot of questions so to keep it “simple” I’ll begin with this one:
   
  I’m doing research on contacts between Mesoamerica and the Andes. As you probably all know, especially the introduction of metals (around AD 900) in West Mexico is often attributed (see Hosler 1988, 1996) to South Americans (most probably Ecuadorians). The only option of course then (if proven true) is a sea route from the south to the north and we know that ancient Ecuadorians built seaworthy wooden rafts with sails & “rudders” (guaras). So far so good. There is but one problem: where did they land? What were the ancient Mesoamerican seaports? And what about Mesoamerican boats? Did they “only” use canoes like in the Caribbean? Or were there mesoamerican (sail) rafts? Sail rafts are mentioned by the Spaniards in the Gulf of Nicoya (Costa Rica) and sail canoes in de Bahía de Fonseca (El Salvador). The Tarascans are often mentioned as having relations with Andean peoples (languages, culture) but what about there boats? So two questions in one:
   
  1) What (and where) were the Mesoamerican (Mexican) ports? On the Balsas River? Acapulco? Tututepec? Tehuantepec? In Guatemala?
   
  2) What were Mesoamerican (Pacific coast) boats like? The boats of the Tarascans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Huaves (with a migration story from the south ), “Pacific Mayans” and others? 
   
  Are there any people working on this subject? Do you know people working on it? I know of Carlos Navarrete (he wrote some articles about seafaring along the Chiapas coast) and the article  Thompson wrote (although that was more about the Caribbean).   
   
  Many thanks,
   
   
Lennert

 
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  Lennert van Oorschot 
020-3201352 
06-27384289 
http://lenschot.blogspot.com/ 
http://lenschot.hyves.nl/ 

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