Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the many people and agencies who made the research reported herein possible. It is difficult to decide where to begin in extending our thanks. As nothing happens without funding, we express our gratitude for the generous support provided by the National Science Foundation (in 1996), the National Endowment for the Humanities (in 1990), the Fulbright Foundation (in 1988), and Kenyon College (for all three field seasons). The work reported in these pages was conducted by a large number of fine young scholars, of whom we single out for special thanks Laura Aldrete, Marne Ausec, Peggy Caldwell, Victoria Clarke, Sam Connell, Helen Henderson, Sonya Kane, Michael Kneppler, Jamie and Suzanne Mooney, Mary Morrison, T. Louis Neff, Neil Ross, David Schafer, Colleen Siders, Sylvia Smith, and Matthew Turek.

Our institutional host in Honduras for over three decades has been the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia (IHAH). We have been very fortunate to work closely and fruitfully with the directors of the IHAH (Lic. Victor Cruz, Arq. Jose Maria Casco, and Dra. Olga Hoya over the period covered here); the late Juan Alberto Duran, then chief of archaeology for the northern zone; and Ildefonso Orellano, who collaborated directly with us as our IHAH representative. Of the many people who provided valuable advice and insights concerning the ideas expressed in these pages, we are especially grateful to Wendy Ashmore, the late Dr. George Hasmeann, Dra. Gloria Lara Pinto, Christian Wells, and Anthony Wonderley with whom we shared a house and the travails and pleasures of the 1979 field season in the Naco valley.

The people of the Naco valley worked indefatigably and with great skill in a wide array of arenas to make this research possible. We cannot list all of our many fine Honduran collaborators, so we have to be content to single out our foreman, the late Sr. Luis Nolasco, and our chief of household staff, Sra. Margarita Posas, for thanks. Local landowners were generally approving of our work; the members of the Brisas del Valle Agricultural Cooperative were especially energetic in support of our efforts.

There are several drawbacks to delaying publication for so long after the completion of field research. One of those involves the loss of so many of our colleagues since the last time we put down our shovels in the Naco valley. Far too many of our former comrades are no longer here to take satisfaction in, or wince at, what has come of their labors. Luis Nolasco, long our foreman and friend, has passed away, as have Juan Alberto Duron of the IHAH; Jennifer Ehret, who was our student and colleague; our great friend Dr. George Hasemann; and dons Eulofio Paz, Jesus Zelaya, and Manuel Nolasco, who worked long and diligently to help us understand the Naco valley’s prehistory. Words cannot express our gratitude for their companionship and support; we miss them all to this day and always will.

Needless to say, any errors of omission or commission this book contains are solely our responsibility.