Natalia Donner (PhD, Leiden University) is an Argentinian-Mexican archaeologist, whose work questions the epistemological and colonial foundations of Archaeology. She is lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities (Leiden University) and co-director of the project Darien Profundo, (Panama) which explores the deep history of the land bridge of the Americas.

• Contents 1 Central Nicaragua: when the center is the periphery 1.1 Goals 1.2 Research questions 1.3 Outline 1.4 From past to present 2 Narratives of place(s) and time(s) 2.1 Narratives of place(s) 2.2 Narratives of the past and past narratives 3 Just a matter of time? 3.1 Time, archaeology, and oblivion 3.2 How the present became the past: things as palimpsests 3.3 Incorporated histories 3.4 Towards vibrant chronologies 4 Fieldwork methods 4.1 Sampling strategies in the field 5 Spatiotemporal dataset 5.1 Surface survey results 5.2 Mound recording results 5.3 Excavated contexts 5.4 Radiocarbon dates 6 Laboratory methods and techniques for ceramic analysis 6.1 Cleaning and storage of materials 6.2 Macrofabric grouping 6.3 Technological analysis of macroscopic traces 6.4 Archaeometric analysis 6.5 Morpho-stylistic groups 6.6 Integration of approaches 6.7 Dating techniques 7 Ceramic technologies in the valley of Juigalpa 7.1 Alberto Obando 7.2 Aguas Buenas 7.3 JOR 7.4 Oporta 7.5 Barillas 7.6 Rosa Dolores Oporta 7.7 La Aventura 7.8 Contemporary ceramic manufacturing practices 8 From traces on sherds to the vitality of human experience 8.1 Challenges of composing vibrant chronologies 8.2 The vitality of the valley of Juigalpa (cal 300 CE - present) 8.3 Shaking what was taken for granted 8.4 Thoughts regarding AMS dating in central Nicaragua 8.5 Future research: itineraries in context 8.6 Concluding remarks Acknowledgements Appendices Bibliography