The manatee stone head: history of an archeological piece

Abstract

This study attempts to identify and document the history of an archaeological piece: the manatee head stone, located in the municipality of Laguna de Perlas, RAAS, specifically, in the Miskito community of Kahkabila. The existence of this stone predates the arrival of the English or the Spanish. According to the bearers of the community, this archaeological piece played an important role in the cosmovision of the Miskitos of the place, who have considered it as the “stone head of the manatee's mother fish” (pa/pa in Miskito). According to the cultural bearers consulted, no one knows how the piece arrived at the Loma Roja or Loma de Vaca (Yangki Hill) basin, but the truth is that the indigenous people found it among the roots of a chilamate tree from where, according to management, it played a very important role in the manatee hunt.