Nicaragua
La Tijereta

The name of the site – La Tijereta – derives from the name of a species of birds that nests nearby. It is located on Ometepe Island, near the village of San Ramón, northwest of Maderas volcano. It borders the shores of Lake Cocibolca, sinking in places under the water.

Historical background and research axis

The first researchers on the Ometepe island – Earl Flint (1878-1899) and John Bransford (1881) – missed the site, difficult to access. Their research was focused on the immediate surroundings of the Concepción volcano and on the isthmus that connects the two cones.
The German archaeologist Wolfgang Haberland, director of the Hamburg Museum, visited the beaches of Ometepe in the 1960s. At this occasion, he took several pictures of “La Tijereta” site. Very impressed by the patterns on the rocks, he wrote “En Ometepe están los petroglifos más bellos que el que suscribe ha visto jamás en Centro América” (In Ometepe stand the most beautiful petroglyphs that the undersigned has ever seen in Central America).

The Spanish Joaquín Matilló Vila, director of the National Museum of Nicaragua betwen 1974 and 1979, integrated the site in the book “Ometepe, isla de Círculos y Espirales”, published in 1973, after he discovered it through W. Haberland’s pictures. In his book, three rock sets are described, and 62 rock engravings are presented, with 16 pictures for 24 engravings. The author explains that certain rocks are now submerged and cannot be documentated.

The dating of the site remains incertain.
On May 6th 2016, the newspaper La Prensa published several pictures showing engravings so far immersed. They had appeared after the drought of 2014 and 2015.
The latest research projet was carried out in this context at the end of 2016, before the winter upwelling.