The construction of a hotel in the area of San Juanillo in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste came to halt by order of the district attorney office after the discovery of an archaeological site.

National daily La Nacion informed of the situation today after receiving confirmation of the situation by Myrna Rojas, chief of the Anthropology and History Department of the National Museum.

Apparently during the construction, the machinery dug close to 6 meters and cut through at least 80% of what was a pre-Hispanic indigenous cemetery. According to Felipe Solis, archaeologist of the National Museum who is in charge of the investigation in Guanacaste, the initial alert came from a neighbor who witnessed some of the construction workers selling archaeological pieces in the site; however, when the authorities arrived they didn’t find the complete objects, instead only remains of them.

“This doesn’t mean that the objects weren’t found by those who were present here at the time. The machines destroy everything when they excavate”, commented Solis to La Nacion.

The remains of pieces found correspond to stone and ceramic objects such as pots from 300 AD to 800 AD. No human remains have been located. Apparently, the machinery dug in at least four different sectors with archaeological evidence.

The National Museum is in process of checking the file for the construction permits granted by the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (SETENA) since these must have included the confirmation of an archeologist that there were no possibilities or traces of archaeological remains.