The distribution of Precolumbian pottery at La Herradura synthesizes this site's cultural history. The quantitative analyses from pits B, D, and G at PN-11, which were executed by Cooke for his 1972 PhD thesis, indicate two depositional processes at the site. The following synthesis relies on the descriptions made by Cooke, but includes comments made as the data were being uploaded by Cooke (May, 2014). These amplify or modify the 1972 analysis. The typological terminology used by Cooke in 1972 is still largely extant, although further work has been done to sub-divide descriptive categories, especially with regard to the 'Aristides' and 'Corotu' ceramic groups. The major occupation corresponds mostly to the Middle Ceramic D (200-500 CE). Overlaying it is a lighter or more sporadic Late Ceramic occupation characterized by 'Conte' style pottery and later painted groups ('Macaracas' and 'El Hatillo'). Below 30 cm, the sherd sample consists solely of 'Aristides' and 'Corotu' polychromes', 'Escota Red-Buff', 'Guacimo Red-on-White-Slip', and a few 'Conte Red' rim sherds from plates with the 'drooping lip' characteristic of this time period. The levels above 30 cms. witness the appearance of the 'Conte' and 'Mendoza' polychromes, along with rim and appendage modes assignable to 'Cortezo Red-Buff Ware'. Eight sherds of 'Mendoza Polychrome' were recovered, representing 0.6% of the total site sample (in Pit B, Level I: 1.7%, in Pit D, Level I: 0.03%, in Pit D, Level II: 0.6%, in Pit G, Level II: and 0.13% in Pit B, Level II. The 31 'Cortezo Red-Buff'rim sherds all occurred above 30 cm below datum. Three' Applique Red-Buff' sherds came from Pit B, Level II and Pit G, Level I. The five 'Conte' polychrome sherds - including three "droop-lip" rims - represent 0.6% of the total pottery sample in Pit B, Level III, and 0.07% in Pit D, Level II. The last was found in Pit C, Level II. A good number of the sherds in the first twenty cm of the cultural deposits across the site showed signs of recent churning and charring, and it may be that differential preservation biased the final counts against these varieties. In 1971, Cooke made a surface collection in an area of ca 200 x 100 m immediately to the north of the 1970 pits in order to enlarge the sample of later ceramic varieties. Out of a total of 254 sherds, 4% of this sample belong to 'Mendoza Polychrome', 1.1% to 'Becerra Painted Lip', and 0.4%to 'Macaracas Polychrome'. The appearance of the 'Mendoza' and 'Conte' Polychromes' in the stratigraphic history of La Herradura coincides with a marked decline in the percentages of 'Escota' and 'Giron' type sherds. Below 30 cm below modern surface, 'Escota Black-on-Buff' and 'Giron Banded Lip' exhibit an erratic distribution. 'Escota' varieties decline in popularity relative to 'Giron' varieties. Most interesting in the light of subsequent investigations at Sitio Sierra and Cerro Juan Diaz, is the fact that only four sherds of 'Cocobo Interior Banded' were recovered (RGC, 2014: probably because this type was dropping out). Cooke's 1972 grouping 'Corotu Polychrome' included material that, according to Luis Alberto's current (2014) classification, would fall into the 'Cubita' group or into a number of seemingly transitional categories between 'Cubita' and early 'Conte'. These were also recorded in grave units at Rancho Sancho de la Isla, further to the East along the Interameircan Highway. 'Cubita' and 'Conte' sherds cluster in the middle strata of Pits B and G, from Levels VI to IX in B, and from Level V to IX in G, albeit in small percentages. A total of 30 'Cubita' and 'Conte' sherds was recovered for the site. With regard to the 'Giron Banded Lip' type, the 'Crosshatched' variety is represented by only five sherds. In Pit B, 'Radial Banded' sherds total 47.4% of the Type sample; 'Scalloped', 41.7%; 'Circumbanded' and 'Chevron Lip', 10% and 'Crosshatched', 0.7%. The Escota type is represented only by sherds of the 'Escota Black-on-Buff' variety '.Guacimo Red-on-White Slip' rims total 24.4% of all rims below 30 cm in Pit B; 20.7% in Levels I-IV of Pit D; and as much as 45.5% below 30 cm in Pit G. Compared with the 'Aristide Polychrome' sample from Cerro Giron on the Santa Maria River, which was excavated by Gordon Willey in the early 1950s, and also with that at Sitio Sierra, PN-11's sample is depauperate in design variety and rim shape variety. For example, one widespread variety of the 'Giron Banded Lip' type - the 'Crosshatched' - is almost absent, while the 'Black-on-Red' and 'Crosshatched' varieties of the 'Escota' type do not occur. (Note [2014]: Cooke makes the interesting observation in 1972 that the distribution of 'Aristides' types and varieties at La Herradura -- summarized above -- suggests that these cultural deposits correspond to the very end of the Middle Ceramic D and to the transition towards the Conte style -- an observation that foresees the results of the 1975 excavations at Sitio Sierra that were summarized by Isaza, 1993). In fact, in his 1972 thesis, Cooke gives a detailed substantiation of this hypothesis stating that various pottery categories between levels V to IX epitomize the said transition: (1) sherds of 'Corotu Polychrome', (2) a few drooping-lip rims of Conte Red, (3) shallow ring-bases of type A, and (4) abundant Guacimo Red-on-White-Slip Ware sherds. An additional factor that differentiates the PN-II Middle Ceramic sample from that of Sitio Sierra AG-3 is the lack of Aristides-type plastically decorated sherds below 30 cms. Only five plastically decorated sherds were found - three with cane impressions, one rim with deep incisions, and a strange Smoked Ware sherd with "bobbles" . This implies that the typical Escota plastic decorative modes had already dropped out of fashion fashion by the time PN-II was occupied. Of considerable relevance to the chronology of La Herradura, is the "madre vieja" or fossil meander, which runs just to the west. Called, aptly, La Herradura, it is the tributary of an ox-bow channel of the Rio Grande, and probably represents a former flow of the river in a wide arc to the east. Today(i.e., 1971) it peters out just south-west of the Rio Grande village. About 260 m north of (Cooke's) excavations, is a fossil river bar of tightly packed boulders and pebbles, clearly discernible in the wall of the irrigation channel. Against this, about 200 m of sterile, silty sand. piled up. This bar can also be picked up over the other (western) side of the 'Herradura'. In 1970, a I xI m test, E, was laid down over the silty fill behind the bar. Although the sample is small, all the diagnostic sherds in the uppermost 50 cm were either 'Mendoza Red' or 'Cortezo Red-Buff'. From 50 to 160 cm below modern surface, only sterile sand was encountered. A collection was also made from an irrigation trench, which had cut through the bar on the other bank of the channel (the PN-10 site). The sherds seemed to be eroding from the thirty cm, or so, of humic material above the bar. They comprised comprised only 'Mendoza Polychrome' (Variety A,) and 'Cortezo Red-Buff' types. The absolute sherd total at PN-11 drops off considerably in the uppermost 20 of the cultural soils. This, in turn, suggests that the Precolumbian settlement was abandoned the site was abandoned when the river changed course eastwards - perhaps in the Late Ceramic A (Conte) - to be re-inhabited later when the cultural material of, Pit E at PN-11, and at PN-10 was deposited over the now defunct geomorphological features of the river. A vast 'Cortezo Red-Buff' burial urn found at the top of the sterile sand fill helps to serve as a terminal date. Just north of PN-11 Cooke recorded a large site of Middle Ceramic D and E age (PN-14,. He considers it possible that that the late occupation of PN-11 was contiguous with that site.