 After analyzing the artifacts uncovered during the 2009 field school archaeologists are relatively certain that Las Mercedes served as a powerful political center for the region—probably the center of a chiefdom.The 2009 excavations also provided evidence contrary to the assertion that all platforms in Costa Rica are circular, because both a figure-eight-shaped platform and a peanut-shaped platform were excavated.In 1871 Las Mercedes was bisected by the construction of the railroad connecting the country's capital to Puerto Limón on the Caribbean coast.