The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Thor Heyerdahl and the Production of Balsam Rafts in El Salvador

Log rafts were a key form of travel for both the prehistoric Peruvians and Salvadorans. Their common ancestors arrived to Monte Verde, Chile, in 12,500 BCE, most likely in log rafts from across the Pacific Ocean. From there one group migrated by raft to Taima Taima, Venezuela, another one to El Abra-Tocancipa, Columbia, and still yet another to the Lapa do Boquete, Rio Sao Francisco region of Brazil.

The four founding families of Mesoamerica arrived from South America to Playa Toluca, El Salvador, in four rafts in about 8700 BCE. The remains in the form of the sailing stones, which were both ballast and functional, can still be seen at Toluca. Both before and after their journey to El Salvador it is likely, inevitable, this group sailed back across the Pacific Ocean.

Thor Heyerdahl, in Early Man and the Ocean, provides a drawing of a potential log raft design:

The rafts would have been made with a rather buoyant wood, but the size of the logs was also important. The logs would have been repeatedly coated in a resin to make them more water resistant. From early Spanish accounts Heyerdahl calls the rafts jangadas and mentioned the importance of the centerboard, called guara.

Both of these words are significant in Ch'orti' and it's likely that they were retained cultural words from the time before Ch'orti' and proto-Andean separated. Jangada is chan (snake) + k'aht (anything laid across) in Ch'orti'. "Snake laid across" refers to the latticing or bindings that tied the logs together and likely refers to the last component of the raft to be perfected in Asia before the initial journey across. The reference to snake helps explain the prevalence of serpent symbolism in Mayan culture. "Snake latticing" produces a curious parallel to b'ahram, the word for tame jaguar, which means "spider latticing", referring to the weave of the jaguar cage. Guara, the centerboards, is wa'ar in Ch'orti' and means "standing" or "perpendicular".

The Maya likely had a much harder ocean trip on the raft until they discovered and were able to produce rafts out of Peru Balsam (myroxylon). Heyerdahl placed the balsam forests in Ecuador. While it is likely true that the Maya helped their Andean cousins to transplant a balsam forest there, the Peru Balsam is uniquely native to El Salvador. It lives in upland areas of 800 to 1,300 meters in the departments of Sonsonate and La Libertad. This is located only about 20 kilometers from Lago Coatepeque, one of the four island homes of the early Mayan/Mesoamerican people.

While the Maya likely discovered the balsam prior to their defeat of Xibalbha in about 7500 BCE, they could not produce rafts without putting themselves at extreme risk of the Xibalbhans. With no threat from Xibalba, the Maya could move forward with full-scale raft production. What is most noticeable about the balsam is the sap. They most likely tried to light it to use as an incense or charcoal, as well as to rub onto canoes and rafts.

At some point the Maya were able to get a balsam log into standing water - not so easy from the steep Cordillera de Balsam. They noticed four things about the balsam that make it the best tree in the Americas for ocean-going rafts and perhaps the best in the world:

• The size of the logs both in terms of width and length - the trees grow 40 meters tall;
• The straightness of the trunk;
• The resin-laden wood which makes it extremely resistant to water, including salt water;
• The buoyancy of the wood.

The Maya quickly noticed the buoyancy. The balsam is named for "wet latticing" (par + tz'am or tz'ah). And it has a second meaning of "get rid of weight" referring to its buoyancy (bar + s'at).

The U.S. National Forest Service rates the qualities of various trees, including their buoyancy. Of 156 rated trees only three have a specific gravity or buoyancy greater than the peru balsam, which is rated 81 and 74 (green). These are the southern live oak, the osage orange, and the mesquite. The former is too twisted to be used in a raft while the latter two are too small to use in raft production.

The geography of the Balsam Range and the surrounding area made it hard for the Maya to harvest balsam logs and produce balsam rafts. There are rivers on the south side of ridge top that go directly to the ocean. However after a rain the current is strong and there is no place to catch the logs coming down. They would go directly into the ocean. On the north side of the ridge top there are several creeks, like the Talnique, the Shutia, the Cashal, and the Apalata. These all flow into the Sucio River which then flows north to meet the Lempa River, which flows northeast then south to the ocean. The Sucio is rather flat so it is a good place to catch the loose logs and assemble them into flotillas to make the trip to the mouth of the Lempa River, where the community of Tehuacan was waiting to construct the rafts.

The creeks in the Cordillera del Bálsamo are primarily seasonal. Without rain they have little flow, like the Shutia at right. This means that harvesting of the balsam logs would only take place in the rainy season and only after a heavy rain could they send the logs down the creeks. A local person told me that the Shutia would rise one meter or more after a heavy rain. Yet I'm sure that someone had to run alongside the logs with a pole to try to dislodge any logjams.

Let's look at some of the local place names which will confirm the balsam production in this areas:

Apalata (a creek near Jayaque):

ab - swinging container, hammock
laht' - anything carried
ha' - water

I think this refers to a sling placed under the front end of a log with a person on each side to guide the log through a tight place.

Jayaque - town near top of Balsam ridge

ha' - water
ak' - covering, object resting on another

I understand this to mean "logjam over the water".

Sucio (watershed of the north side of Balsam Range)

susi - smooth down, cut, trim

The balsam logs were cut and trimmed on the flatter Rio Susi (Sucio) near the later San Andres structure. From there they were bound temporarily and were guided down the Rio Susi (Sucio) by a pilot with a pole to the Lempa River and then down the Lempa many days to the lower Lempa near Tehuacan where the logs were taken out and reassembled into a raft with a sail, and slots for centerboards. In many cases there was cargo stored on either the Usulutan or San Vicente side of the Lempa ready to go. For example, the name of Tecoluca, the municipality on the western (San Vicente) side of the Lempa:

te' - trees, sticks
k'or - transport
uh - sacred
kah - beginning

So Tecoluca is "beginning of the sacred log transport" referring to rafts that were assembled there.

Returning to the Rio Susi, the nearby archeological site San Andres is likely a memorial to the balsam log workers who live there part of the year, captured the loose logs, bound them and guided them down the river. This is evidenced by the indigenous name for San Andres, Tecpan. The Wisdom Ch'orti' dictionary says that tecpan means Catholic church and plaza and that it came from Nahua. It is the other way around. When the Maya needed a word for Catholic church they thought of their model for a plaza and thought of Tecpan (San Andres). The meaning of Tecpan is clear:

te' - tree(s)
ek' - down
pan - loose, sprout

Tecpan means "loose trees coming down" (from the Balsam Range). This would seem to indicate that San Andres may have been one of the first structures. Previously we discussed how it forms a line with Tazumal at Chalchuapa, where the Siete Principes site at the base of Lago Coatepeque is at the half-way point.

Even when geography proved to be difficult the Maya found a way to move forward. They found and assembled the logs which would allow them to sail long and far in the oceans, just as Thor Heyerdahl suspected of the indigenous in the Americas.

Igualtepec - Memorial Petroglyphs and 5,000 Year Presence

In terms of longevity, Igualtepec or Igualtepeque, El Salvador, is one of the most important Mayan sites. It was the lead Mayan site from about 7200 BCE to perhaps 1800 BCE when leadership was moved to Chalchuapa and Siete Principes in El Salvador, to coastal sites in Guatemala, Chiapas, and Belize, and a little later to Mirador in northern Guatemala.

While most of the focus on Igualtepec is of the spectacular petroglyphs and rightly so, it takes away from the coordinating role that Igualtepec played among the four Mayan lineages, such as coordinating the four-site gatherings near the Lempa-Sumpul confluence at a place they called Arcatao, and being the long-term base from which the Maya traveled ocean waters. From Igualtepec (right) the Maya could travel by canoe to the Pacific Ocean, by way of the Lempa River. At the lower Lempa they would assemble rafts or sailboats for ocean travel. The original name for the Lempa is Lumpa. Lempa is a later Lenca change to the river's name. Lumpa means "land of food" or Land of Food River.

But let me go back to the beginning for Igualtepec. It was formed as a mudslide following the Cerro San Diego eruption which flooded the earlier settlement of Teotipa. This is suggested by the meaning of its name:

i- - locative prefix
wa'ar - standing, stood up, erect, perpendicular
te' - tree, stick
pek - snub part of knob, rounded head

Wa'ar implies standing up but not in a natural way. There is generally no reason to describe a tree as standing up; it is understood. I understand this to mean that after the mudslide many trees and branches were sticking up like matchsticks in many different directions on the rounded knob of a hill that is Igualtepec. To clarify, in Lenca and Nahuat languages the Ch'orti' 'w' usually becomes a 'gü' sound. It's possible that the last syllable was an addition of the Nahua ("Pipil"), as there was a tendency to add pec and peque onto existing place names.

The Popol Vuh lists the places in order, as the Maya moved from one to the next place:

• Chik'ix, translated as Thorny Place by Tedlock, which is Isla Tigre, Honduras
• Chi Ismachi, translated as Bearded Place by Tedlock, which is Teotipa
• Q'umaraq aj, translated as Rotten Cane by Tedlock, which is Igualtepec

Q'umaraq aj translates as:

K'um - rinsing, cleaning, washing
Arak - domesticated animal, cultivated, tame
Ak' - load, covering, object resting on another

I interpret this as "swimming domesticated animal resting on an object." Today Central Americans usually use the same verb for bathing or rinsing as for swimming or wading. The significance of this name is that some of the domesticated animals from Teotipa survived the flood and floated on flotsam to Igualtepec, which is downwind from Teotipa. The domesticated animals could have included parrots, jaguars, and pumas, which were first domesticated at Isla Tigre, or dogs, monkeys, and other birds.

It appears that the desire to resettle Igualtepec made a definitive resolution of the conflict with the Xibalbhans that much more urgent. The Xibalbhans were a distinct group of humans who were much taller than the Maya and who captured the Mayan ancestors soon after their raft arrival from South America and held them at the Corinto Cave. At Teotipa the Maya were safe because the Xibalbhans were afraid of water. While Igualtepec is at times an island too, it would have been much easier for the Xibalbhans to approach from the east. It is a small island and their fields on the lake side hills, like the one at right, would have been exposed to their enemy. With a presence at Igualtepec, the Maya would not have been safe with the Xibalbhans still at Corinto Cave (and likely Tecapa volcano as well). It is likely that the Xibalbhans approached all four lineage settlement and harassed with the intent to attack people. Thus at both Teotipa and Igualtepec, the Maya still needed to use the Ahwilix "the woman's wing". The ahwilix was a baby raft which was used by women to protect children from the Xibalbhans. Ahwilix was one of the three gifts from the spirits that the Maya received in the wilderness when they first arrived in El Salvador. I believe that the final action against the Xibalbhans took place after the flood but just before the settlement of Igualtepec.

The Popol Vuh tells us that there were two survivors of the flood, one man, one woman. The Teotipa survivors moved to Teopan at Lago Coatepeque, married each other, and a few generations later their nine offspring were ready to move back to Lago Güija.

The Popol Vuh states that Igualtepec was settled by 24 persons or families, including nine from the surviving Teotipa (Ak'bar and Chomija) lineage, nine from the Quiche at Teopan, two from the Zapotec ancestors at Tehuacan, and four from the Lenca/Olmec ancestors at Olomega. The fact that two came from the Zapotec ancestors dates the Igualtepec settlement to before 6800 BCE, the latest date by which the Zapotec ancestors definitively moved from the lower Lempa to the Tehuacan valley of Mexico.

One of the first leaders of Q'umaraq aj was Q'ukumatz, according to the Popol Vuh. This name indicates that Igualtepec continued to be a place of agricultural production and innovation, just like Teotipa:

K'uhk' - a shoot, sprout
Kum - egg, seed
Max - hole, cavity

Q'ukumatz means "Sprout from a Seed in a Hole" and could refer to an early leader(s) who planted corn, squash, beans or another plant. While corn was first hybridized at Teotipa, the greatest transformation in corn, from small cobs with hard kernels to large cobs with much softer kernels took place at Igualtepec between first settlement and 1800 BCE. In fact I think it was the transformation of corn and the discovery of nixtamalization, most likely at Igualtepec, that informed the Maya that it was time to greatly expand. Without a doubt these two developments greatly increased population.

Comprehensive archeological work is need at Igualtepec. The ancient petroglyphs are a supporting piece of evidence for Igualtepec being a long-term Mayan center, as they were produced at different periods of time, including some quite ancient, according to archeological art history professor Andrea Stone. The amount of obsidian at the site is remarkable. There are also many carved and semi-carved stones laying on the ground, like the jaguar stone here. It is very possible that the Popol Vuh was first written here at Igualtepec. It means:

Pohp - sedge, mat of sedge bark
Buy - a cutting (into pieces)

So Popol Vuh means "mat of sedge bark cut into pieces" and indicates how writing was first done.

The Popol Vuh does not list a successor site to Q'umaraq aj (Igualtepec). Just like the Olmecs stayed at Olomeguita until they left for Mexico and the Quiches stayed at Teopan until they left for Mexico, the Chorti lineage stayed at Lake Güija until the beginning of the "Pre-Classic period" when they spread out along the Guatemala-El Salvador Pacific Coast.

Until today the Ch'orti's maintain a memorial for those who were killed by the Lago Güija flood and tzuhnami at Teotipa: the petroglyphs directly facing Teotipa. The stones are about three to five meters above the August 2012 level of the lake and indicate the historic levels of the lake. A high level of art was produced in the petroglyphs in order to have a memorial worthy of those who died. The petroglyphs, which face Teotipa, were likely the site of frequent vigils and ceremonies, including an annual one, a Day of the Dead, on November 1 (41 days past equinox) which appears to be the date of the flood.

Photo Gallery (click to enlarge)

Don Magdaleno looks over Igualtepec and its cultural artifacts. A modern day hero.

Some of the many metates - grinding stones - found there. There was another pile of hand stones.

Don "Leno" has also found many smaller stone and ceramic pieces:

Petroglyphs:

This glyph appears to be a swimmer, depicting the man surviving the tzuhnami who dived back in the water to rescue the lone surviving woman.

This boy playfully placed his hat in the photo.

Two of the Igualtepec stones are at the municipal seat of Metapan, where they have been painted.

The figure at the bottom of this stone is nearly identical to one found on Estrechura Island in Lago Olomega.

The Lago Guija Flood

Lago Güija on the border of Guatemala and El Salvador is one of the primary centers of the Maya prior to the pre-Classic period, centered at Igualtepec and before that Teotipa. There are many bits of evidence that a great flood occurred at Lago Güija covering up the advanced village of Teotipa:

• the meaning of the name Igualtepeque, a Mayan site on the Salvadoran lake shore
• the oral history of people living along the lake shore today
• the historic lake levels of Lago Güija
• the flood story of the Popol Vuh
• the form of the river out of the lake
• the mysterious rock ramp at Teotipa
• the carved stones (hieroglyphs?) at Igualtepec
• the Popol Vuh name for Igualtepec

Igualtepec, right, is a peninsula, sometimes island, on the southeast shore of Lago Güija. It is known for the ancient carved stones on its western shore. It is also an ancient Mayan archeological site. Its name preserves a hint of its formation by powerful forces. It is a Ch'orti' name, glossed over by Nahua:

i- : (locative prefix)
wa'ar : stood up, perpendicular
te' : tree(s)
pek : knob (hill)

Or "place of the knob with stood up trees". The 'r' and 'l' in wa'ar would have been interchangeable. These are not ordinary trees, they were made to stand up or be perpendicular - standing up like matchsticks out of the knob.

The current day residents around Lago Güija say that there is a hidden city below the lake, according to University of El Salvador professor Vicente Ginovez. As I learned many times in El Salvador, there is a reason for every bit of oral history. Another bit of oral history that I was told in August 2012 is that the lake was formed a long time ago by a volcanic eruption. These are important clues to what happened at the lake.

The next clue is the historic lake levels at Güija which are about 3 meters higher than the level when I visited in August 2012. This is evident from the carved stones at Igualtepec where the historic lake level is clear. The rocks that were carved are those 3 to 5 meters vertically above the 2012 lake level even though there are similar (uncarved) stones at or just above the 2012 lake level. This indicates that what occurred at the lake was not just a flood but a structural change to the lake that left lake levels higher.

Some of the carved stones at the lowest level at Igualtepec show historic water levels. These may be among the earliest of all the images. The one at right appears more primitive than many of the others, with a face of a person.

Before making a guess about what happened during the flood event, I turn to the Popol Vuh account of the flood, which appears near the beginning of the Popol Vuh.

Again there comes a humiliation, destruction, and demolition. The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins, woodcarvings. The man's body was carved from the wood of the coral tree by the Maker, Modeler. And as for the woman, the Maker, Modeler needed the hearts of bulrushes for the woman's body. (Popol Vuh, Tedlock translation, 1996, pp 71-72)

and,

There came Crunching Jaguar: he ate their flesh. There came Tearing Jaguar: he tore them open.

and,

There came a rain of resin from the sky. ... The earth was blackened because of this; the black rainstorm began, rain all day and rain all night.

and,

Everything spoke: their water jars, their tortilla griddles, their plates, their cooking pots, their dogs, their grinding stones, each and every thing crushed their faces. Their dogs and turkeys told them: "You caused us pain, you ate us, but now it is you whom we shall eat."

and,

Now they run for it, helter-skelter. They want to climb up on the houses, but they fall as the houses collapse. They want to climb the trees; they're thrown off by the trees.

The reference to manikins and woodcarvings is clearly a reference to the Xibalbhan people at Corinto cave who are referred to elsewhere with the same descriptors. I have mentioned previously that manikin means "Manik sticks" and that Manik is the name of the exceptionally tall hunter people of the north who settled at Corinto cave and captured the Mayan ancestors in about 8700 BCE. But the Manik people were clearly not at Lago Guija and were not destroyed by the flood. I think this confused reference occurred because the Maya destroyed the Manik people nearly immediately following the flood, thus associating the two events.

The reference to Heart of Sky is not a deity but more of a karmic reality. This name is Uk'ux kaj and when translated in Ch'orti' is:

Uk' : sadness, mourning, weeping
Kux : sprouting, coming to life, birth
Kah : start, beginning

So it means "sad coming to life of the start" or "sad start of the coming to life".

The resin from the sky would seem to be a combination of heavy rain the ash from a volcanic explosion. The volcano nearest the lake is Cerro San Diego, to the left in the photo, taken from Teotipa. Igualtepec is on the right of the photo at lake level. Based on all of the above evidence, I am proposing that there was a major rainstorm, followed by an eruption of Cerro San Diego. The flow of lava over the rain-soaked soil on the skirts of the volcano led to massive landslides. The landslides formed the Igualtepec hill, the neighboring island of Tule, and blocked the exit river of the lake. To the north a separate landslide may have separated the Laguna de Metapán from the lake.

The landslides into the lake would have caused a tsunami. This tsunami would have overtaken the low-lying Teotipa in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Tsunami is most likely a Mayan word, shared with the Japanese, which likely had its origin in this flood event at Güija more than 9,000 years ago:

tzuh : a pressing down
nami : to vanish, to hide, to put out of sight

The churning of a tsunami wave explains why it felt to a survivor that every object in the house - the tortilla griddle, the grinding stone, the dog, the turkey - was coming at them and gnashing their mouth and face.

They tried to run, to grab onto the house roofs. Those that survived likely swam to the surface after the wave passed, grabbed onto the thatch of the roofs, and swam/paddled to a shore after many hours or days. The Popul Vuh suggests that the man(men) grabbed on to coral wood to make it, while the woman(women) grabbed bulrushes or thatch to make it across the lake. While Tedlock assigns a deity here - "Maker, Modeler" - the most likely Ch'orti' translation for tz'aqol b'itol is "bundled and transported to the crest."

Bodies began to arrive on shore, bloated like ghouls, some stripped to the skeleton by fish. I believe that the eruption and tsunami occurred on November 1 - 41 days after the fall (rainy season) equinox and that is why the Day of the Dead is celebrated at this time. In addition, the six month anniversary is celebrated in early May, which is why there are processions with palm thatch - palm thatch being what helped the survivors - in El Salvador in early May, like the somber one at left from Planes de Rendero.

The timing of November 1 (equinox plus 41 days) would not have been lost on the ancient Maya as that was the exact date of the anniversary of the Third Sun on November 1, 8207 BCE, most likely celebrated as New Year by the Maya. The Maya would have seen this disaster as punishment for not following the ways of the Third Sun sufficiently - the seven bows to the east, the fasting, and the burning of three incenses. Certainly it changed the calendar and may have led to a different new year date at some point.  

They had many domestic animals at Teotipa - the parrots, jaguars, and mountain lions that they had domesticated starting on Isla Tigre - and turkeys and perhaps dogs. If they had dogs it could mean that they brought them on the original journey across the Pacific Ocean but they may have re-domesticated wolves or coyotes in the Americas. Turkeys are plentiful in the region and it is easy to imagine that they were domesticated. Later we'll find that some of these animals also likely survived the flood.

The survivors most likely made it to Teopan, 42 kilometers to the south. Perhaps one or two generations lived at Teopan and then Lago Güija - Igualtepec - was repopulated with families from each of the four lineages - the Olmecs/Lencas at Lago Olomega, the Zapotecs at Tehuacan, San Vicente, the Quiches at Teopan, Coatepeque, and the surviving Ch'orti' lineage from Teotipa. The Popol Vuh says that 24 people - "24 lords" - repopulated Igualtepec:

It was a long time ago when they all came up onto their citadel, building a score and four palaces there in the citadel of Q'umaraq aj.

... They achieved glory there. ... One by one they took their places:

• The nine lords of the Cauecs.
• The nine lords of the Greathouses.
• The four lords of the Lord Quiches.
• The two lords of the Zaquics. (Tedlock, pg 184)

While the 24 lords could refer to 24 heads of household, each with a house (palace), I am inclined to believe that it is 24 people total. The Cauecs would refer to the Quiche and indicated that 9 people (lords) moved from Teopan to Igualtepec. The Greathouses refer to the Ak'bar (Ch'orti') lineage originally at Teotipa, so there were 9 people from a future generation of the surviving Ch'orti' lineage who moved back from Teopan to Igualtepec for the repopulation. The Lord Quiches is a generic reference, equivalent to "Mayan lords" and, by process of elimination, would refer to the Olmec/Lenca lineage, so that four people from Lago Olomega moved to Igualtepec. Finally the Zaquics refer to the Ik' lineage, the Zapotec ancestors at Tehuacan, at the mouth of the Lempa. Two people from this lineage made the move.

After some amount of years, the landslide-formed crest of land that was Igualtepec, with its perpendicular trees, was prepared for settlement. With these 24 seed people Igualtepec became a great Mayan center. One of the first tasks to prepare Igualtepec for settlement may have been to clear a channel for the water to leave the lake. The exit river out of the lake appears to be hand dug like a canal.

Here's another view of the exit river just as it is leaving the lake. This would need to be explored more.

The new settlers at Igualtepec appear to have begun a tradition at the time of a death. The dead person's body was placed on a boat and taken across the lake and in the water just above the site of Teotipa their body was laid to rest, joining the ancestors who died there in the November 1 tsunami.
In fact they built a boat ramp of specially selected smooth stones next to Teotipa which would allow a boat to dock at various depths of the lake, depending on the rain. (The modern monument at the top of the photo seems out of place next to the thousands of years old stone ramp in the foreground.) The dead were taken across the lake by the boatman not so much to the underworld as to their ancestors who lived and died at the ancient village of Teotipa buried under several feet of water. This is where the ritual started and the source of the image of the boatman ferrying the dead across the lake.

Igualtepec is famous for its carved stones. More will be shown in my next blog entry. The stones have been catalogued and analyzed. There are many animals, like the monkey and the parrot on this stone. It seems clear that the stones are a memorial for the ancestors lost, the victims of the tsunami disaster at Teotipa. And a memorial for the pets, including monkeys and parrots, that died in the tsunami as well. The stones are on the west-northwest point of the Igualtepec peninsula, directly facing Teotipa as one looks out toward the lake. In the photo the trees of the taller part of the Teotipa island can be seen on the right and the village site of Teotipa is just left of center. Ironically, the carved stones of Igualtepec were the leading edge of the mudslide that created Igualtepec and created the tsunami that wiped out Teotipa.

Finally, there is the name for Igualtepec in the Popol Vuh: Q'umaraq aj. It is translated as Rotten Cane by Tedlock. It is the place that the Maya went to following Chi ismachi (Teotipa). In Ch'orti' the translation is:

K'um : rinsing, cleaning, washing
Arak : domesticated animal, cultivated, tame
Ak' : covering, load, object resting on another

So it means "washed domesticated animal(s) resting on an object". Washed here referring to a long swim from Teotipa to Igualtepec. Apparently one or more domesticated animals survived the tsunami and made it to shore at Igualtepec by resting on wood or thatch.

The commemoration of this event as the Day of the Dead helps to provide a date for the flood. The word for Day of the Dead in Ch'orti' is sik'in, which literally means "series of days". But more importantly sik'in is a near equivalent of the Ch'orti' day sign Tzi'k'in, which means "day count". They choose the name sik'in for Day of the Dead because it sounds like Tzi'k'in, or 2 Tz'ik'in the period in the Mars retrograde calendar that corresponds from 7849 BCE to 7834 BCE. A related clue is provided by the phrase kotz'b'alam, translated as Crunching Jaguar by Tedlock. Koht is a numerical classifier and in front of b'alam could easily refer to the Mars long-count date of 1 B'ahram, which immediately follows 2 Tz'ik'in. This would indicate that the flood happened just before 7834 BCE. What Tedlock translates as Tearing Jaguar, tukumb'alam, translates in Ch'orti' as Spittle Washing Jaguar, a slightly different image.

When I was at Igualtepec in August 2012 I was told that up until 25 years ago the lake level was much higher, until a damn was built in Guatemala on one of the feeder rivers. So Teotipa has been buried by water for most, if not all, of the last 9,000 years. Now, at least most years, it is revealed so that the world can know of its glory and its suffering.

Teotipa: 10,000-Year-Old Agricultural Village

One of the more interesting archeological sites in the Americas is Teotipa, El Salvador. It is a 10,000 year-old village with clear signs that it was a base for early agriculture. One of its ancient teosinte fields can be seen at right. From teosinte the Maya hybridized corn.

I estimate that it was inhabited from 8,200 BCE to 7,400 BCE when it was flooded. This will need to be confirmed with more traditional dating methods. Teotipa only came into view in the last 25 five years when a damn was built upstream on one of its feeder rivers in Guatemala, according to local people. Prior to that it was underwater - perhaps for most or all of 9,400 years. Even now it is submerged some years. For that reason it is relatively well preserved. Teotipa lies within a kilometer of Guatemala on Lago Guija.

Teotipa was one of the four original island homelands of the Maya. The other three were Lago Olomeka (Teomeka) in eastern El Salvador, where the Olmec and Lenca ancestors come from; the mouth of the Lempa River, Teoakan, where the Zapotec ancestors come from; and Lago Coatepeque and Teopan, where the Quiche ancestors come from.

In proto Ch'orti', Teotipa means:

Teo - island
Ti - in, on, within, from, pertaining to
Pa' - tortilla, masa (corn meal), food (generally)

Teotipa means "island pertaining to corn food". It was the island where corn was first cultivated. Earlier I mapped out the locations of the teosinte place names, which were nearly all within a 100 kilometer radius of Lago Guija, and I wrote about how corn was first cultivated on an island. This is known from the name teosinte:

Teo - island
Si - number, line of objects, row
Si'in - extended, long, in a line or series
Te' - plant(s)

And here are the rows where these plants were cultivated on an island:

There are two rows each three to five meters wide and perhaps 200 meters long. One can see the second row to the right in this photo. The 'rows' are lined with rocks. And much shorter grass grows in them now 10,000 years later rather than the weeds and taller grass which grow outside of the rock sidings. Some of the rocks have moved into the area of planting, which can be expected after so much time.

 

The range of Balsas teosinte, the precursor of corn, used to be to the south of its present range during the Ice Age. Sometime, perhaps between 8000 and 6500 BCE, the southern range of Balsas teosinte in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala disappeared. According to University of El Salvador professor Vicente Ginovez, the people in Santa Ana, where Lago Guija is located in western El Salvador, still plant little plots of primitive corn that they called something like "ulupiche". This is not to eat but simply to please the ancestors. I believe that the name should be "ulumpitzi":

Ulum - Of the earth, of the corn field (milpa)
Pitz'i - press, pinch, crush
Pihchi - touch

Or "crush of the corn field" - grinding what comes out of the earth. Here are the first corn grinders - the grinding hole above and the pounding stone to the right. The first corn would have been much tougher, requiring a vertical pounding motion rather than the horizontal motion used still today.

When my colleague and I reached Teotipa Island by a local boat service, five fishermen greeted us up on the rocks. They told us that there was nothing on Teotipa, that the Maya were never there and we should return to Igualtepeque. I decided to play a trump card and said that the Maya had to have been on Teotipa, since it means "island of food". Ricardo, the leader of the group still said nothing. I stumbled off toward the higher part of the island, going very slow over the dangerous rocks. I saw a small field of corn, left, ironic on this island that gave birth to corn, but I was muttering about how I could be so wrong. There was nothing here.

I took a deep breath, turned around and saw this, below left, and knew I was in the right place.

Do you see it? [Click to enlarge.]

There is a rock wall curving from the left back toward the right. And there is also a patch of yellow right in the middle of the picture. I rushed back to Ricardo and my colleague and pointed out the wall. Ricardo said something to the effect of "There's more. Let's go see." Later I was very thankful that he was so protective of this sacred space.

The reason that I believe Teotipa habitation began in 8200 BCE is that I think the move from Isla Tigre to the four island homes occurred right after the 8207 BCE triple star alignment and after the Maya learned cultivation through their experimentation with tobacco planting. They probably found teosinte first in the mountains of western Chalatenango - the closest Teosinte place names from Guija, but it also could have been from eastern Chalatenango in Arcatao municipality where there is a Teosinte place name which would have been quite close to the four island gatherings which took place near where the Sumpul and Lempa rivers meet.

Like the teosinte fields, the imprint of the houses can still be clearly seen. Few weeds grow where these houses were. And the fallen rock walls can still be seen quite clearly.

Other rocks may have been a walkway through the difficult rocky terrain. Domesticated jaguars and pumas would have walked these paths and landscapes with the Mayan ancesors.

The houses here at the north end of the site appear older - there are less weeds and the grass seems shorter, indicating a longer period of habitation. They are also set back from the rest of the village, which could indicate that the lead families lived here. This photo looks back to the north to the higher uninhabited part of the island.

The next two photos show housing sites in what may be the newer part of the site to the southeast.

In addition to the teosinte rows there appeared to be several nursery areas where there is now very thick, verdant growth of a special grass. I imagine that this might be where they first grew the corn and other experimental crops - squash, beans, etc.

The early Maya who lived at the Teotipa site where also spiritual people. There are several clear indicators. The first one we saw was the clear outline of a stone circle, perhaps 15 meters in diameter.

Further evidence of the spiritual nature of these people is their name in the Popol Vuh: Nijayib'. Tedlock translates this as Great Houses. Using Ch'orti' to translate provides:

Nihk : shaking, trembling
Hayitz : fast

Or "shaking fast". Clearly they were known for their fasting.

You can see that almost nothing grew inside this circle except short grass. Nature itself is keeping this sacred space clean.

The following stone was among the stones that formed the stone circle. It is clearly a cultural stone. The top half appears to be a face.

The next rock formation appeared to have a special meaning. The energy around these stones was strong.

This upside-down triangle of stones forms what was likely a fertility symbol.

Here is another cultural stone with a face.

The Maya made many journeys and made stones into walkways rather than being obstacles. But they did have obstacles - I still have more to tell about their conflict with the Xibalbhans at Corinto cave and the natural disaster that ended their stay on Teotipa. Much later I will tell about how they journeyed down the Lempa River in dug-out canoes and then near Tehuacan constructed rafts and boats to sail the Pacific Ocean.

The name for Teotipa in the Polol Vuh, Chi ismachi, directly points to this being a place for growing teosinte. Tedlock, using Quiche, translates this as Bearded Place. Using Ch'orti' it translates as "growing teosinte":

Chi - growth
Iximak - teosinte

Iximak would be a somewhat more recent word for teosinte and is composed of ixim (corn) and ak (grass), linking Teotipa not only to teosinte but also to corn.

Teopan - Ancestral Home of the Quiches

When the Mayan ancestors left Isla Tigre following the advent of the 3rd sun, marked by a triple star event in 8207 BCE, each of the four lineages went to an island, in order to be safe from their fierce enemy the Xibalbhans at Corinto cave who were afraid of water. [Click to enlarge map.] Two lineages remained to the east - the Lenca/Olmeca lineage at Lago Olomega (Teomeka) and the Zapotec lineage at the mouth of the Lempa River (Teoakan). The Quiche lineage and the Ch'orti' lineage went to the west of El Salvador - the Quiches to Lago Coatepeque (Teopan) and the Ch'orti's to Lago Güija (Teotipa).

All of the four destination regions are beautiful, but Lago Coatepeque and Teopan are spectacular. Today Teopan is a private playground of some of El Salvador's wealthiest families. In the photo Teopan can be seen just to the right of center. Coatepeque is a crater lake and the serpentine nature of the hills surrounding the lake is especially clear, although a similar phenomena is found at Olomega and Güija. The hills became seen as a ringed serpent that protected the islanders. This led to another name of Coatepeque: Tamakchan, which means "deep inside the rainbow", where rainbow (makchan) means "serpent that stops up" (the rain). It is easy to see where the rainbow serpent originated. The name Tamoanchan is associated with western El Salvador (Arocha, 1990) and is found in Huasteca songs. It is possible that Tamakchan changed to Tamoanchan over the years among the Huasteca Maya.

The name Teopan means "island of sprouting", as in a plant breaking the soil. Teopan today is ringed with private yards and expensive homes. Only the eastern part has relatively few homes, as well as the top half of the island. One needs the permission of one of the island's residents to access the ferry (below) onto the island. Modern day Quiches would have to work at one of the homes in order to access their ancestral home.

While it is possible that Coatepeque is a Nahua (Pipil) overlay on the original name of the lake, meaning "serpent hill", Coatepeque does have a possible meaning in Ch'orti'. (The Quiche ancestors would have spoken proto-Chorti until they left for Mexico in about 2300 BCE. The two languages did not begin separating before that date.)

Ka- - our (prefix)
Wet - companion, fellow neighbor

Or "our neighbor", from the perspective of the Ch'orti's. The later Pipils would have changed this to something meaningful in their language, adding the "tepeque" and changing vowels somewhat to go from Kawet to Coat.

Teopan and the Coatepeque lake shore have an abundance of ceramics and stones that date from the Classic or post-Classic all the way back to the pre-Classic or earlier. More are demonstrated in the photo gallery at the end. Some of the oldest ones include rocks that are carved in a way that enhances natural features, such as the one at right above found near the ceremonial mounds on Teopan. The mounds, below left, were scheduled to be excavated starting December 2012. I believe that these mounds will be dated, at their earliest level, earlier than any pre-Classic Mayan site. Most of the carved stones and ceramic pieces on Teopan and Coatepeque have found their way into private homes, including the wealthy homes on Teopan.

The Quiche ancestors lived on Teopan from about 8200 BCE until about 2300 BCE - 5,900 years. At the latter end of that span they no doubt spilled over to the lakeshores of Coatepeque as the population increased. The Quiche are referred to as Cauec or Kawik in the Popol Vuh, a reference back to Hakawitz, the origin of tobacco. The Quiche probably were the first to cultivate tobacco.

Further evidence of the link with tobacco comes from the name of the wife of Quitze, the founder of the Quiche lineage. Her name is Kaqa Paluma:

Kah - start, beginning
K'ah - happiness

Pahr - shaping, fashioning
Lum - earth

The name means "start of happiness" and "shaping the earth". Start of happiness is a clear reference to Hakawitz, near the present-day Salvadoran town of Alegria, and the finding of tobacco. We also see that the Quiche seem to be the first mound and pyramid builders, done in homage to Hakawitz.

I have previously written that the elite Quiche leaders were the first to suffer from pellagra - or a lack of niacin, which resulted from a diet too heavy in untreated corn. Pellagra causes skin lesions, dementia, and death, as well as other symptoms. As a result of the symptoms of pellagra, with cause still unknown, the Quiche ancestors were sent into exile to the northwest coast of Mexico in about 2300 BCE to an island called Teacapan, which means "remembering Teopan." Later the Quiches were a primary formative group at Teotihuacan and tried to return to El Salvador before settling in western Guatemala.

When the Quiche ancestors left Coatepeque it seems likely that the Ch'orti' ancestors sent some families of their lineage at Güija to Coatepeque. These families became the Huasteca lineage and the same thing happened to them as the Quiche - they ate too much untreated corn and also began to suffer from pellagra. I believe that they were sent into exile along the northeast coast of Mexico, to their present-day home isolated from the rest of the Maya. Soon the Ch'orti' Maya discovered ash or lime as a way to treat corn and prevent pellagra; this process is called nixtamalization. Perhaps they first learned of these substances as fixing agents with natural plant dyes.

It appears that a remnant population of the Maya remained along the lake. These people are the ancesors of the present-day community of Coatepeque: one version of their oral history says that they lived along the lakeshore, then moved about ten kilometers from the lake and carried the name Coatepeque with them.

Two other local places have interesting histories. Congo means "Joint Tooth" in Ch'orti': K'om - "joint, splice"; K'o - "tooth, molar, beak". I believe that this is the place called Split Tooth in the Popol Vuh.

The second place is Siete Príncipes (Seven Princes). The name sounds like it comes from Classic Mayan days but the oral history suggests it was given by a foreigner who lived in the area in the 1950s and 1960s and wanted to highlight the seven cultural mounds grouped together so that he gave the place the name Siete Príncipes. The local people say that there are seven mounds - my colleagues and I were able to locate five of the seven on a visit in August 2012.

The mounds are obviously cultural and likely date to a period immediately after the Huastecas' departure in about 2000 BCE. The Siete Príncipes mounds would have represented the departure from Isla Teopan and more generally the expansion out from the four islands in El Salvador to the Pacific coast, ranging from Chiapas to El Salvador, as well as to the Atlantic Coast in Belize.

What may be most interesting about Siete Príncipes is that it lies close to the midpoint of a line connecting Tazumal (Chalchuapa) and San Andres Mayan sites. This suggests that Siete Príncipes was the first step away from Lago Coatepeque and Lago Guija and that Tazumal and San Andres were the next step before major expansion along the Pacific Coast to Chiapas once the nixtamalization process was discovered.

From Coatepeque the Quiche ancestors could walk north-northeast to the Lempa River. Going downstream they would arrive at the meeting place called Arcatao, where they would gather regularly with the other four lineages. Further downstream at the mouth of the Lempa was Tehucan, the home of the Zapotec ancestors and later a Mayan community. Going upstream by canoe they could arrive at Lago Guija and the Ch'orti's - although they probably more commonly walked or ran there. The fascinating mysteries of Guija are the next thing I will explore in this blog.

Photo Gallery

Carved stone from Lago Coatepeque, using natural features of the stone:

Another carved stone, possibly dating to before the pre-Classic:

The next carved stone probably dates from the early pre-Classic and one can see how the sophistication grew:

Here's a carved stone from the Classic era. This one is doing a yoga pose which serves as a based for the carving.

Other pre-Classic or Classic carved stones were found by the private landowners on Teopan and now serve as trophy pieces.

Another Classic-era carved stone on Teopan:

There are other vestiges of the Mayan presence at Teopan, including this mound:

Close to the mound were these rocks which appear to be the corner of an ancient rock wall.

The steps going to the top of Teopan appeared to be of the pre-Hispanic era:

At the very top of Teopan was this etched stone which appeared to have an astronomical formation on it:

Like the carved stones, the ceramics from Lago Coatepeque appear to span from pre-pre-Classic (on the left, below) to pre-Classic (on the right, below) to Classic to post-Classic. One also sees a range of East Asian faces to perhaps European faces on the ceramics.

 

The left and middle appear potentially pre-pre-Classic while on the right is likely pre-Classic.

More ceramics from either pre-pre-Classic to early pre-Classic.

This is a fascinating assymetrical ceramic face that may date to the time of the Quiche or Huasteca pellagra outbreak. Pellagra can cause insomnia, mental confusion, and dementia.

This pre-Classic or Classic-era ceramic figure is also doing a yoga pose.

The ceramic face on the right is a clear transition from the earlier pre-pre-Classic or early pre-Classic ceramics to the Classic-era ceramics.

The piece on the left may date from the post-Classic, with its Mexican influences.

Here is one more of the seven mounds of Seven Princes, just outside of the Lago Coatepeque crater.

The above mound is on the property of this señora, who spoke of the mound with great reverance.

Tehuacan - The Learner. Origin of the Zapotecs

In this blog post I will establish the Zapotecs as one of the four Mayan heritages that had their beginnings at Isla Tigre, Honduras, and then on four islands in El Salvador. The Zapotec-ancestor island, at the mouth of the Lempa River (left), was called Teoahkan, which changed over time to Tehuacan among the Zapotec ancestors. Due to the rising ocean level the Zapotec ancestors moved to the area now called Puebla, Mexico, and brought the Tehuacan name along with corn seeds with them. It seems they found avocados in the Tehuacan valley and sent them back to El Salvador.

The four grandfathers of Mesoamerica are Akbar, Kinche (Quitze), Maix (Majukutaj), and Ik, the latter translated as Dark Jaguar by Tedlock. Another translation is Evening and refers to the shift that Ik took in leading the four rafts from South America to El Salvador. The Popol Vuh says that Ik had no sons:

"These three had sons, but Dark Jaguar had no son." (Tedlock, pg. 174)

But Ik is mentioned many times in the Popol Vuh, including the more than 500 years on Isla Tigre when the Mayan ancestors learned how to cultivate (tobacco) and first domesticated animals, starting with the macaw parrot. Clearly the original Ik had offspring and his lineage continued. For much of the time that the Popol Vuh speaks of the four Mayan founders it is speaking of their lineage not the person directly.

So what does the Popol Vuh mean when it says that Ik had no son? It is a reference to the Maya losing track of Ik's lineage when they left. Ik is the founder of the lineage which became the Zapotec and Mixtec people. The Kiowa and the Hopi also partly share this lineage. Depending on the inflection and context, Ik' can mean air, atmosphere, wind, dusk, or dark. From about 8200 BCE to 6800 BCE Ik's lineage lived on various islands at the mouth of the Rio Lempa in El Salvador, each or at least the first called Teoahkan - "island of the learner" in Ch'orti', a language very similar to what they spoke in 8200 BCE.

Symbolically it was important for the Ik' lineage to live at the mouth of the Lempa - the Ak'bar lineage lived at one of the sources of the Lempa, Lago Guija. To have people at each end of the great river of the land they lived in completed the symbolism. Even more it was important in a practical sense: the Ak'bar and Kinche lineages would cut logs far upstream for the construction of ocean-faring sail rafts. Someone had to be at the mouth of the river to intercept the logs and assemble them into rafts.

The lower Lempa River is a volatile, changing place, especially when the Ik' lineage moved there in about 8200 BCE. The ocean was quickly rising from climate change and glacial melt. No doubt the island that they first lived on was submerged after several hundred years, or even quicker. But they had to continue to live on islands to escape their arch-enemies, the Xibalbhans, who had earlier captured them and who were afraid of water.

The constant floods and the rising water are supported by the Ik's partner's name: Kaqixaja. Tedlock translates this Macaw House. It is:

Kah - start, beginning
Kiix - already, by now, by then
Aja - water

This could be translated "already water and beginning of the (rising) water" referring to living at the side of the ocean and then having the ocean continue to rise.

The Lempa itself often changes course during floods, cutting new channels, such as the Izcanal (left), and creating new islands. It is interesting that the name Iz canal is so similar to Ik', the lineage founder of the Zapotec. An example of the changing course of the Lempa is that it seems probable that the Lempa used to empty into the Bahia de Jiquilisco, seen on the right of the photo. And the Lempa, center of the photo, carries a large amount of silt downstream, depositing it at the mouth. This is seen in the name of the community Zamoran, about 14 kilometers from the current mouth on the east side of the river.

San - swelling (Ch'orti')
Mohr - pile, things brought together
Ahn - a running; race

Ahn could refer to a current, which would make it "swollen pile formed by a current" - an area silted over. Recently the ancient bones of a woman and a child were excavated at Zamoran.

And then there is the place called Nancuchiname, now a national forest on the east side of the river 15 to 20 kilometers north of the mouth.

Nak - side of (Ch'orti')
Kuchi - carry on back, transport
Nam - vanishing, disappearance

It was beside or across the bank from the place of transport that disappeared, either from a river flood or the rising ocean. Nancuchiname reminds us of the significance of the lower Lempa in the transportation system of the Mayan and Zapotec ancestors.

One more example of the volatility of the lower Lempa, and the reason why the Zapotec ancestors may have seen the need to migrate away, is the lagoon called Talquezal.

Tal - a coming, arrival
Ker - dividing in half
Tz'ah - wetness

"Coming of the wetness which divides in half." Perhaps this is referring to a Lempa flood where half of the river over-ran the banks and divided itself in two. When the flood was over the lagoon was left.

A long time after the Ik' lineage left for Mexico, the Maya built a structure in remembrance of them and called it Tehuacan - "island of the learner". It is built on the flank of the Chichontepec volcano. No doubt Tehuacan was important for the Nahuat (Pipil) people who migrated from Mexico in between 1000 and 1500 CE, some from the area of Tehuacan, Puebla. It was like coming home. In a way, it was coming home. The search was over.

The Popol Vuh refers to the Zapotec ancestors as the Saqik (Tedlock, 1996, pg 184). The translation in Ch'orti' is pertinent:

Sahk : a hunt, a search
Ik' : the wind, dusk

Wind-hunter or wind-chaser. One who travels, who eventually sought out the future in the direction of the dusk, the west. But there is a double meaning, Ik' was also the name of the lineage-bearer of the Zapotecs, who became separated from the Maya. So Saqik also means "to search for the lost Ik' lineage".

I think that when the Zapotec ancestors left for Mexico in about 6800 BCE, that the Maya seeded a new community in the lower Lempa, partly to continue to receive the logs for the ocean rafts floating down the Lempa, but also due to the very good soils in the floodplain. However, while they planted close to the river, the community was likely a day's half walk away at the higher elevation to avoid both the ocean which was continuing to rise due to climate change and the river which frequently floods. The ocean was much higher then in than now in relative terms because of the historical trend for the Central America coast to be rising, caused by the Caribbean sub-continental plate rising above the Cocos sub-plate. The location of the new Ch'orti' community was likely at the Tehuacan archeological site on the flanks of the Chichontepec volcano or the nearby Tehuacan Ecological Park. The Maya kept the name Tehuacan, due to their belief in the sacredness of names.

Later the Maya would build structures at the Tehuacan site. There are at least four structures visible under the planted corn and the double-coned volcano of Chichontepec, literally the "breast peaks".

When the Tehuacan Ecological Park was being built many old and very old pieces of ceramic and formed rock were found. Many of these are found in their viewing room - photos are in the gallery below. A swimming pool was excavated and when it was filled with water, it leaked out over several hours. The floor was examined, a hole was found. It was chipped away to create a hole big enough for persons to lower themselves in. They found a rock-lined tunnel - a tunnel going in the direction of the Tehuacan ruins, a tunnel that runs for who knows how many kilometers. They were not prepared to adequately and safely explore it so they sealed it up and re-filled the stream-fed swimming pool by diverting a stream that flows from a spring up the volcano.

Not all the pieces at the Ecological Park's viewing room are from the Classic or even pre-Classic period. Some are much earlier, like the carved rock at right. This likely dates to a period earlier than 2000 BCE. Perhaps it was created to remember the Zapotec ancestors who moved to Mexico.

To where did the Zapotec ancestors migrate about 6800 BCE from the lower Lempa River? They probably scouted out various places on many trips before moving. Puebla's Tehuacan valley must have been attractive for its cool climate and avocados. That was one location. But it appears that they moved around and one other location without a doubt was the Balsas River valley where corn dated to 6700 BCE was found, in an area near the border of Michoacan, Guerrero and Mexico state (map, below). This is within the current natural range of balsas teosinte. It was necessary to continue hybridizing the corn with teosinte to make it more resistant and a stronger plant. By 6800 BCE it is possible that the range of balsas teosinte had shifted definitively northwest from Central America to southwest Mexico. The Balsas valley is 350 to 400 kilometers west of Tehuacan.

Tehuacan also gave its name to Teotihuacan, as the Zapotecs were one of the primary components of the Teotihuacanos. In Tehuacan valley the Zapotecs may have stayed at a cave called Coxcatlan. They definitely used it as a rain shelter and food storage. Plant matter has been dated within the cave starting in 8000 to 7000 BCE until just before colonial times, including avocados. Coxcatlan is highly likely to be a derivation of Cuxcatlan, the name that the Zapotec ancestors gave to the central region of El Salvador. When they arrived in Mexico they named their first home after their homeland. While the Zapotec language was already moving away from Ch'orti' when they left it is possible to gain a good idea of the meaning of Cuxcatlan.

Kux - birth, sprouting, come to life
Kat - super natural being
K'at - cross, crossing of two objects
Katu' - moon
K'uxkatu' - lunar eclipse
Waran - light, shiny, radiant

There is no phrase lan in Ch'orti', but waran seems plausible. The 'r's and 'l's would have been interchangeable. So the difference is the wa at the beginning. There are three related possibilities: "birth of radiant super natural being", "birth of crossing of two radiant objects", or "radiant lunar eclipse". The first one seems like a more abstract use of language than I have seen at ~7000 BCE, so I discount it. The second could be describing a lunar eclipse, so the third one is my inclination. It could be referring to a powerful lunar eclipse or perhaps when they first began to predict the eclipses.

Cuxcatlan is a Mayan-Zapotec word that seems to be referring to a radiant sky event, most likely a lunar eclipse. In Mexico the Zapotecs then pronounced it Coxcatlan, but it is the same word as what became Cuscatlan in El Salvador.

The Zapotec ancestors moved to the Oaxaca valley, perhaps between 3000 and 2000 BCE. Others of their lineage stayed in the Tehuacan valley, while others moved to the Cholula or the central Mexico area.

The Zapotec ancestors found avocados in the Tehuacan valley, likely on their scouting trips before they moved there according to the archeological evidence. At some point they brought avocados back to the lower Lempa River. We know this because "West Indies" avocados, a lowland avocado, developed separately from the Mexican highland avocado. From the El Salvador-Guatemala coast the avocado was taken at a later point to the Guatemalan highlands, creating the Guatemala variety of avocado.

But there is more convincing evidence for the avocado being brought to the Lower Lempa and that is the name of the village of Pacun near the Lempa about 25 kilomters north of the current mouth. Pacun refers directly to avocado cultivation: (in Ch'orti')

Pak' - planting
Un - pear, avocado

This name could have been given by the Zapotec ancestors before they left for Mexico and their language was still very close to Ch'orti'. But more likely it was given by the Ch'orti', a portion of whom moved to the lower Lempa when the Zapotec ancestors left. In this scenario the lower Lempa Ch'orti' would have gone from their homes each day at the site of Tehuacan, San Vicente, high enough to be definitively safe from the rising ocean, and walked to the flat floodplain of Pacun to the cultivated avocados and various plants. It is likely that avocados were cultivated in the lower Lempa prior to or at the same time as avocados in the Tehuacan valley of Mexico - most likely between 6800 BCE and 6000 BCE. A later transference of the avocado from Mexico to El Salvador is doubtful since the Maya said in the Popul Vuh that they lost contact with the Zapotec ancestors. It is more likely that avocados were brought back to El Salvador by the same generation that migrated to Mexico. It is also possible that they were first found in the region of El Salvador and then taken by the Zapotec ancestors and cultivated in Mexico. This is doubtful given that some of the avocado remains in the Tehuacan valley have been dated prior to 7000 BCE. For more background on the beginnings of avocado use and cultivation: Amanda J. Landon or Galindo-Tovar, Arzate-Fernandez, Ogata-Aguilar, and Landero-Torres.

To finalize, I will look at three more names along the Lempa River: the Acahuapa River, which runs east through San Vicente to the Lempa, the Titihuapa River which forms the boundary between San Vicente and Cabañas departments, and Guayojo name of a village and forest north of Pacun. The huapa or "wapa" suffix is common to both of the rivers.

Acahuapa

Ahka - rumble
Wahp - continuous

Titihuapa

Tihti - shake
Wahp - continuous

So wahp or huapa was a suffix commonly used with rivers that had a continuous flow. What's interesting is that the same suffix was used to describe the creek next to the Monte Verde site in southern Chile that dates back to 12,500 BCE - the Chinchihuapi. This demonstrates the continuity in language from the moment of arriving in Chile from Asia until settlement in El Salvador in about 8200, at least with the branch of the American family that became the Ch'orti' Maya.

Finally, to conclude is Guajoyo, just upriver from the lower Lempa and the island of the learner.

Wa' - being, being in a place
Hoy - liking
Hoyi - make satisfactory, to please

Guajoyo is "being in a place of liking". Some photos from near the place of liking follow.

Photo Gallery

Mangroves on Montecristo Island at the mouth of the Lempa River. Montecristo may be the closest thing there is to a symbolic representation of the first Teoahkan, which is likely buried under many meters of silt.

 

Protecting serpents on a home in California, Usulutan, not far from the mouth of the Lempa River

The largest mound at the Tehuacan archeological site.

The top of the same mound at Tehuacan, planted with corn.

View to the west from main mound. Mounds visable at the end of the field in the mid-ground. Chichontepec left flank in the distance.

The view north, where structures are outlined under the corn, possibly including a ball field.

Finely cut stone at the Tehuacan site

Likely remains of a very old rock wall about a kilometer from the Tehuacan site could indicate settlement here 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Guanacaste trees at the entrance to the Tehuacan Ecological Park, administered by the municipality of Tecoluca, 2 kilometers from the Tehuacan site. It had been a plantation until the 1980-1992 conflict when the FMLN gained control and used it as a base throughout the conflict.

In addition to restaurant, cabins and gardens, the Ecological Park has a viewing room. One of the more interesting and perhaps one of the oldest was this carved rock sphere.

Piece from Tehuacan

These ceramic pieces were the "feet" for bowls

Perhaps this piece provides evidence that the Maya, in addition to the Olmecs, had contact with Africa.

A Mayan character

Part of the permaculture garden at the Tehuacan Ecological Park. Tehuacan means "the learner".

Tree decaying a wall with its roots.  The wall was part of the exploitative plantation here from colonial times until it was ousted by the FMLN in 1981 during the conflict. The plantation was built on a sacred Nahuat-Pipil site. The Nahuat-Pipil site was located at an earlier sacred Mayan site, evidenced by the archeological structures. The Mayan site was located in the area of the Zapotec ancestors, who lived here from about 8200 to 6800 BCE. The sign says, "What is metamorphosis?" and points in the direction of the butterfly house of the Ecological Park.

 

Two Opposing Groups of Neolithic Humans Met in El Salvador

Somewhere around 8800 BCE the two great human groups of the Americas - the super hunters of Northamerica and the sailors and plant specialists of Southamerica - met in El Salvador and began a confrontation that lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years. [click to enlarge map] This confrontation led to the great drama of the Xibalba lords in the Mayan sacred book Popol Vuh. Much of the confrontation of these two groups centered around the Corinto cave or rock shelter, mislabeled the Holy Spirit Cave, (click to enlarge), in northeast El Salvador.

I believe that the Popol Vuh accounts are generally more than symbolic, i.e. the Xibalba Cave really existed. Moreover, since the Mayan ancestors landed their sail rafts in El Salvador, El Salvador is the most logical place for the Xibalba Cave. Various place names, oral histories, and the paintings in the cave all support this idea. 

We begin with the name of the beach near where the Mayan ancestors landed - Amatal. As mentioned earlier, tal means "arrival". Ah-ma means liar or evil one in Ch'orti', so that Amatal means either "arrival to the evil one" or "arrival of the evil one". Since the Mayan ancestors arrived at nearby Toluca, evidenced by the sailing stones and the Mayan name of Toluca, "arrival of the evil one" only makes sense if the "evil one" was encountered by the pre-Maya a few kilometers from where they landed. This is possible but somewhat unlikely in the open spaces along the beach. I think "arrival to the evil one" is a more likely meaning for Amatal ("arrival to the land of the evil one").

The second name that supports the notion of a great confrontation in El Salvador between two groups is the local indigenous name for the cave, Suncuyo. Suncuyo is a Maya name, even though now this is a Kakawira (a Chibchab language group) area with the Lenca nearby. Suncuyo appears to date back to a time when the Mayan, Lenca, and Chibchab languages were still close. Here's what it means in Ch'orti':

sun - foreigner
ku - topple, push, tumble
yo'r - hole, perforation 

Suncuyo is "foreigner tumbling through a hole or over a perforation." What drama! The Corinto cave is covered by a mushroom-like granite cap (above, click to enlarge) which weathered away on two sides forming two caves or rock shelters. The perforation could refer to the edge above the cave where there is a 10 meter drop to the rock shelter floor. However I believe that Suncuyo is referring to another feature of the granite cap - a hole in the granite near the edge of the cap that ultimately opens up to the outside at the bottom (click to enlarge). I believe this is what the Popol Vuh refers to as the Razor House and was very instrumental in the battles between the two sides. When one goes through the hole they go from the upper world (layer) to the underworld (layer).

A third name which provides evidence of a conflict between two groups is the Lenca name for the cave: Ti Ketau Antawinikil (the cave of the human being). This is profound. The Lenca consider it the place where human beings came from. According to a Lenca elder, the name Antawinikil means “first man” or “first humans” in Lenca. The name Ti Ketau Antawinikil has a similar but intriguingly different meaning in Ch’orti’ Maya: “opening in possession of the [Anta] human being.” The strong possessive sense would seem out of place except that the translation of Anta appears to be “forest corn”, making the whole “opening in possession of the forest corn humans.” (A’n means “spring maize” and tah means “forest”.) This would then indicate that the cave belongs to the forest (wild) corn people as opposed to some other people – people who did not grow or gather corn (or teosinte) in the forest.

Who were the group of humans opposing the pre-Maya? First, it seems clear that they were hunters. There are at least two hunter paintings in the cave, unusual in Mayan caves or rock shelters. In the photo at right on can see the most prominent and dramatic paintings in the cave. [click to enlarge] At the bottom is the white outline of a hand centered within an indentation. It is the sign of the ruler of the cave. Directly above it in yellow is a clear depiction of a hunter. The hunter is carrying a spear or related object in his right hand. For a time, the hunters were the rulers of the cave. To the left is another painting that appears to be a hunter. [click to enlarge] It is highly likely that this hunter group came into the Americas from the north and were in Northamerica for some time. They would be the hunters of the Clovis points.

Miguel Amaya, a Kakawira leader from nearby Cacaopera, says that the area from Cacaopera to Corinto [see map at top], especially along the Torola River, was an ancient hunting ground with numerous animal bones found, including one that local people believe was a mastodon. The mastodons could have been driven south and east by the Northamerican hunters.

More evidence of a Northamerican hunter presence at Corinto cave comes from Taima Taima, Venezuela, a very early site which was settled by relatives of the pre-Maya/Olmec sailors who arrived in El Salvador, based on language similarities. Taima Taima is a mastodon kill site dating to 12,000 BCE which showed no signs of Clovis points from the period of 11,500 BCE to 9,000 BCE when they were common in Northamerica. But one nearby site, Cayude, shows Clovis points sometime after 9,000 BCE. It would appear that the pre-Maya, after their encounter with the hunters, sent a delivery of Clovis points to their cousins in Venezuela. The 9000 BCE date or soon thereafter for the Cayude Clovis points corresponds with my estimated date of 8800 BCE for the first encounter between these two people.

The Popol Vuh reinforces the idea that the Xibalba cave was a cave of hunters by having one of the sections of the cave named the Jaguar room. I believe that the four families were held captive in the Jaguar area and that is how they gained their name as the Jaguar people. One of the four leaders, Maix (Not Ready Yet), is not named as a Jaguar in the Popol Vuh but his lineage, the Olmec and the Lenca, certainly share the Jaguar totem. I think the Jaguar area begins at the left in the photo and continues further to the left [click to enlarge]. The Bat area where the hunter leaders may have slept was just right of center.

A second characteristic of the hunters seems to be their tall stature. The local legend states that the first people to inhabit the cave were giants. Local legends are usually based on some actual human experience that later turned into legend. This is especially true in a place with a very strong oral history tradition like Central America. The legend also states that there were three giant men and four giant women, perhaps indicating that there were generally more women than men among the hunters. A (probably) modern add-on to the legend states that the giants were from outer space.

The legend is reinforced by the presence of either natural or cultural cave features that appear to be very tall ghost-like people (left). This cave feature is near the exit of the cave on the west end. These cave features are perhaps seven or eight feet tall. To me they appeared to be a natural feature rather than cultural. Their style was also very different from all the other paintings, although that could be explained if the tall people made them.

Next to these "giant figures" are a series of many other "figures" along the west wall, where most of them are obviously natural rather than cultural (right, below). Whether or not the paintings are cultural should not determine the possibility that the hunters were much larger than the pre-Maya/pre-Olmec.

The other evidence for tall hunters is from the Popol Vuh, which states that the pre-Mayan/pre-Olmec leader One Hunahpu (Ahchuk in Ch'orti') married a woman named Xb'aqiyalo, translated as Egret Woman. This refers to a foreign woman with tall legs. Apparently One Hunahpu married one of the tall women from the other group of humans. The Xb'aqiyalo name has a double meaning of Xibahkha, which I believe is the Ch'orti' spelling for Xibalba, the Mayan name for the people in the cave.

Other evidence for a tall opposing group of humans comes from local traditions and folklore. The Ch'orti's practice a dance in eastern Guatemala which involves two giants, one white, one black. The giants move around very slowly until finally the black giant slays the white giant. This represents the death of One Hunapuh (Ahchuk) by the Xibalba lords in the Popol Vuh. The Dance of the Giants is documented in The Esotericism of the Popol Vuh by Raphael Girard. In the dance, the black giant represents Xibalba and the giants mentioned in the Popol Vuh, Vukup Cakix, Zipacná, and Caprakán. The black giant has a large headdress with a tall shaft. Two additional dance figures represent the Mayan twins, one has a sun identity and one the moon. The black giant then dances in battle against the moon twin. The twins cut each other up and when the black giant sees they are still alive says, "cut me up too." They do and he is killed. This is very similar to a story in the Popol Vuh.

Another bit of evidence for a group of tall opposing people comes from two more traditional dances involving giants in Nicaragua, an area where the pre-Olmec, pre-Lenca were present. In Leon it's the dance of the Gigantona (the giant woman). Her identity seems to be more that of a very tall colonial white woman, but it's possible this modern interpretation is covering up an indigenous gigantona story and dance that dates back to Xibalba. Further south in Diriamba there is the dance of El Gigante (the giant). His identity seems to be that of the giant in the biblical David and Goliath story, which is very similar to the moon twin vs black giant dance mentioned above. The dance also brings in the Moors vs. Christians dance found elsewhere in Central America. Both of these components of the dance may be based on older indigenous dances that date back to Xibalba.

Who made the paintings? My quick view of the cave indicated that white might be the bottom layer of paint in the cave. I believe that white was the color of paint used by the hunters and that all the other colors were used by the sailing people, the pre-Maya and pre-Olmec, once they had fully secured the cave at least a thousand years later. In addition to the white hand outlined above, the two figures in white are some of the only white painting. They appear to have headdresses that are like two feathers. White paint most likely came from calcium carbonate deposits which is often formed by marine sediments. It is possible it was found in the Gulf of Fonseca region which is about 50 kilometers the cave.

I believe that the colored paints - the browns, reds, oranges, and yellows - were all done by the sailing people. These colors all correspond to red ochre or iron oxide. There might be substitutes for one or two of these colors but probably not all four. The only identified iron oxide mine in the Americas before 1000 BCE is at Taltal, northern Chile. The sailing people may have come from there and it is highly likely that they maintained contact with Taltal by sail. I think that the colored paintings were done after the sailing people secured the cave a long time after the first encounter. However, I think its probable that these sailing people found a local source for iron oxide, since there is a high level of iron in the soil in eastern El Salvador and into Honduras. More research is needed on this question. For example, did these people discover and utilize the iron oxide at Agalteca, Honduras, 130 kilometers northwest of the cave? 

When did this encounter occur? I believe that this encounter dates to 8,800 BCE (+/- 200). This is based on the belief that the pre-Maya/pre-Olmec associated the tall hunters with one of the 20 Mayan day signs, the day sign Death. And that the day signs and the tzolkin 260 day calendar were in use by 7,000 BCE if not before. In addition, the Mayan-Olmec ancestors developed a long-count calendar based on the retrograde motion of Mars within the Milky Way.

The mars retrograde calendar is referenced within the Popol Vuh. For example: "And these are the lords over everything, each lord with a commission and a domain assigned by One and Seven Death." The format is that the first name refers to who - One Death, which would be the leader of the hunters, and the second name refers to when - Seven Death. The first time that Mars turned retrograde (in over 13,000 years) on the day sign Seven Death would have been about 8,800 BCE. Thus the pre-Maya associated Seven Death with the events that took place on the approximate date we know to be 8,800 BCE. Those events, based on Popol Vuh narratives, include their sail landing and subsequent capture by the tall hunters led by One Death.

It is also interesting that the Lenca name for the cave, mentioned above, can be understood in Ch’orti’. These are languages that diverged between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago according to linguists (some linguists mistakenly believe they are not related), which would seem to indicate that the cave name dates to that same period before the two languages were divergent.

What the encounter consists of? Most of the information about the encounter comes from the Popol Vuh, which indicates that the hunters were very violent and that conflict lasted for a very long time. I believe that the sailing people were able to escape the cave after a few months and journeyed around for many years before settling in Isla Tigre, Honduras, and then to four islands in El Salvador. They went to islands because the hunter people were afraid of water, which is what Xibalba means: "those afraid of water". 

A major confrontation took place when One Hunaphuh (Ajchuk in Ch'orti') went to the cave at the time of Seven Hunaphuh. The Popol Vuh says: "One and Seven Hunapuh left, guided down the road by the messengers. And then they descended the road to Xibalba." One Hunapuh refers to one of the pre-Mayan leaders. Seven Hunapuh refers to the date 7,500 BCE in the Mars retrograde calendar, 1,300 years after the initial capture and escape. The Popol Vuh then says that the sons of One Hunapuh defeated Xibalba - the hunters - once and for all - killing them all. This might be literal that it was the sons but it could some later generation. My best guess is that by 7,400 BCE the Mayan-Olmec ancestors (the jaguar people) secured the cave. The pre-Olmec/Lenca people became the caretakers of the cave although much later the Kakawira people, who also shared the same history of being captured in the cave, came back from Nicaragua, became the caretakers of the cave, and took up the jaguar practice.

There is a second rock shelter on the opposite side of the granite cap, (right), called Torro (Bull) Cave by locals. It has similar rock paintings, although fewer. There were no bulls in the Americas at that time. The animal closest to the bull are the tapir (danta). The image of the tapir is associated with the Death day sign which is itself associated with Xibalba, so it is not surprising that the cave may refer to the tapir.

The relationship between the Lenca-Olmec ancestors and the hunters seems different than the relationship between the Maya ancestors and the hunters. I believe that this stems from the captivity. Maix, the Lenca-pre-Olmec leader, means "not ready yet," referring to his young age and the lack of confidence that he could lead the raft flotilla. I believe that Maix was the generic "hunapuh" leader that the Popol Vuh refers to as marrying Egret Woman, a tall hunter woman. The Lenca believe that the painting at left [click to enlarge] represents the first Lenca man and women. In the Lenca tradition the oral history is passed on woman to woman. Egret Woman began that oral tradition and she told a different history about the hunters than what the Maya youth would hear. The Lenca today say that their oral history states that they were always there in eastern El Salvador. That's because Egret Woman may have said, "We were here already when you sailing people came. We've always been here for as long as we can remember." As the Popol Vuh says, they are a people formed by the blood of the tapir and by the blood of the sea serpent.

Finally, going back to the sailing people who landed on the central El Salvador coast, how did they end up in the hunters' cave? Given the conflictive nature of their encounter, it is highly unlikely it was voluntary, which would indicate that they were captured. Later events seem to indicate that they were captured before they knew much of anything about the region now called El Salvador. So they were probably captured within 70 kilometers of Toluca Beach.

I believe that once they placed the four grandfather stones at Toluca Beach they moved east since the incline to the northwest and north is quite steep within a few kilometers. They may have made their first campsite at Nuevo Eden, five miles north of Comolapa International Airport and 15 to 17 kilometers east of the Toluca Beach site. Eden (eten) means "the clearing" in Ch'orti', with a connotation of human-made. In another 45 kilometers they would have reached the Lempa River. I believe that once they made rafts and poled their way across the river the Xibalba hunters lay in ambush on the other side. Captured, they were marched to a cave that their descendants would rename about 1,400 years later Suncuyor "foreigner tumble hole."

Ancient Sailing Stones at El Salvador Coast

One of the more amazing ancient sites in El Salvador are the stones that correspond to four ancient sailing rafts. The stones are located about five kilometers inland from the Toluca Beach, east of La Libertad (click to enlarge). While there is no official dating, my research indicates a date of approximately 8,800 BCE. And my research indicates that the sailing party arrived from either Chile or Peru.

The stones are lying in tall grass and are sitting right next to each other, as if they were purposefully placed that way. There are four sets of most of the stones. The stones include anchor stones. The anchor stones are all cut so that some type of rope could be tied around the stones.

There appeared to be more than four anchor stones. Here's another:

There were four stones that were cooking stones. These varied somewhat but all contained a nearly perfectly round pounding hole. Some contained smaller holes that could have been gourd holders (early cup holders) or they could have been bases for poles used for shelter support. Some had shallowly indented work areas and some had a quite deep indentation for cooking or perhaps as seats. These large stones indicate that the rafts were quite large. A raft that was 8 logs wide and 40 feet long, for example, could use a stone like this for ballast to ensure the raft didn't flip over.

This cooking stone (below) has a very different configuration from the one above but still most of the same features.

There was a pounding stone located next to one of the cooking stones:

One of the most surprising stone types to find were sleeping stones. While generally lower than the cooking stones they tended to be larger and might balance the cooking stones in weight, creating large ballast stones on each side of the sail. While some raft travelers may have slept in hammocks, the sleeping stones would ensure that raft travelers would not be sleeping on the wet raft surface. If you look partway down the left side of this stone you can see a stone pillow.

This stone may have been the central mast stone on one of the rafts.

There is at least one stone that appears to be either a day-keeper stone or a navigation stone, with cut marks made on many parts of the stone.

The stones are located in a rather compact area within the tall grass in the photo below. Rather remarkably, to the left of the sailing stones from this angle, are four large round-ish marker stones.

These stones were moved - rolled - to this location from the surrounding area. However this is a not a stoney area - some may have been rolled several kilometers. My opinion is that each of these stones represent one raft, one family, that arrived to El Salvador. They are memorial stones - grandfather/grandmother stones.

The four grandfather/mother stones: (click to enlarge)

I will examine five questions that this site of four ancient sailing stones raises: has the ocean level really gone down? Who were the ancient sailers? Where did the ancient sailers come from? When the sailers land at Toluca Beach? Where did the sailers go from here?

The Ocean Level. The first question raised by the sailing stones is that this implies that the ocean has gone down in the last 11,000 years. In relative terms, on the Pacific Coast of Central America, this is true. The stones are maybe 15 meters above the level of the ocean. A similar marker stone on Isla Tigre, Honduras, which was likely also placed at ocean shoreline level perhaps 500 years later, is about 12 to 15 meters above the ocean level. 

There are at least two historic forces at work. There is a gradual rising of the Pacific coast of Central America as the Cocos continental plate continues to go under the Caribbean plate, which contains all of El Salvador and most of Central America. The western edge of the Caribbean plate, near the Pacific coast, continues to rise through this process. This leads to many earthquakes and volcanos as well as an ocean that appears to be falling.

In reality the ocean has likely risen between 30 and 60 meters in the last 12,000 years, with most of the rising occuring between 10,000 BCE and 6,000 BCE as the ice sheets melted after the last of the Ice Age. It's likely that the Toluca Beach site was submerged by the ocean for many thousands of years and then finally rose out of the ocean 3000-4000 years ago with the rising of the Caribbean plate and continued to rise until recently when recent ocean rising is again reversing the historic trend.

Who were the people who landed at Toluca Beach? Given the two place names in this area - Toluca and Amatal - it is quite clear that these were the ancestors of the modern-day Maya people. Both Toluca and Amatal have significant meanings in proto Ch'orti' Maya. This is similar to all the early South American sites, including the first site, Monte Verde, in southern Chile, and other sites, Taima Taima, Venezuela, Abra-Tocancipa, Columbia, Taltal, Chile, and Lapa do Boquete, Brasil. In the case of Taltal, Playa Amatal shares part of its name: tal means "arrival" in proto Ch'orti'. The shared name suggests a possible link between these two sites.

The Toluca name sounds similar to Tecoluca, a municipality 50 kilometers to the east where the Lempa River drains into the Pacific Ocean. Here is the possible meaning of Toluca in proto-Ch'orti':

T'ohr - anything stacked or piled (the 'l' and 'r' were likely interchangeable at that time)
Uk' - sadness
Kah - beginning, start or k'ah - remembering

I think that the meaning is "remembering in sadness the (horizontal) pile [of stones and rafts]. Perhaps they were sad in leaving behind the old land or were sad for those who may have died on the journey. That both Amatal and Toluca have meanings in proto Ch'orti' answers to a large degree who it was who landed at this beach and left these sailing stones.

Where did the ancient sailers come from?

The two sites along the Pacific coast of South America of a time period of 9000 to 8000 BCE are at Taltal, Chile, and the Guitarrero Cave, Peru. Both the Taltal site and the Guitarrero Cave site have place names consistent with proto-Ch'orti' seen at Toluca-Amatal. The habitation of the Taltal site dates from 10,000 BCE to about 8,500 BCE. The habitation from the Guitarrero Cave site dates from about 10,500 BCE to 5,000 BCE. The Peru site is about 100 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean and the inhabitants there likely maintained contact with the ocean.

The cooking stones shown above are somewhat similar to some of the tacita stones found in northern Chile, several hundred miles south of the Taltal site. Those stones are located at 300 meters above sea level, so they were never used on a raft, but indicate that similar technology was used on land. Here are more photos from a nearby site in Chile.

While the tacita stone sites in Chile and the connection between the names Taltal and Amatal might point toward Taltal, Chile, being the origination of this journey, it could have just as easily been from Peru. The evidence of very early vegetable production in or near the Peru site, starting in 8500 BCE with Aji peppers, is consistent with the very early agricultural production in El Salvador.

When was the journey made? These stones seem to be from an arrival type of journey rather than a short visit, in which case the stones would have been re-used and the grandfather/mother stones would not have been added. These four stones seem to correspond to the four leaders mentioned in the Popol Vuh (PV): Akbar, Kinche' (Quitze), Ik, and Maix (mentioned as Majukutaj in the PV). Therefore, it seems that this journey can be tied to the events in the Popol Vuh.

In fact the names mentioned above correspond to the shifts on which the raft leaders were the lead raft and carried the navigation stone. Akbar means "night", Kinche' means "handle day", Ik means "evening", and Maix means "not ready yet". The latter name almost appears to be a joke but simply means that Maix was not an experienced rafter and was not yet ready to lead the journey. 

These first people were the ones who experienced the Xibalba cave soon after landing in El Salvador. I have previously dated this experience to 8800 BCE using the Popol Vuh dating system and the mars retrograde long-count calendar.

Secondly, this journey would correspond to a time before corn was first hibridized. The earliest date determined by scientists so far is 6700 BCE in the Balsas River valley of Southwest Mexico. However the date according to the Popol Vuh was approximately 7900 BCE. This raft journey would have to have occured several hundred years before that.

Third, the ocean level itself indicates a very early date for this journey. If the date would have been later than, say, 8000 BCE, this site would have been submerged by the 100 to 200 additional feet of ocean depth as a result of the melting ice sheets following the Ice Age.

For all of the above I would date this raft journey to 8800 BCE, +/- 200 years.

Where did they go from here? It is impossible to know where this group of families went but my guess is that they went east or northeast where the terrain rises more gently than it would inland to the north or northwest. In addition, there is a village called Nuevo Eden, New Eden, about 17 kilometers to the east and just northwest of the international airport. My guess is that Nuevo Eden was the site of their first encampment. But soon after came their encounter with the Lords of Xibalba!

The Monte Verde Culture Heads Inland in Colombia

Nearly as old as the Monte Verde site in southern Chile and equally old as the Taima Taima and related sites in Venezuela are a series of sites, El Abra-Tocancipá high in the Andes mostly northeast of Bogotá. Just as the Monte Verde culture sailed counter clockwise around South America from Chile around the Cape of Magellan past Brazil and the Amazon to Venezuela, they continued on to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, went up the Magdalena River, and then by foot arrived to the altiplano. Comparing the proto-Ch'orti' language of Monte Verde with the place names of the Colombian sites confirms that these were the same people.

Earlier I confirmed that the Monte Verde people arrived by sea from Asia to southern Chile and that they lived in a broad area that included Bariloche, Argentina. They circumnavigated South America, with a group settling in Venezuela. Later, in about 9,000 or 8,500 BCE one group of these proto-Ch'orti' speakers would travel to El Salvador and then settle in the islands of the Gulf of Fonseca, the beginning of the Maya and Lenca identity. (español)

The Colombian sites are all located on the Andean altiplano with most about 50 kilometers northeast and one site about 25 kilometers west of Bogota. The Abra site near Tibitó is a series of caves and rock shelters at an altitude of 2,570 meters. The first settlement has been dated to 12,400 BCE, within a few hundred years of Monte Verde. Bone fragments come from mastadons, the American horse, and deer. Perhaps it was in pursuit of the horse that the early MonteVerdeans arrived to Tibitó. The horse became extinct in the Americas by 6,000 BCE, if not earlier. By the way, the horse is originally an American animal and made it to Asia, it is speculated, by crossing the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age. Another cave near Tocanpicá has tools that date to 11,000 BCE.

To the south, a site near Tequendama, near the Bogotá suburb of Soacha, also has tools from the same time period. Many of these were brought from the Magdalena River valley, 50 kilometers west. This shows additional proof for a close relationship with the Magdalena River.

Like the sites of Monte Verde, Bariloche, and Taima Taima, many of the place names surrounding these sites are from a proto-Ch'orti' language, demonstrating that it was all the same people in the various South America sites and that the Ch'orti' Maya language is the closest relative of the base language of all the South American indigenous languages. It also means that Ch'orti', the language closest to the holy language used at the classic era Mayan sites, is the closest relative of the language spoken in Asian by the people who crossed the Pacific. Let's look at the meanings of the place names in Ch'orti':

Tibitó - A contemporary village and site of an ancient rock shelter about 50 kilometers north of Bogotá and 70 kilometers east of the Magdalena River valley

Ti: in, on, within
Bitor: any kind of rounded crest

Or "within a rounded crest" which likely describes the rock shelter. The 'or' at the end was replaced by 'ó'. This is the only occurence of Tibitó.

Cajica - A contemporary village near the Tibitó site, with a very old name.

Ka'h: remembrance
Ik'ar: wind, breeze

Or "remembering wind", perhaps a breeze that reminded the settlers of Taima Taima or Monte Verde. This is the only occurence of Cajica.

Tocancipá - A contemporary small city near the Tibitó site.

Tok' - Breaking off, chipping, flint stone
K'an - need, desire
Sihb(p) - increase, swelling
Pa' - food

Not such a clear meaning, but could mean, "Chipping stone tools for need to increase food." This is a more abstract meaning than typical. Another possible mearning using different cognates is "breaking yellow sticks". This is the only occurence of Tocancipá.

Siria - A village just northeast of Tocancipá.

Sir - raising or lifting
Siri - lift up
Ah - one who

"One who is lifted up" or "anointed". There are five occurences of Siria in Latin America, three of which in Colombia. While some may be a modern reference to the country of Syria, it is more likely that all are based on this Ch'orti' word reserved for special people, those who are enlightened, those who discovered agriculture, etc.

Tequendama - A rock shelter and waterfall 25 kilometers west of Bogotá with tools dating back to about 11,000 BCE.

Ta - (locative)
Ker - separating
Tama - in, within, at

Or "separating to the interior". This likely signifies a new community distant from the previous base settlements. Tequendama is about 40 kilometers southwest of the earlier sites of El Abra and Tibitó. There are five occurences of Tequendama in Colombia and nowhere else in the world and each could signify a new settlement distant from previous settlements. One alternative meaning for Tequendama is base on the syllable quen, the only other Ch'orti' word similar is kene', which means banana. There is a slight chance this name refers to a plant or fruit, where the name was later used for bananas when they were introduced to Central America.

Soacha - A city, suburb of Bogotá, close to the site of Tequendama.

Sohi - bend, curve
Ch'a' - horizontal, lying down
Cha' - two, second

"Horizontal curve" or "two curves/bends". Soacha is not an exact match so it is possible it is not proto-Ch'orti' in origin. This is the only occurence of Soacha.

Chusacá - A contemporary village close to Tequendama and Soacha.

Ch'u - anything hanging, hanging fruit
Chu' - breast, milk, milky sap
Saka - white seed

"Hanging white seed" or "Sappy white seed". These are consistent meanings. This could refer to the pitaya, pitahaya, chirimoya, or platonia. There were several white fruits in northern South America. This is the only occurence of Chusacá, but there is a Chusacay in Peru.

While other early settlements of the First Peoples are all coastal, the Colombian ones are in the interior. How did they get there? The common wisdom among anthropologists and archeologists is that they walked overland from the north across the Darien Strait from Central America. However, there are no other settlements for thousands of miles to the north from the same time period, placing this assumption in doubt.

I think that the arrival to the Abra Valley of Colombia was primarily by ocean, just like Taima-Taima in Venezuela. The Magdalena River (right) is key. It is navigable for hundreds of kilometers starting at Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast to the high altiplano in the south of the country. It is easily navigable to Honda, directly west of the Abra Valley. The first inhabitants traveled counterclockwise around South America, whether originating from Monte Verde or from Taima-Taima is not clear. They may have reached the Darien Strait and then turned backed to the first major river and went upstream. Likely from Honda they left the boats and climbed up straight east to the altiplano, settling in the desirable Abra Valley.

Like Taima-Taima and Monte Verde, the first peoples of Colombia spoke an archaic form of Ch'orti' Maya, based on the place names. Today many Macro-Carib speakers live in the altiplano, with some neighboring Chibchan speakers. The Chibchan arrived at a later time from Central America. It is clear that they were formed at about the same time as the Maya and Lenca in the Gulf of Fonseca. It is most likely that the Abra Valley is the source of the Macro-Carib languages. Earlier I had speculated that El Jobo, Venezuela, might be the source, but the Abra Valley seems much more likely.

Surf Arrival: Monte Verde, Chile: the story of the Americas

The Maya, in their ages-old oral history, the Popol Vuh, said that they were born out of the blood of the sea serpent and the blood of the tapir. The sea serpent represents the Mayan ancestors who were sea-farers. The tapir represents the Xibalbans (Xibahkhans) who were land dwellers and ruled the Xibalba cave that is described in the Popol Vuh. The Popol Vuh mentions an early Maya leader, One Hunapuh, marrying a tapir woman Xib’aqiyalo. This would be the mixing of the blood of the sea serpent and the tapir, as mentioned in the Popol Vuh.

Earlier I had described that the tapir people captured the sea serpent people and held them captive in the Xibalba cave, the Gruta del Espíritu Santo in northeastern El Salvador. The sea serpent people escaped along the Torola River and eventually lived for several hundred years on Isla Tigre and other islands in the Golfo de Fonseca. The capture and escape of the sea serpent people occurred in about 8,850 BCE, based on the dating code used in the Popol Vuh, “1 Tapir 7 Tapir” (translated as 1 Death 7 Death in Tedlock). 7 Tapir is the date reference in the phrase and the corresponding date is found in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar. It is likely that the sea serpent people arrived to El Salvador at about this same time and were soon captured by the tapir people who were patrolling the region.

I am now ready to describe where the tapir people came from and where the sea serpent people came from. This story will describe much of the peopling of the American hemisphere. It will be easier to start with the sea serpent people. I will start by going to one of the earliest sites anywhere in the Americas, Monte Verde, Chile.

Monte Verde is an ancient site of living space with remains of various tools, equipment, living structures, and edible plants. The oldest layer of remains has been dated to about 12,500 BCE. The site appears to have been lived at for much of 2,000 years. One very interesting things about the site is that there are remains of over 50 different edible plants which were gathered from up to 150 miles away. The social organization and the testing and categorizing of plants shows a level of scientific and social sophistication and is a precursor to the people who would initiate agriculture several thousand years later.

The discovery and dating of Monte Verde ended once and for all the theory that the first people to enter the western hemisphere were the Clovis people between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE. Several Northamerican sites provide evidence of being even older than Monte Verde. Now the predominant theory goes that one group of these early northamericans quickly migrated to the southern tip of South America. This theory has two major problems: no intermediate sites have been identified and the quick pace of that migration over such a large and difficult distance in the short time of several hundred years or even a couple thousand years would be unprecedented.

Contrary to that theory, this blog will show conclusively that:

• the Monte Verdians arrived by sea from Asia rather than by land
• the Monte Verdians spoke a language very similar to one still alive today and
• that language is the root language of most Native American languages
• that language has been deliberately preserved relatively unchanged for more than 14,000 years
• the place names around Monte Verde and other early South American sites have been preserved for more than 12,000 years.

Working with Ch’orti’ Maya over the last two years I have had a sense it was a very old language from the way that words are built with older one-syllable cognates. In addition it is common for other cognates to be built from the root cognates by slightly varying the sound, while the meaning is complimentary but distinct. But when I heard the report of the discovery of the oldest mine in the Americas – at least 12,000 years old and located at the coastal city of Taltal, Chile, I began to realize just how old. Taltal means ‘arrival’ in Ch’orti’ Maya. (Actually arrival is ‘tar’ in Ch’orti’ but it is likely that at an earlier time the ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds where equivalent, similar to some east Asian languages like Japanese. Looking at the place names surrounding Monte Verde confirmed that in fact proto-Ch’orti’ was the language spoken by these First People.

Monte Verde is just a few miles north of the Reloncaví Sound in southern Chile. It is on a creek called Chinchihuapi which flows out of the Llanquihue Lake to the Maullin River. Two prominent volcanoes, Osorno and Calbuco, are located across the lake from Monte Verde.

Let’s take a look at the various place names in the area and see what they mean in the ancient language, that is, proto-Ch’orti’ Maya:

Chinchihuapi – the creek where Monte Verde is located. A creek with continuous flow and many rapids.

Chin: throb, vibrate, rustle
Ch’i : smallness
Wahpi: continue, keep on

Or “small rustles continue”, i.e. a small river with continuous rapids.

Chinquio – a small village on the tidal Reloncavi Sound close to Monte Verde.

Chin: throb, vibrate, rustle
K’ot: arrival

Or “surf arrival”. Chin makes sense as surf, a continuous vibration. Curiously this would make Chinchihuapi “continuous little surf”. I recognize that K’ot is a little far from quio, but it is plausible. It may have been Chinko before being changed to Chinquio in the Spanish era. And the 't' could have been dropped from the end previously. Another possible meaning for the last half of the name is similar: ki’ (heart) + och (entrance), but is more abstract than most names used. I understand that 14,500 years ago the ocean level would have been about 100 feet lower and Chinquio would not have been on the shore. At the same time much of the Pacific Coast of the Americas has been rising relative to the ocean. In any case, I believe that Chinquio represents the place on the shore at that time where the “surf arrival” occurred.

Llanquihue – This the beautiful lake to the east of Monte Verde with the two volcanoes on the far shore.

Yam: round, circular
Kihb: anything raised
Weh: fleshy, pulpy

“Raised round flesh”. Specifically a breast, which would describe Osorno, the volcano behind Lake Llanquihue. Instead of kihb, it could be ki’ (heart) or “round heart flesh” which has nearly the same meaning. And instead of yam it could be yan (unequal) or “unequal raised flesh” which would accurately describe the two volcanoes together, since they have quite different shapes.

Osorno – This is the large volcano cone on the far shore of Lake Llanquihue.

Os: fit; fitting into
Or: head, important
Noh: great, enlargement

Or “enlargement fits (over) head" or "enlargement fitted over main base". The Osorno volcano is a more recent volcano which formed on top of an older volcano with a mostly buried 6 kilometer wide caldera. This meaning of Osorno demonstrates a keen eye and a scientific sophistication among the First People.

Calbuco – Refers to the large irregularly shaped volcano south of the Osorno volcano. But it also refers to an island and town south of Monte Verde off of Reloncaví.

Kar: edible leaves and shoots (the ‘r’ and ‘l’ were interchangeable)
Buk’: reed, cane

Or “edible shoots/cane”. This is probably the most interesting place name around Monte Verde because there are two occurrences of it separated by over 20 kilometers. They were clearly trying to mark the locations of a certain kind of edible plant so that they would be remembered.

Colegual – This is a village on the shore of Reloncaví Sound, east of Puerto Montt

K’or: carrying, transport
Wahr: fanning, fan (the ‘w’ sound became a ‘gu’ in some derivative languages)

Or “fan transport”. This one is not so clear but I believe that ‘fan’ here may refer to sail and this may be a place where the sail rafts were maintained and where they debarked from when traveling out on the ocean.

Lenca – This is a village on the east shore of Reloncaví Sound, many kilometers from Monte Verde.

This is not a Ch’orti’ word but, obviously, a Lenca word. Since the Lenca language did not start evolving until about 8,500 BCE in El Salvador, this place name could only have come from a visit or a migration by a group of Lenca sometime much later. This seems to indicate a continued awareness by the Ch’orti’ and Lenca when they were in El Salvador of their place of origin in the hemisphere. No doubt that place was revered.

Monte Verde

Monte and verde are obviously Spanish words, but let’s take a look at monte. It is curious for showing up so often in Mesoamerican sites, including Montecristo (El Salvador), Monte Alto (Guatemala), and Monte Alban (Mexico). I believe that the Spaniards may have been replacing a similar Ch’orti’ word. In Ch’orti’ no’n is “we” and perhaps in an earlier time “our” as well. Te’eh means “trees” or “forest”, so one can see that no’nte’eh could mean “our forest” which sounds very much like “monte” or woods in Spanish. It also may explain why monte is more likely to mean mountain in Spain Spanish and woods in Latin American Spanish.

The first inhabitants of South America, arriving by surf to Monte Verde, lived alongside a stream that constantly rippled, like a little surf. They saw a beautiful volcano formed over an older volcano that reminded them of a woman’s breast. They found edible plants, over 50 varieties, a practice that they were already accustomed to in Asia where they came from.

And they traveled overland to Argentina and by sail raft to northern and far south Chile, to Peru, and to Venezuela. In the next few weeks we will explore these places that they traveled to, which will make it even more clear that these first inhabitants spoke a language similar to modern day Ch’orti’, and that ancient language was what they spoke in Asia before they set sail for the Americas.