The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Guanacos: From ancient South Africa to Spain

Salvadorans are called 'guanacos' rather affectionately by some, perhaps disparagingly by others. Most Salvadorans are proud of the name. As is turns out, 'guanaco' has a long, important history and demonstrates the centrality of Salvadorans in the history of indigenous in the Americas.

A common word that comes from the same root is guano, which means bird poop, bat droppings, or dung in general and is associated with coastal areas and caves. Merriam Webster says that guano was first used as a word in 1604 in coastal Peru. Of course what they mean is that 1604 is when Europeans first used the word. When we look at the key words associated with guano, the one most likely to share a meaning with guanaco is caves.

As I have pointed out, guanaco means brother or sister, not literally but figuratively, as in one who shares a cave.

Looking for a common root word for caves I looked at the Austronesian languages of southeast Asia, where the first peoples came from. In Malay, gua or guwa is cave and in Indonesian it is goa. We find the root word for cave, whether it was originally gua or guana, preserved in the Austronesian languages, going back 15,000 years, when the first peoples sailed across the Pacific Ocean and landed at Monte Verde, Chile. Interestingly, in Malay gu means "a yoke, a couple, a pair, fellows, mates." Gua and gu seem to share the same relationship in Malay as do guana and guanaco in ancient Amerind.

I am not yet clear why the Andean animal, the wilder cousin of the llama and alpaca, is called guanaco. My guess is that in the earliest times the name was given to all these large animals as a term of endearment. Perhaps some were domesticated that early and even shared the caves in Peru. In any case, this confirms a common root language between the Andes and Central America and the migration of the ancestors of the Central American people from South America.

The prevalence of the Lenca people in carrying the Guana oral tradition forward is shown by the name of the guanacaste tree and villages named Guanacaste throughout Lenca speaking areas. In contrast, the Ch'orti's call the guanacaste, 'conacaste'. I believe that guanacaste means "council of the brotherhood/sisterhood." These council meetings were often held under the great shade of the guanacaste (left), leading to the naming of the tree. The ceiba, another large tree, is used as the symbol of the world tree by Maya. One can't help but wonder if the Lenca used the guanacaste as their symbol of the world tree. It would add layers of meaning to the concept of the world tree.

Guana is a common place name fragment throughout the Americas, showing its continued use over thousands of years among many different language groups:

• Guanacaste province, Costa Rica
• Baia Guanabara, Brasil
• Guanajuato, Mexico
• Guancora River, El Salvador
• Guanaja Island, Honduras
• Guanabacoa, Cuba
• Guana Island, British Virgin Islands
• Guana Island, Antigua (also spelled Guiana)

This latter island is interesting - is the second spelling (Guiana) due to an European error or was it reflecting an inflection or change in the way that guana was pronounced over time? If the latter, then we must begin to see Guyana and possibly Guinea (Bissau), Guinea, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and Papau New Guinea all sharing in the name Guana - a name brought by ocean travellers who gave the highest honor "brother and sister" to the peoples that they met around the globe.

The term guanaco or at least guana also made it to Europe, starting in the Mediterranean. In Spanish we have the names Juan and Juana, which are clear derivatives of guana. The first peoples visited Europe, especially the Mediterranean, many times. The names Juan and Juana spread to many other languages in Europe and the Middle East. In most cases they are the most popular name, especially the male names. They still retain their original "brother" and "sister" ("of the same cave") meaning. No wonder that Brother John slips off the tongue so easily.

We have moved forward with the movement of the word guana. Now it's time to take a big step back. When researching this topic, I was surprised to be find a resort in South Africa called "Montagu Guana Cave Christian Guest Farm", located in the southwest of South Africa. Ignoring whatever a Christian Guest Farm is, consider the words "Guana Cave". There is a cave in South Africa called Guana, sharing a meaning found in Malay and throughout the Americas. The ancestors of the first peoples in the Americas, like the Austronesian peoples in Asia, left South Africa about 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. The word guana has been preserved for that many years, indicating a deliberate attempt on the part of the first peoples and their ancestors, to preserve key cultural artifacts from the old country, that is, Africa.

Moreover, this offers the strongest evidence yet for a living cultural link between South Africa and the first peoples in the Americas. Other evidence includes:

• Use of ultra long-distance running in both places
• Mining and use of red ochre (iron oxide) body and rock paint
• Clicking sounds in the languages (especially some Mayan languages)
• Potential references in the Popol Vuh to South Africa

Clearly for a Salvadoran to be called a guanaco is no small thing. In fact, figuring out the meaning of 'guanaco' helps answer some of the important questions of indigenous history in the Americas.

Bariloche: Part of the 12,000 BCE Monte Verde Culture

Bariloche, Argentina, is a charming city in the beautiful southern Andes, especially popular as winter sports destination. Bariloche is a very old destination, dating back about 14,000 years. Its roots are connected to Chile and the Pacific Ocean.

The First Peoples from Asia arrived along the coast of Chile in about 12,500 BCE and settled at a site now called Monte Verde. Based on a study of the place names around Monte Verde, as well as other early South American sites, I determined that the place names are in a proto-Ch’orti’ (Maya) language. The language that the First Peoples spoke in Asia before leaving for the Americas was proto-Ch’orti’. Later, one group of these proto-Ch’orti’ speakers arrived at present-day El Salvador and become trapped in the Gruta del Espíritu Santo before escaping and founding the Maya-Lenca nations.

Proto-Ch’orti’ was the language the First Peoples spoke when they visited and camped out at Bariloche. There is an obvious clue that this area was settled or visited by the same people who were at Monte Verde: the common presence of the word component “huapi”. The Monte Verde site is on the Chinchihuapi Creek and Bariloche is along Nahuel Huapi Lake. “Huapi”, spelled “wahpi” in the Wisdom Ch’orti’-English dictionary, means “continue” or “keep on” in Ch’orti’. [Click to enlarge map.]

I will examine Bariloche along with four place names around it: Nahuel Huapi Lake; Dina Huapi, a town along the lake several miles northeast of Bariloche; Con Con, a small place halfway between Bariloche and Dina Huapi; and Nirihau, a small place a few miles east of Bariloche. I’ll take a look at the meaning of each of these place names using Ch'orti' meanings.

Bariloche

Bar: weight, heaviness (also bares means “make heavy”)
Lochi: arc, bow, bend, flex, fold

Bariloche means something like “heavy fold” and probably refers to the mountain folds that form peninsulas and islands in Nahuel Huapi Lake.

Nahuel Huapi Lake

Na’: round bowl
   or naht – distant
Wehr – rip, tear (the ‘r’ and the ‘l’ were equivalent at that time)
   or wet – companion, neighbor
Wahpi – continue, keep on

The most likely meaning is “Continuous (long) rip in the bowl” which would be referring to the long tear that the lake seems to make in the mountains. An alternate meaning is “keep distant from companions” which would refer to the distance between companions at Monte Verde and the lake.

Dina Huapi

T’in – inner side of arch, concave bend
Wahpi – continue, keep on

This is not completely clear, but appears to be “continuous concave bend”, which could be a reference to the banks of the lake much of which are lined with high hills.

Con Con

Kohn – small stream

A double kohn would be a very small stream.

Nirihau (also spelled Nirihuau)

Niri – cure
Ha’ – water
Wa’ – being

The most likely meaning is “curing water”. Nirihau is located at the source of a stream that flows in to the lake. Thus, it would be referring to the quality of the water at the Nirihau spring. If, instead, the original place name is Nirihuau, then the meaning would be “being cured”, which is quite similar to former meaning.

There are more place names surrounding Bariloche to be explored but this small sample should make it clear that Bariloche was part of the Monte Verde cultural complex in the 12,500 to 10,500 BCE period. I know that many of the names in the area also might have significance in Mapudungun (Mapuche), but they may have adopted meanings to existing place names.

One branch of the Monte Verde culture might have remained in southern Chile and the Bariloche area of Argentina, but it is clear that the main settlement - the one that maintained the Ch'orti' language line, at least, moved in about 10,500 BCE. Next I’ll explore the various migrations of the Monte Verde First People, starting, surprisingly, with the far north of the continent.

A death and resurrection story from the Popol Vuh

On this Good Friday during Easter week I am reminded that many ancient traditions had death and resurrection stories, including the Maya-Lenca. This one comes straight from the Popol Vuh, Part 3:

When One and Seven Hunahpu went back before One and Seven Death, they were asked:

"Where are my cigars? What of my torch? They were brought to you last night!"

"We finished them, your lordship."

"Very well. This very day, your day is finished, you will die, you will disappear, and we shall break you off. Here you will hide your faces: you are to be sacrificed!" said One and Seven Death.

And then they were sacrificed and buried. They were buried at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice, as it is called. The head of One Hunahpu was cut off; only his body was buried with his younger brother.

"Put his dead in the fork of the tree that stands by the road," said One and Seven Death.

And when his head was put in the fork of the tree, the tree bore fruit. It would not have had any fruit, had not the head of One Hunahpu been put in the fork of the tree.

This is the calabash, as we call it today, or "the skull of One Hunahpu," as it is said.

And then One and Seven Death were amazed at the fruit of the tree. The fruit grows out everywhere, and it isn't clear where the head of One Hunahpu is; now it looks just the way calabashes look. All the Xibalbans see this, when they come to look.

The state of the tree loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at the same time the head of One Hunahpu was put in the fork. The Xibalbans said among themselves:

"No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go beneath the tree," they said. They restricted themselves; all of Xibalba held back.

Popol Vuh, the Maya Book of the Dawn of Life. Trans. by Dennis Tedlock. 1996.

In this story the resurrection happens in the form of calabash squash. Central America is precisely where squash were first domesticated.

I believe parts of this history allude to historical fact, some parts are symbolic to agriculture and some are symbolic to astronomy.

On the historical side, I think that there was a leader of the Hunahpu family - the 1 Hunahpu is more of a family reference than an actual name of one person. I believe that this person was tested through a series of astronomical tests by the archenemies - the previous passage spoke of being put through five tests. I think the reference above to the cigars going out means that an astronomical event involving Venus or Mars did not occur as 1 Hunahpu said that it would. I think another translation for the word torch (chaj in Quiche) is 'red object' (chak in Chorti), which seems to provide a clue toward Mars. 1 Hunahpu came to be reverred so much because it was his insight and error that allowed future Maya-Lenca astronomers to advance beyond the Xibalban lords. Still to this day (possibly 9,000+ years later) Maya communities visit the cemetery on Hunahpu day.

In terms of when this occured, I think that the Popol Vuh uses the convention of family name then date, in many cases where two names are presented together. In this case the date referenced was 7 Hunahpu, a day in the 260 day calendar, but also a day in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar, which would be the equivalent of about 7500 BCE.

I also believe that the place that this occurred is eastern El Salvador. I think that the town of Corinto (corintoy in Chorti) translates as 'place of game sacrifice'. This is near to La Gruta del Espíritu Santo, which I think was the original site symbolized later as Xibalba. In fact a few kilometers west of Corinto is a village named Calavera, which means 'skull'. I would propose that this is the precise place where 1 Hunahpu's skull was placed. By the way, it's not clear that it was placed on a tree, the original words are unclear.

In addition to the other meanings described here, I think that the Popol Vuh provides a date for when squash was first domesticated. In that sense the 7 Hunahpu date, 7,500 BCE, may correspond more as a date for squash than as a date for the story of 1 Hunahpu. That is certainly possible. Evidence of squash and corn were both found in the Rio Balsas site in western Mexico which dates to 6,700 BCE.

By using an easy name/date convention, such as "1 Hunahpu 7 Hunahpu" to associate with squash, it was simple for future generations to know when squash was domesticated. Unfortunately it appears that the Mars calendar fell out of use a few hundred years before writing became common, so there is no written or oral record of its use, except, I believe, in the Popol Vuh.

The story of the Hunahpu's head growing into a squash is full of irony and humor, based on word play, which is so common to the Maya. In the Popol Vuh, recorded in Quiche Maya, the name of 1 Death is 1 Kame, which means death or dead person. In the Yucateca calendar, this day sign is Cimi, which also means death. However, Yucateca derived from Ch'orti' (Cholti) Maya, and in Ch'orti' cimin or tzimin means 'tapir'. This makes sense as tapir is the symbol for death and sacrifice in Maya cosmology and tapir is a fitting animal to symbolize the cave-dwelling Xibalbans. I would guess that tzimin might be a word that came across from Asia and originally meant bear.

Well the word used for squash in the Popol Vuh is tzima, clearly a play on tzimin. It still means 'thick-skinned gourd' in Ch'orti'. To name a squash after your enemies and then say your dead leader's head turned into a squash that then grew into a plant and reproduced at great length, was an ultimate insult and spoke of the Maya superior abilities in agriculture as well as language.

Finally, one can see traces of the story of 1 Hunahpu in the Day of the Dead tradition of Mexico and now the United States. The prominent use of the skull in Day of the Dead festivities is a reminder of Hunahpu's sacrifice but also ongoing life in the form of squash vine. Just as Hunahpu's people were able to laugh at the purveyors of death, today celebrants of the Day of the Dead are able to laugh at death.

Historia de la Creación - Un punto de partida: El Golfo de Fonseca

Esto apareció en ingles el 20 de febrero de 2010. Traducido por Roberto Roque.

Cuando dejamos a los seis clanes Mesoamericanos en la fuga, <en guinda>, habían escapado de la cueva, la Gruta del Espíritu Santo, localizada cerca de Corinto, El Salvador, alrededor de 8800 BC.  Ellos habían recibido de los tres dioses de Oriente tres regalos esenciales: la hoja del tabaco para saciar el hambre del pueblo, una balsa para cruzar ríos y proveer albergue, y pedernal para hacer fuego.  Los clanes incluían los linajes que se convertirían en Mayas, Olmecas, Mangue-Zapotecas, Toltecas, Chibchas y Cacaoperas, pero lo discutiremos luego.

Las seis familias fundadoras estaban acampadas a la convergencia de los ríos Torola y Lempa, pero después de unos años, tal vez una generación o dos, los lideres encontraron un mejor refugio.  Visibles desde la costa este de la actual La Unión se encuentran siete islas acompañadas de otras más pequeñas dentro del golfo de Fonseca, que es compartido actualmente por El Salvador, Honduras, y Nicaragua.
 

El nivel del mar comenzó a bajar durante la mini edad glacial que ocurrió durante el periodo 9000 a 8500 BC, permitiendo acceso al menos a algunas de las siete islas [oprima sobre la imagen para ampliar] incluyendo la Isla del Tigre (Balam) durante la marea baja.  Isla del Tigre se caracteriza por un volcán con una elevación de 760 metros.  La isla del Tigre, en conjunto con las otras dos islas, El Garrobo y la isla del Coyote, se encuentran en territorio Hondureño.   Las otras cuatro islas: isla Zacatillo, isla Martin Perez, Isla Conchagüita, e isla Meanguera, se encuentran en territorio Salvadoreño.   Isla Meanguera es una de las más grandes pero también se encuentra más alejada del continente, así que puede haber sido la menos habitada.

El Popol Vuh nos dice que los Mayas construyeron una ciudadela.  Es posible que la ciudadela fuera el mismo volcán de isla Tigre o una estructura construida en la cima.  Google Earth revela trazos de una estructura antigua en la cumbre, [oprima sobre la imagen para ampliar].  El Popol Vuh también dice que los Mayas veían el sol levantarse sobre el agua en esta ciudadela y ese sería el caso en esta isla.

¿Que evidencia hay que en estas siete islas, y en particular la isla del Tigre, son los orígenes del pueblo Maya?  El Popol Vuh provee varios nombres de lugares como claves que son consistentes con las islas del Golfo de Fonseca:

• El nombre ‘Tigre’ para la isla principal.  No es probable que haya habido tigres (jaguares) en esta isla.  Sin embargo, el nombre proviene del hecho que tres de las seis familias proceden de la habitación jaguar de la caverna de Xibalba y por ello se llamaron las familias “Jaguar”.
• Tulan Zuyua – Este es el nombre dado al lugar de origen en el este.  En tierra firme del territorio Hondureño, cerca de la entrada actual a la isla Tigre, existe una villa llamada El Tular.  To’or significa ‘cerca’ en Ch’orti y la ‘r’ se cambia a ‘l’ en lengua Quiche; ‘ha’ significa agua o océano.   Asi que tal vez Tulan significa ‘cerca del oceano’.  Por un lado, muchos han pensado que Tulan se refiere a juncos.  Sin embargo, creo que la confusión fue causada por el previo campamento cerca de los juncos en la confluencia de los ríos Torola (junco) y Lempa.  Asumiendo que Tulan significa ‘cerca del oceano’, encontramos que ‘Suyey’ significa ‘fundacion’ o ‘base’ en Ch’orti.   Por lo tanto, ‘fundacion cerca del oceano’ es un significado plausible de Tulan Zuyua.
• El nombre de sitio wuqub’ pek, wuqub’ siwan frecuentemente acompaña al nombre Tulan Zuyua.  En la traducción del Popol Vuh al Ingles por Dennis Tedlock (Rev. 1996) se traduce como “siete cuevas, siete cañones.”  Sin poner en duda el número siete, creo que tanto pek como siwan se refieren a las siete islas del Golfo de Fonseca.  En Ch’orti Maya, pek significa protuberancia, botón o objetos planos.  Eso pudiera ser referencia a las islas.
• La frase siwan es todavía más sugestiva.  ‘Si’ significa ‘juego de objetos” y wa’an significa “elevarse” o “en pie.”  Considerando que las islas aparecerían levantarse del océano durante esta época, mientras el océano se retiraba a razón de la mini edad glacial, esta es una descripción plausible de las siete islas.
• Muchas de las naciones mencionadas anteriormente tienen mitos de creación que originan cerca del océano.  Esto es cierto de los Mayas, los Lencas, los Misquitos (uno de los “Iloc”), y Diriamba (de los Mangues).  El mito de creación Lenca es específico a las islas del Golfo de Fonseca.  El mito de creación Misquito habla de estar cerca del océano y de otro pueblo, es decir, los Mayas, quienes ejercían señorío sobre los Misquitos.  Esto es consistente con el Popol Vuh.

El Popol Vuh también nos dice que cuando las seis familias llegaron a Tulan todos hablaban la misma lengua.  Sin embargo, durante la estadía en la torre de Balam en Isla del Tigre, la lengua de diferentes familias comenzó a diferenciarse.  Esto debió aplicar especialmente a Sutz’ Tam y Sutz’ Iloc, dado que decidieron no seguir la forma de vida Maya, aun cuando ambos originaron de la habitación Sutz’ (murciélago) en la caverna, tal como los Quiches.

Los Sutz’ Tam emigraron al sur y se convirtieron los Ngabere, Bublere, Boruca, Talamanca, Pech, Dorasque, Rama, Votic, Kuna, Chibha-Motilon, Bari, Chimila, y Arwako.  Los Sutz’ Iloc se convirtieron en los pueblos Miskitos, Sumus, Matagalpas y Cacaoperas.  El origen de las lenguas Chibchas en estas islas ayuda a explicar porque la lengua Lenca se sitúa entre Chibcha y Maya.

Las islas proveyeron a los Mayas y otros pueblos mesoamericanos refugio de los Xibalbanos, quienes eran temerosos del agua.   Pero los Mayas tuvieron otra vocación que era difícil de cumplir desde las islas – agricultura.  Aprendieron de las aves, los coyotes y otros animales, que comían semillas y nueces.  Se dieron cuenta que podían cultivar esas plantas ellos mismos.  Pero para poder lograrlo tenían que estar en el continente, en la tierra fértil de El Salvador.

Names of Mars May Provide a Clue of Pacific Journey by the Pre-Mayas

The name for Mars shares a common source across much of the Mediterranean and south Asian world. In most cases, the name for Mars starts with the syllable 'ma' and often it contains the letter 'r'. It is hard to know how the name spread, but some examples are a little surprising, like Malay. And its spread was not universal. For example, in Tamil the name 'servaai' comes from a different root and in Sumerian the name for Mars is simud.

Language Malaysian Nepali Sanskirt Persian Hebrew ancient Egyptian Turkish Greek Roman Spanish

Name for Mars Marikh Maja Mangala Bahram Ma'adim Harmakhis Merih Ares Mars Marte

Neolithic humans had special relationships with a number of stars and planets, including Sirius, Venus, and Jupiter. But at least one group of neolithic humans, the pre-Mayas - and by definition the pre-Lencas, figured out a very special characteristic of Mars: its cycle (synodic period) was 780 days, which is divisible by 20, the counting base that they used.

This meant that it took 39 20-day weeks, on average, for Mars to make one complete cycle - 780 days for it to repeat as a rising star, 780 days for it to repeat as a morning star, 780 days for it to repeat its retrograde (backward) motion compared to the stars behind it. The pre-Mayas assigned god status to Mars because the synodic period was evenly divisible by 20, the number of fingers and toes of humans.

Mars was the basis of the first pre-Mayan calendar and as such, was a very important heavenly body. Specifically, the 260-day tzolkin calendar is based on the synodic period of Mars. There are three 260-day periods within the 780-day Mars cycle. And there are twenty 13-day weeks within the tzolkin. At some point the pre-Mayas switched from 20-day weeks to 13-day weeks - most likely when ocean fishing became common between 8000 BC and 6000 BC and they noticed that the tidal diurnal range (difference between high and low tides) repeated every 13 to 14 days along Central America's Pacific coast.

The pre-Mayas, who were astute planet watchers, began to notice that when Mars turned retrograde near the Milky Way, in Scorpio in the tropical zodiac, it occurred earlier in the tzolkin than when it turned retrograde elsewhere in the sky. Every 15 to 17 solar years Mars turned retrograde near or in the Milky Way. They tracked the earliest day of Mars retrograde and found that it occurred one day earlier than the previous earliest date about every 40 to 60 solar years (averaging 52 years during that time period). This became the basis for the Mars long-count calendar. It took about 1000 tzolkin years or 670 solar years for the Mars calendar to cycle backward through each 13-day week. And it will take almost 12,000 years for it to make one complete backward cycle through the tzolkin.

Today it is easy to explain this phenomena by noticing that the Mars synodic period is slightly less than 780 days. During the neolithic era it was 779.96 days. Then due to a change in either Mars' or earth's orbit, declined to about 779.94 days sometime around 500 BC. This change in the synodic period caused the Mars calendar to cycle through each 13-day week in only about 450 years, throwing off the accuracy of the calendar in measuring time over thousands of years. Thus it caused the Mayas to abandon the Mars long-count calendar and to adopt the solar-based long-count calendar that is well-recorded in Mayan writing.

Very early in the pre-Mayan experience Mars became important and became part of the spirituality, as did the center of the galaxy, what seems to be a hole or void. In fact, it is a black hole. So important is the center of galaxy that one of the four founders of the Mayan people is named for the spot, Balam Ik', which means 'wind jaguar' or 'void jaguar'. Ik' is the same word to describe the center of the galaxy. The galaxy was known as a tree by the Mayas. The symbol or glyph of the day sign Ik' is a 'T' or tree of life.

The language tells us a lot, in Ch'orti', the oldest Mayan language. In Ch'orti' mar means 'open space'; te means 'tree'. So marte is the open space in the tree and refers to the void in the galaxy. As noted in the table above, marte is Mars in Spanish.

Two other clues support the arrival of the word Mars to the Middle East/Mediterranean. The first is a linguistic clue: the prefix 'mal' in Latin. It would appear that 'mal' (bad or evil) came directly with 'mar' (Mars). Just as now, Mars also had negative connotations in many early Middle Eastern and European astrologies. The arrival of 'ma' or 'mal' seems to have arrived with the Maya. In Ch'orti' ma is a negative prefix; ma uh means 'evil'. The Mayas associated layers of meanings to words based on the meanings of words that sounded like that word. In this case, Mars gained a negative sense because of sounding like the word for 'bad' or 'evil'.

The second clue comes from the zodiac symbol for Aries in Sumer-Babylonian. Mars is the ruler of Aries. The name of Aries in Sumer is Hun.ga. In English Aries signifies a Ram. However, in Sumer Aries signifies "the Agrarian Worker". Among the Quiche Maya, the first founder is Masa Manix or Artisan Deer. Manix also translates, in Ch'orti', as Agrarian Worker or, literally, "worker of the earth". It is not a stretch to believe that Masa Manix is associated with Mars, as both parts of the name begin with the same syllable as Mars.

The last step in making the case that the name Mars has a Mayan origin is to show that the Maya were traveling across the Pacific ocean at this time. The full case for Mayan ocean travel will be taken up in a later post. I have no doubt that the pre-Mayas were crossing the Pacific by 3000 BC if not before. It caused one group of pre-Mayas to migrate to Peru where the ocean currents were better.

Tracing America's Indigenous Languages to El Salvador

I just received a copy of Language in the Americas by Joseph H. Greenberg. Greenberg maintains that aside from the Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene language families, all other indigenous American languages fit into the Amerind family. Greenberg states that all Amerind languages have a common root that is about 10,000 to 11,500 years old. Several other linguists have criticized both Greenberg's methodology and conclusions.

Greenberg discusses 11 language sub-families in Amerind group, including three in Mesoamerica: the Chibchan family which includes most of the Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, and Panamanian languages, as well as Cuitlatec in Mexico; the Penutian family which includes the Mayan, Mixe-Zoque, and Totonac languages; and the Central Amerind family, which includes the Oto-Mangue (Zapotec) and Uto-Aztecan (Nahuatl) languages.

I do disagree with some of his placements, including Lenca which he places in the Chibchan family. It seems clear to me that Lenca should be in the Penutian family as it is closest to Mixe-Zoque and Totonac. I also think that the Penutian and Central Amerind families should be combined.

Greenberg's conclusions are consistent with the history of Mesoamerica as presented in this blog. I believe that the Xibalbans arrived first to the Americas, either across the Atlantic ice-sheet or across the more common Pacific Bering ice-sheet. Quite quickly the Xibalbans established themselves at the Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave near Corinto, El Salvador. From there they could not only survive the cold of the end of the Ice Age but also control virtually all human traffic coming down the Central American isthmus toward South America.

A few people made it to South American past the Xibalbans or perhaps before the Xibalbans set up in the cave, given the Clovis points located in South America. But it would appear that they did not survive. In addition, people crossing the Bering Strait did not venture into any part of North America, but rather all traveled down the coast toward Central America and nearly all were captured by the Xibalbans.

I have found that six families escaped from the Gruta del Espíritu Santo in about 8800 BCE, as determined by the Mars long-count calendar. At that time all people in the cave spoke the same language. Four of the families became the great Mesoamerican people. As their language diverged on Isla Tigre in the Gulfo de Fonseca, it became the proto-Penutian language family, which includes Maya. The other two families became the peoples associated with the Chibchan-Paezan language family. Eventually they left the Gulfo de Fonseca, with most migrating south.

Nearly all of North America, except for the Eskimo-Aleut in the far north and the Na-Dene in the northwest and southwest, was populated from the south, by the Mayan, Lenca, and Chibchan peoples. Likewise they are the root of all or nearly all of the indigenous people of South America.

Greenberg lists etymologies (cognates) that are shared by two or more of the 11 language families. By counting the number of times a language family shares a cognate, one can get an idea which language families are the oldest and may serve as the core or proto-Amerind language(s). The results of this exercise are consistent with the narrative of this blog. The Penutian family, which includes Maya, has the most shared etymologies out of the 329 that are listed, while Chibchan-Paezan has the third most. Of the 11 language families, Central Amerind has the least shared cognates. This family includes Nahuatl, which shows how young a language it is.

Language Family Penutian Macro-Ge Chibchan-Paezan Hokan Equatorial

Number of Shared Etymologies 129 124 117 116 110

I believe that nearly 90 percent of the indigenous languages in the Americas can be traced to the Gruta del Espíritu Santo and the islands in the Gulfo de Fonseca. The Mesoamerican people were not only a civilizing people but were critical to the peopling of the hemisphere.

Where did the Olmecs, Zapotecs, and Guanacos Come From?

There were four original leaders of the Mesoamerican people: Balam Akbar, Balam Ik, Balam K'itze, and Sutz’ Masa Manix. The first three are named Balam or Jaguar since they led their band or family out from the jaguar room of the cave, La Gruta del Espíritu Santo in northeast El Salvador. One family came out of the Sutz’ or bat room. There were also two other families that came out of the bat room, the Tams and Ilocs, but they decided not to join the proto Mayan religion, which was to worship the three gods that gave three gifts essential for survival and to communicate with the being at the center of the universe.

It is time to discuss the lineage of the first four leaders. When they left Isla Tigre, where they first formulated their religion, they went to four islands. Going to the most distant island, Teotipa in the middle of Lago Güija, was Balam K'itze. From Balam K'itze came most of the Mayan tribes, including the Ch’olan, Ch’orti’, Tzeltalan, Q’anjobalan, the Huasteca, and the Yucatec.

The leader of the four was Masa Manix, who first envisioned domesticating plants from the wild edible plants that were all around. Because he was the leader, the band of Masa Manix was allowed to go to the most beautiful island, Teopan in Lago Coatepeque, which they called Tammakchan, 'deep inside the rainbow.’ This is the leader of the Quiche Maya, and this lineage also includes the Kakchikels, Mameans, Q’eqchi’, and Poqom. The people of Lago Guija and Lago Coatepeque related to each other on a continual basis and their language did not vary for thousands of years.

Balam Ik and his band went to an island at the mouth of the Lempa River. At that time, which was about 8000 BC using the Mars long-count calendar, the ocean was nearly 100 meters lower than it is now. The mouth of the river was likely several miles beyond where it is today. Given the nearby very early archaeological site of Tehuacán, this island seems to have been called Teokan, Island of Learning. The Teokanos immediately began studying the ocean and soon became adept at sailing, first using dug-out canoes along the shore, and later constructing balsam rafts from the plentiful balsam trees in present-day La Libertad. The Popol Vuh says that "their (the whippoorwills) mouths gape to this day", which I take to mean a reference to the sails used by the inhabitants of Teokan.

The Popol Vuh says that Balam Ik had no children. I believe this is a metaphor for the village being destroyed, such as in a flood. There is one flood event as determined by scientists: the flood of ~6400 BC, when most of the water of Lake Agassiz swept into the oceans in a matter of hours. It is estimated that Lake Agassiz had more cubic gallons of water than all current fresh water lakes combined. Is it possible that the Teokanos saw the tsunami wave coming, jumped on their rafts with some water and food, and survived? Unlikely, but … we’ll explore that more later on.

The fourth original leader of the civilized people was Balam Akbar, or Night Jaguar. Balam Akbar’s band stayed in the east, making the other three bands sad. They settled on the third Salvadoran lake with an island, with the island called Teomeka, present-day Olomega. The name most likely comes from mek’e, which means ‘embrace’, ‘wrestle’, or ‘carry on one’s hip’. So Teomeka means ‘embrace island’. It was the island, surrounded by water, which kept the Teomekanos safe. Because this band was so distant from the two Mayans bands in far western El Salvador, its language, now called Potón Lenca, began to differentiate at that early date. Eventually the word for island, ‘teo’, was changed to ‘olo’. Their island home then became known as Olomeka. From the band that stayed at Olomeka come the Lencas, the Uluas, and the Olmecs.

The four bands had regular gatherings, called conacastes by the Mayans and guanacastes by the Olomekanos. It meant, 'gathering of brothers.' The guanaco was the ‘brotherhood’. Even to this day Salvadorans are called 'guanacos' – ‘bros’. We would call such a gathering, 'council meeting' (with a little bit of Burning Man added in). Likely the four islands took turns hosting the guanacastes, usually held under the large trees that also became known as 'guanacastes'. Everybody would go to the guanacastes. There was much trading, talking, singing, drinking chicha, and dancing. The guanacastes also served another purpose – to have the young people from different islands intermarry to foster close relations between islands and to keep a strong gene pool. Unless the boy was in line to become leader of his island, the boys went to live with the girl’s family, in some cases learning a new language.

There were also very special guanacastes every 15 or 17 years when the planet Mars was nearing its retrograde time close to the center point of the galaxy. The shamans and astronomers of each island would gather and talk for days on end in preparation for these events. The purpose was to determine if the first sign of Mars' backward motion would happen on a new date on the Mars retrograde calendar.

After the flood event of about 6400 BC, which wiped out the civilized village of Teokan, the site sat empty for a while. But there was unease: the band on Teotipa at Lago Güija were on one of the sources, the navel, of the Lempa River, and someone else needed to be at the mouth of the river.

After several years or maybe a few generations so the memory of the flood had faded, a decision was made to re-occupy the mouth of the river. Most likely the new settlement was formed from Lago Olemeka - they were closest to the Lempa mouth. Again the settlement was called Teokan. The language of this new band also began to vary from both the Olomekanos and the proto-Mayans. They began to call their island, Tehuakan.

Global warming continued in this period and the oceans continued to rise – perhaps by as much as several inches per year between 6200 BC and 5600 BC. The Tehuakanos became very tired of having to relocate their village and their gardens every 20 or 30 years. The community split in two: one group stayed, but the other group went far away, and perhaps they were allowed to leave only if they went far away. They moved nearly 900 miles northwest onto the Mexican high plateau. They took the name Tehuakan with them, as well as their seed stock, and settled in the valley now called Tehuacán in the state of Puebla. Most likely this is the language group called the Oto-Pamean and includes the Otomi, Mazahua, Chinantecan, Chorotega, and Subtiava people, among others.

The ones who stayed continued to relocate while the ocean rose until 5000 BC, when it reached its current level, more or less. At that time the Tehuakanos "del mar" relocated to an island that was then, as now, at the mouth of the Rio Lempa, Isla Montecristo. From their base at Montecristo the Tehuakanos became extremely adept at sailing in the ocean on balsa rafts as well as on reed boats, using the reeds along the Torola River and elsewhere.

The Tehuakanos began sailing throughout the Pacific Ocean, exploring the Central and South American shoreline. One thing became clear very quickly: while Central America had slack currents that required great effort and patience to get anywhere, the South American coast had powerful currents that would take one out into the broad expanse of the Pacific. It was this quest to know the world that caused the Tehuakanos to split once again. In about 3500 BC, one group of Tehuakanos moved from Montecristo, El Salvador, to Sechin Bajo, Peru, not far from the coast, bringing with them corn, squash, cotton, and other plants, as well knowledge of working with stone. Later they built the Caral site, along the ocean, and then on the Altiplano the city on Isla del Sol in Lago Titicaca, remembering the importance of islands to their cosmology. They also build the city of Tiwanaku (or Tiahuanaco), giving their name to the site, although by then their pronunciation of the name changed once again. They also shared another name, calling one of the large mountain animals of the altiplano, the "guanaco."

The Tehuakanos who stayed at Montecristo played with other names for their island, including Tehu ak kin, which means 'island of blades of grass,' since the area of coastal San Vicente is amazing for the amount of vegetation or monte that grows very quickly. This is likely where the 'monte' portion of the name Montecristo came from and this name carried over to other places that they moved to, such as Monte Alto and Monte Alban. They also used the name Tehu k’anan, which means ‘island of plenty’ and Tehu k’ana’n, which means ‘island of golden ripe maize’.

At about 1800 BC it seems that Tehuacan moved, perhaps in its entirety, first to the Guatemalan coast, to the site of Monte Alto, and soon to the valley of Oaxaca, not far from the long lost cousins. This people became the Zapotecs. At some later point the Mixtecas split off from the Zapotecs. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec shares the Tehuakano name. Another place that bears the Tehuakano name is perhaps the most spectacular and again shows that the Tehuakano-Zapotecs were some of the best stone workers the world has ever seen, Teotihuacán, the ‘tihuacan’ portion of the name coming from the Zapotecs.

Another of the Mesoamerican peoples joined the Zapotecs in founding Teotihuacán, but they came from the west not the east.

El Salvador: The Mesoamerican Cradle of Civilization

I believe that El Salvador is the place of origin of the Mayan and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Here is why:

First, as Robert Sharer (The Ancient Maya) and others have pointed out, after the major Ilopango volcano eruption of about 200 AD, which caused the sites of Chalchuapa and San Andrés to be uninhabitable, there was a massive shift in the locus of Mayan activity and culture from the Pacific coast area to the interior. This demonstrates the centrality of El Salvador during the pre-Classic period.

Second, I have traced the location of the Xibalba cave to the Gruta del Espíritu Santo in eastern El Salvador by determining that the place name “Place of Ball Game Sacrifice”, which is associated with Xibalba, is the nearby town of Corinto. Cor-in-toy means 'place of game sacrifice' in Ch’orti’ Maya.

Third, given that corn is central to Mayan cosmology and identity, examining how and where corn was hybridized gives clues to where the Mayans originated. Corn came from teosinte grass and was then continuously hybridized for thousands of years with teosinte to perfect the corn. Curiously, nearly all the place names of Teosinte occur within the tri-national area of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Even more, determining that teosinte means “plants in a row on an island” provides an even bigger clue since there are only two islands in that same tri-national area, both in western El Salvador.

Fourth, the name of Nuevo Edén de San Juán (New Eden of St John) and the name of the village of Jardín (Garden), located in north central El Salvador at the junction of the Lempa and Torola Rivers, indicate that it is a place of origin for some group of people. In addition, it is located at a very logical place for someone who would be escaping or leaving the aforementioned Gruta cave, fleeing north into the deep jungle and then following the Torola River downstream to where it joins the Lempa River.

Finally, this post will provide a fifth point of evidence – by matching the place names mentioned in the Popol Vuh along the road to Xibalba to places in El Salvador. The Popol Vuh mentions several names near their homeland or going from the homes of the Mayans to Xibalba: “Change of Canyons”, “Rustling Canyon”, “Gurgling Canyon”, “Throng of Birds”, "Hacawitz Mountain,” and “Split Place," among others. Many of the names further east, closer to the Xibalbans, are harder to identify since the place names are in Lenca rather than Mayan, and thus do not correspond with the names in the Popol Vuh. Here are some of the place names that can be located in El Salvador.

English (Tedlock)	Quiche (Popol Vuh)	Place Name
Change of Canyons	chuchi' jalja siwanub	confluence of the Rio Desague and Rio Lempa, near Masahuat, Santa Ana

Lago Güija was one of the four islands of civilization. Leaving from Lago Güija, the Rio Desague meets the much bigger Rio Lempa and the "canyons change". The first word chuchi' means 'to its mouth', which would describe the new canyon - heading to the mouth of the Lempa (the ocean).

English (Tedlock)	Quiche (Popol Vuh)	Place Name
Rustling Canyon, Gurgling Canyon	nu' siwanub, k'ulk'uch siwanub	Rio Desague, Rio Lempa

These two names are a further descriptor of the Change of Canyons (above.) This is a play on words by the Mayans. nu' seems to refer to nuhk in Ch'orti', which means 'umbilical cord'. (The k in Ch'orti often becomes an h sound in Quiche, or in this case just dropped.) The Rio Desague drains out of Lago Güija, where güija is 'source' or 'navel'. The birthing metaphor continues with k'ulk'uch, where kur means 'pole' and is also a slang for 'penis' and kuch means 'transport', but also is slang for  'womb' or 'vagina'. (The r in Ch'orti almost always becomes an l sound in Quiche.) The "birth place" of the Mayan people was at the confluence of the Lempa and Torola Rivers, near the present day municipality of Nuevo Edén de San Juán. The Lempa River also opens up into the ocean at its mouth - another possible vagina analogy, since the Mayans are birthed out into the ocean via the mouth of the Lempa.

English	Popol Vuh	Place Name
Throng of birds	tz'ikin molay	Most likely San Salvador volcano (Quetzaltepec)

With this one, we find different meanings in Quiche and Ch'orti'. Since Ch'orti' is older and a purer form of Mayan, it is preferable to use. (Quiche has quite a lot of non-Mayan Mexican influence.) In Ch'orti', tz'ik means 'on the left' or 'to the north'. Mor means hill or pile, but mo' is also the word for 'parrot' or 'quetzal'. As the Mayans left the western part of present day El Salvador toward the Xibalbans, the Quetzal Hill (Quetzaltepec) would have been on their left, assuming travel on a similar course as is used today.

English	Quiche	Place Name
Hacawitz Mountain	Jakawitz	Usulután Volcano

The Popol Vuh speaks of Hacawitz being one of the places of the gods and the source of one of the three gifts from the gods. Hacawitz means 'bald mountain', so a volcano is an obvious choice. The Popol Vuh also seems to describe the gift as fire, which certainly obsidian flintstone would describe. Usulután means 'bald, ashy mountain' and it is a source of obsidian, so it seems to fit the description.

English	Popol Vuh	Place Name
Split Place	Pan Paxil	City of El Congo

The place name El Congo appears to come from K'om k'o or 'split tooth'. This could be a reference to tobacco which was used to treat sore or cracked teeth. In addition, 'split tooth' may have been a reference to a bat. One of the totems of the Quiche people who were based at Lago Coatepeque, next to El Congo, was the bat, since they came out of the bat room of La Gruta.

The last place name is the curiously named village of Siete Principes (Seven Princes) between the city of El Congo and the lip of Lago Coatepeque. While it could be named for a literal meeting or gathering of seven princes, it could also be named for the Mars long-count date of Seven Ahau (Junajpu in Quiche), which means Seven Lord or Seven Prince. Seven Junajpu is perhaps the most important date in Mayan history since it is associated in the Popol Vuh with the death of One Junajpu. His mistake in tracking the planets led the Mayans to discover new astronomical knowledge allowing them to later defeat their enemies. In addition, this date is associated with the first successful cultivation of squash, gourds, rubber, and chilis.

El Salvador is the original land of k'an a'n, ripe spring maize, and the land of ah k'an a'n, the maize spirit, for the Mesomerican people. It is time to see how the great Mexican civilizations of the Olmec, Zapotec, and Toltec fit into this picture.

Possible First Dates for Cultivation of Corn, Cacao, Squash and Chilis

From the four Salvadoran islands, Olomega in San Miguel, Teokan at the mouth of the Lempa River (now under the ocean), Teopán in Lago Coatepeque (Tam Makchan), and Teotipa in Lago Güija, the proto-Mesoamerican people began to experiment with cultivating wild edible plants. This experimentation took place on islands since their gardens were much safer from animals as well as from their human enemies, the Xibalban lords, who were afraid of water. The Xibalbans did not wish to be outdone by their rivals.

The first gardens were planted on the four islands after they moved off of Tulan Zuyua, or Isla Tigre, between 8300 BC and 7900 BC. This would signify that the Mayans and other Mesoamerican people have been living continuously in agricultural villages for about 10,000 years, much longer than previously thought.

The most important item in the garden was corn. Corn was developed from repeated plantings of Balsas teosinte. Anthropologists have found corn present in southwest Mexico from about 6700 BC, in the area where Balsas teosinte now grows. However, during the ice age that ended in about 8300 BC the climate was several degrees cooler in Central America than present day. The range of Balsas teosinte likely extended all the way to El Salvador, where it would have flourished in elevations between 500 and 1500 meters, such as in the hills of Chalatenango.

The Popol Vuh appears to give a Mars long count date for the first sprouting of corn as One Artisan (One Manix). Manix literally means ‘work with earth’. Symbolically it would be fitting that the invention of the corn would be celebrated with its one day sign. The Popol Vuh is quite specific that women were responsible for the invention of corn and this daysign is also associated with the Quiche, since it morphs into Mazatl (deer) in Aztec. The deer is the totem of the Quiche. The Mars long count date of One Artisan corresponds to about 7900 BC. So, my hypothesis: Quiche women hybridized corn from Balsas teosinte about 9,900 years ago on Teopán island in Lago Coatepeque, El Salvador. This is consistent with the Lenca memory of the first cultivation of corn.

The proto-Mayans-Mesoamericans may have waited several hundred years while improving upon the hybridization, before sharing corn with anyone else. The map shows [click to enlarge] the locations of Balsas and Guatemalan teosinte grass that were utilized by the Mayans on Teotipa and Teopán islands to continuously hybridize with the nascent corn. (These sources are identified based on the location of 'Teosinte' place names.)

The Mesoamerican people shared the seed corn with people living in or near the Gruta Guerrero, close to the Guerrero-Morelos-Mexico border, before 6700 BC. Corn also reached Panama no later than 5500 BC. By 5000 BC it was sufficiently hot in Central America, so that the range of Balsas teosinte would likely have been limited to its current area in western Mexico. But by that time, corn was already successfully hybridized.

Another crop associated with the 7900 BC One Manix date in the Popol Vuh is cacao. This is consistent with the Lenca who call themselves the people of corn and chocolate. The Popol Vuh makes it clear that they harvesting honey by this time as well.

The Popol Vuh also seems to associate several crops and products with the Mars long-count date Seven Hunahpu (Sutz') or 7500 BC: squash, chili peppers, rubber, and gourds. Squash appears to be associated with the “Blood River” area, which would be present-day coastal La Libertad and La Paz.

While the present day Usulután ocean flats would have been distant from the ocean until about 5500 BC, there might well have been other ocean flats from which to farm salt prior to that.

The Mayan people can trace their lineage to two of the four ‘civilized’ islands, but who else shares in this early cultural history of corn, cacao, honey, and squash?

El Salvador's Four Islands of Civilization

The beginnings of Mesoamerican civilization happened at Tulan Zuyua, Isla Tigre, in the Golfo de Fonseca. It was here that the four Mayan-Mesoamerican tribe leaders attained greatness by communicating with the gods at the center of the galaxy, with the aid of a tobacco smoke bath, one of the three gifts of the gods. But the tribe leaders sought to establish greatness on earth and to do that they knew that they needed to begin to work the earth.

Leading this effort was the Quiche Maya leader who was renamed Masa Manix. Masa or "Deer" for copying the deer in trying various leaves, fruits, nuts, and berries to see if they were edible. And Manix or "Work the earth" for having the vision of cultivating edible plants toward the end of establishing a way of life based on agriculture. But the tribes had to find sites that were on islands in order to keep their people, as well as their experimental gardens, safe from the Xibalban lords who were afraid of water. The tribes learned that they were safe in water during the escape from the cave, La Gruta del Espíritu Santo. Even the babies were safe when place on reed baskets in the water.

The four leaders and their tribal followers left Isla Tigre toward the north and then headed west into present-day El Salvador. The four leaders took the Dog star, Sirius, as a sign, and while fasting, watched the eastern horizon to see if Siruis was rising before the Sun. This would have placed their departure from Isla Tigre in the month of July. This also could be a reference for the Mars long-count date, of 4 Tzi or 4 Dog. That would be approximately 8050 BC (+/- 200 years). The Popol Vuh notes that the tradition of silently looking to the east began at this time to honor Tulan Zuyua, the place where the tribes first attained greatness. In the east they also left behind their Bat room brothers and the sisters, the Tams and the Ilocs.

One of the four leaders, Balam Akbar, and his tribe, stayed in the east. [Click to enlarge map.] They went to Isla Olomega on Lago Olomega, in the south of present-day San Miguel Department in El Salvador. This is who the Popol Vuh calls the "Olomans". This includes the "Greathouses": the Lencas, the Uluas, the Olmecs, and many more.

The other three tribes were very sad to leave the Olomecans behind. And the people were very hungry. According to the Popol Vuh, the Quiche leader sniffed his staff and wondered if even the wood could be consumed. At that moment the tribes approached the Lempa River, which was so wide it appeared to be a sea. Somehow the sea seemed to part and they were able to cross. It could be that they approached in a drought and the normal June and July rains had not occurred, allowing people to wade across the river. Or maybe they were able to cross on their rafts.

The tribe of Ik Balam went to an island at the mouth of the Lempa River, to a place called Teokan, or island of learning. At that time the ocean would have been at least 100 meters lower and the mouth of the river several miles further south. The island village that they established would have been flooded over between 8000 BC and 5000 BC during the period of global warming. In fact, it is likely that the village would have been re-established several times.

The Popol Vuh says that Ik Balam had no children. While that might be a literal statement, I think it is more likely that this tribe was wiped out, either by disease, by an attack from the Xibalbans, or, most likely, a flood as the ocean levels rose. In fact, my guess is that the early city of Teokan was destroyed in the Lake Agassiz flood of 6400 BC. Lake Agassiz was a huge lake on the North American continent which emptied much of its huge volume of glacial melt into the oceans in about 6400 BC. It is possible that this event caused a tsunami that impacted most coasts around the world, including El Salvador. The civilization of Teokan would have been destroyed and the Ik Balam tribe wiped out. Or maybe not - but more on that later. The Olomecans then resettled Teokan from Lago Olomega and renamed it Teok'an'an, or "island of ripe spring maize."

The other two tribal leaders, Masa Manix and Balam Kitze settled their tribes on Lago Coatepeque (Tammakchan) and Lago Güija, respectively. These became the Quiche and Ch'orti' lineages, respectively, and all the Mayans can trace back their roots to these two tribes. Tammakchan means "deep inside the rainbow" and Güija means "source" or "navel". Lago Güija is one of the sources of the Lempa River, which has great symbolism considering that Teokan was at the mouth of the same river.

From the four islands the Mesoamerican tribes started the American continents agricultural revolution.