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.

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.

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.

The Maya and Lenca Establish Atlantic Bases

The Quiche Mayas were forced to leave El Salvador in about 2300 BC and by 2000 BC the Ch'orti Mayas at Lago Güija and Lago Coatepeque were anxious to expand beyond their El Salvador home. The Ch'ortis, like the neighboring Lencas and Tehuacanos (Zapotecs), had been sailing the Pacific Ocean for over a thousand years.

But an Atlantic ocean base was needed in order to better explore the four corners of the world. The Ch'ortis had been trading with local people in northern Belize already and it was an easy decision to send an expansion group north to the Corozal Bay, to the site known as Santa Rita. A few hundred years later they sent a much larger expansion group north which began to build the El Mirador site and soon many other sites in the area. Those who went north mixed with the local population and soon the Yucatec or Maya language began to develop. [Click to enlarge the map.]

The Lencas based at Lago Olomega in southeast El Salvador had the same need. They simply went straight north and followed the Ulua River to the coast. There they founded the site of Travesia and from that base explored the Atlantic Ocean extensively. This was the beginning of separation of the El Salvador Lenca language and Honduran Lenca language.

The Atlantic Ocean currents would naturally carry the Ch'orti and Lenca rafts and reed boats north and east around Cuba and then northeast into the North Atlantic. Then a southward current would take them close to the Spanish or West Africa coast. The current from West Africa would take them directly back to Travesia or Santa Rita.

A significant group of Lencas moved about 250 kilometers west to the Mexico-Guatemala border region. Here they founded sites that came to be known as Izapa, Paso de la Amada, La Blanca, Ocos, and El Mesak. A few hundred years later Lencas from Travesia, Olomega, and the Izapa region moved to the Gulf coast area of Veracruz, Mexico, and founded the Olmec civilization. They took with them the name of Olomega (Olomeka) and much of what they learned in their travels of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Tehuacanos, like the Lencas, trace lineage to Balam Akbar. They lived on one of the four original Mesoamerican island civilizations, Teocan, at the mouth of the Lempa River. One of the double meanings of Teocan is 'island of wild vegetation' or 'monte'. Anyone who has spent much time in that region, the Bajo Lempa, can understand why it would be called that. The 'Monte' descriptor in Spanish becomes a trace clue in guessing where they moved to. It appears they moved from Isla Montecristo to Monte Alto in southeast Guatemala, and soon would move to the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico to found San José Mogote and Monte Alban. There they would become known as the Zapotecs.

While all the expansion continued, the base of operations for the Mayas continued to be western El Salvador at the two new sites of Chalchuapa and San Andrés.

Tracing the Mesoamericans’ Travel through Names and Spirituality

The Mesoamerican people were travelers. They made balsa rafts from the balsa trees that grow along El Salvador’s La Libertad coast. They constructed reed boats from the reeds along the Torola River. They made dugout canoes, including large catamaran canoes for ocean-faring. They traveled to nearly every continent, and nearly every major river.

They went first of all to know the four corners of the earth, to know the beauty of the earth. Second, they went to share their knowledge of agriculture, earth’s bounty. Third, they also went to share their science and their spirituality, which for them was inseparable. And these were not things that could be forced on anyone, since that was contradictory of the spirituality itself.

In order to find the traces of the Mayans-Mesoamericans, one can look for at least four things:

• Place names, especially islands, since they were the most sacred places. I will look along coast lines and rivers, since that is how they traveled. I will be looking at lakes, mountains, and towns. For one example, a town with a Mayan name along the Rhine River.
• Examples of sea-faring people that would otherwise seem to be an anomaly. Other legends or stories of mysterious sea-faring people. For example, the Lukka people in the Mediterranean Sea in about 1200 to 1000 BC.
• The names of fruits and vegetables, especially outside the sphere of the well-know agricultural societies. For example, the name of the cranberry will have significance in Ch’orti’ Maya.
• Vestiges of the Mayan-Mesoamerican science and spirituality. In order to trace this, I will need to describe in more detail what it consisted of. It would be better that a Mayan, Lenca, or Zapotec leader do this, but I will do my best to outline it.

Early Mayan – Mesoamerican Spirituality

While there are many great books on Mayan and Mesoamerican spirituality, I wish to take the approach of trying to determine the key points to the spirituality by 2000 BC, that is before most of their expansion throughout Mesoamerica and before most of their travels around the globe on their ocean-faring rafts. The major exception is their travel and establishment of a community on the coast of Peru in about 3500 BC or 3000 BC.

I will use Mayan in this description, but these things would hold true for all Mesomerican groups, such as Lenca, Zapotec, Olmec, etc. Most of this early spirituality is identified in the Popol Vuh, the Mayan holy book:

• Four Original Leaders. There were four original civilizing families or bands that led the Mesoamerican people to greatness. Three came out of the jaguar room of the Xibalba cave and one came out of the bat room. Two other families came out of the bat room but they decided not to join the Mayan-Mesoamerican way of life. The four Mesoamerican leaders were Balam Kitze, Balam Akbar, Balam Ik’, and Maza Manix. They are revered above all ancestors and remembered in all things.

• Three Gifts from the Gods in the East. The Mayans received three gifts from the gods, Tohil, Hacawitz, and Auilix. These were tobacco, which kept people from starving; flint stone from Mount Usulután, which allowed them to make fire during the cold of the last of the Ice Age; and a collapsible raft which allowed them to cross rivers and streams. These were usually called three separate gods but at times were also called a three-fold god. The Mayan people survived to become the people they were only due to these three gifts from the east of El Salvador.

• Looking to the East to Remember their Founding. The early people survived years in the wilderness and then were able to cross the sea as the sea descended due to the last mini Ice Age and make it to the islands in the Golfo de Fonseca. They settled on an island they named 'Balam' (Isla Tigre). This is where they built a tower in honor of the first jaguar leaders and where they founded their spirituality of remembering the three gods who gave them the gifts to survive in the wilderness. Once they left Isla Tigre they went west and always lived west of Isla Tigre. They never failed to look east to remember where they became a people.

• The Leader whose Death Led to the Liberation of the People. One Hunahpu was a great early leader of the Quiche, I believe in about 7500 BC. He was one of the first astronomers and tracked the Mars cycle in the sky. Using the 260-day tzolkin and the Mars retrograde long-count calendar, he became good at predicting when Mars would turn retrograde when it was nearing the center of the galaxy at its retrograde cycle. He challenged their enemies that he could name the day of the retrograde motion and in return, the Mayan people would be free from the constant threat of the Xibalba lords. Unfortunately he was wrong and he was killed, his head place on a tree at the crossroads. But through his mistake later astronomers, such as Ixbalamque, were able to predict Mars motion and was able to once and for all defeat the Xibalba lords. One Hunahpu is revered as the ideal of sacrificing oneself for the good of the people, whether actual or symbolic.

• Supreme Being at the Center of the Galaxy. The orbit of Mars was elongated by the dense gravity along the elliptic formed by the center of the galaxy, causing Mars’ retrograde to occur on the earliest possible date when that retrograde happened at the hole, the void, at the center of the galaxy. This spot, which we now know to be a massive black hole, is where the Supreme Being resides. The Mesoamericans commune with the Supreme Being through a sweat bath – a “bath” of steam and incense.

• Mother Earth or ix (pronounced ‘ish’). There is a reverence for the earth which allows itself to be broken open so that life – corn, beans, squash, and cacao – can spring out.

• The 20 day signs and the Mars long-count calendar. The Mayans had a base 20 counting system and a 260-day calendar that consisted of 20 weeks of 13 days each. In addition there were calendars to track Mars, Venus, and the lunar cycles, including an eclipse cycle. The Mars long-count calendar was a way to keep track of thousands of years – it would take nearly 700 years, and over 900 tzolkins, for this calendar to pass through one sign of 13 days.

• Water, Rainbow, and the Serpent. Water has significance since the time of the escape from the cave and the people fled north to the Torola River. Their pursuers, the Xibalbans or Xibahkhans, could not swim and the people were safe. Those that stepped into the water, that immersed themselves, were saved. Xibahkha means ‘men afraid of water’. One of the four islands that the Mesoamerican people settled on was called Tammakchan, or 'deep inside the rainbow'. It was in Lago Coatepeque, a crater lake in western El Salvador. Makchan or 'rainbow' in Ch'orti' means "serpent that blocks" or "stops up" (the rain or the Xibahkha attacks). Both the rainbow and the serpent are associated with rain and with security. The rainbow also came to be symbolized by the plumed or feathered serpent.

• Pyramids. The Mesoamericans gained access to flint stone on a volcano, Mount Usulután, provided by the god Hacawitz. Flint stone provided fire as well as being a cutting tool. Along with the jaguar, the earliest spiritual buildings took the form of a volcano. At times the volcanoes were represented with a flat top and at other times with a more pointed top. Ceremonies involving symbolic cutting or fire were typical on a pyramid to remember the gift from Hacawitz.

• The Flood. One of the four Mesoamerican islands was at the mouth of the Rio Lempa. The oceans rose following the last of the Ice Age. In particular the flood and tsunami event of about 6400 BC when Lake Agassiz drained into the oceans may have caused the island of Teokan, founded by Balam Ik', to have been wiped out. The Mesoamericans always remembered this founder and re-established a community at the mouth of the Lempa.

• Obsession with Pure Blood. The early Mayan leader One Hunahpu intermarried with another race. Many hundreds - thousands - of years later, his descendants, the Quiches, were the first to suffer from pellegra, a deadly niacin deficiency. The other Mesoamerican groups wrongly blamed the earlier inter-racial marriage as the cause, when in fact it was caused by over reliance on untreated corn. The Quiches were banished, starting tension and conflict, and an obsession with pure blood started. This obsession was shared with many of the people that the Mesoamericans visited.