The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Origins: Cacao, Corn, Cotton, and Calabasa

The ancestors of the Maya were always on the gatherer side of the hunter-gatherer spectrum, leading them to be the probable first culture to begin cultivation - horticulture. The Maya began horticulture by first learning cultivation of tobacco on Isla Tigre, Honduras in about 8300 BCE. Tobacco led to the darkest time in Maya history, resulting in the escape of the Miskito and Chibcha people. The Maya soon risked moving off the protected island to the mainland in order to pursue their destiny - horticulture, the cultivation of plants for food and other human use. The risk was that their enemy Xibalba would challenge their living on the mainland - El Salvador. But since the Xibalba were generally afraid of water, the Maya moved to four islands to have a greater level of protection from their enemy, approximately 8207 BCE. They immediately began to search for plants to cultivate.

El Salvador: Four Island Homes and Agriculture Origins (click to enlarge)

This blog post will look at the origin points for the domestication of squash, cotton, cacao, and corn. Corn was probably the earliest of the four, around 8200 BCE, with squash quickly following. The research for this is based on place names, keeping in mind the places of habitation and meetings at the time.

Squash

Squash were important to the Mesoamerican diet. They provided starch and were a major source of anti-oxidants. Squash would have helped the Maya to live longer and prevent memory loss. The first squash to be cultivated was a striped squash, perhaps the cucurbita sororia, which was hybridized into cucurbita argyrosperma (below).

By Shaun Case (nl:Afbeelding:Hindu2.jpg) [GPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

The first squash used for domestication was found near Sesori, El Salvador, based on an examination of place names. Sesori is a municipal seat located in the northern part of San Miguel department, in the eastern part of El Salvador. It is 200 meters above sea level and about 60 kilometers north of the Pacific Ocean. It's curious how close the sound of the name c. sosoria is to Sesori. Sesori in Ch'orti' is: tze' tzori or "squatted in rows." The term "squatted" or "squat" was used to describe the way that the squash plant grows very close to the ground. The fact that the Sesori name also includes "in rows" shows that squash was planted there, most likely the first place it was planted, although surely the seeds were soon planted at the four island habitations.

(click to enlarge map) The place names around Sesori point toward the municipality being the origin of squash. About five kilometers to the northeast is Charlaca, which would be ch'a'ar lahch kah in Ch'orti' and "start of the horizontal striped one" in English. This indicates that the first squash was striped, like the cucurbita sororia and its domesticated offspring, above. The hill above Charlaca is called Chequere or tze' kere, "open up the squat one" - the place the wild squash was split open. About a kilometer to the southeast is a village (and creek) call Caulote. Caulote is k'a ur lo' te' or "explain the desirable dangling plant." It was likely the lineage which found the squash which explained how to grow and use the
squash to the other three lineages. Finally, south of Sesori is a touri-center called Chagüite. It is possible this name came from elsewhere in the municipality. Chagüite is ch'a' wih te' or "source of the horizontal plant" - one more indication that Sesori is the source of the first squash to be cultivated.

The Maya used the seeds from a very early time, mashing up the toasted seeds into a paste. That paste is called alguashte, which is ahr wax te' or "time of the round gourd plant." It is possible the round gourd is referring to c. sosoria or its offspring c. argyrosperma.

Up until now, the earliest known location for domesticated squash is Guila' Naquitch cave in the Oaxaca Valley. Domesticated squash dates from no later than 6000 BCE there. This is about 2000 years after the squash domestication in El Salvador. The Zapotec-Otomi ancestors likely took squash seeds and the know-how to grow squash when they migrated from the San Vicente region of El Salvador to Oaxaca/Puebla in about 7000 BCE.

Cotton

In BC or Before Cotton, people had to wear animal hides no matter the weather. That may not seem like a big deal in a temperate climate, but in a tropical climate, a jaguar or puma skin must have been nearly unbearable. From a translation of place names in El Salvador, the second home of the earliest ancestors of the Maya, it is possible to determine that the origin of cotton is from Intipucá, El Salvador.

Intipucá is a municipal seat in La Unión department that is 10 kilometers north of the Pacific shore - in those days it may have been even closer to the shore. It is 101 meters above sea level and is in the very hot part of eastern El Salvador. Intipucá in Ch'orti' is in tih buhk k'a = "first desirable clinging clothing".

The place names around Intipucá fill in more details of the story of cotton. Chichipate, about 7 kilometers north of Intipucá, is ch'i' chih bah te' = "growing body fiber plant." This might be the first place of planting the wild cotton. "Body fiber" describes a fiber placed over the body (clothing). Chirilagua, west of Intipucá (click to enlarge map), may have been the first place to weave cotton. It is chir ir ak' wa' - "see covering being woven." This might have been named by a visiting member of another community since it uses the verb "see".  

Where did the Maya learn to weave? Either they figured it out on their own or they learned in South America. Woven containers from plant fibers, dating from before 8000 BCE, were found in Guitarrero Cave in Peru. But place names indicate that the Maya might have learned in Chile rather than Peru. The first clue is the name Chile, which just as likely may have been Chili, which in Ch'orti' is "to weave." While it may seem presumptuous that the Maya would name Chile, the Maya appear to have named many countries in South America. The village in Chile where the Maya may have gone to learn weaving is Pichilemu, on the coast about 200 kilometers southwest of Santiago. Pichilemu is pi chil ehm uh or "companions' sacred descending weaving."

By ArtProf (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Other place names in the region of Intipucá hint about cotton and how much people liked cotton compared to their previous skins. The beach just south of Intipuca is Icacal or ik' ak' ahr - "time of the breathable coverings". Ik' means air or wind but I think breathable is a good translation here. A creek several kilometers to the west is Icaco or ik' ak' ho(y) - "pleasurable breathable covering." Cotton clothing in the tropics was a big deal. Both of these names use the noun ak' which is "skins" or "covering" - they didn't seem to have a word yet for clothes or shirts.

The oldest archeological record of Mesoamerican cotton is at Guila' Naquitch cave in the Oaxaca Valley and at Tehuacan in Puebla. Both of these are Zapotec-ancestor sites and the Zapotecs migrated from El Salvador to Mexico in about 7000 BCE. This is a strong indicator that cotton was discovered and domesticated prior to 7000 BCE in El Salvador. The short distance from Olomega to Intipucá - less than 15 kilometers - should indicate that cotton was first found closer to 8200 BCE, when Olomega was settled, than to 7000 BCE. It also indicates that it was the Olmeka-Lenca lineage which found cotton, since they were based at Lago Olomega.

Cacao

Next to corn, cacao may be the most important food product in Mesoamerica. Cacao in Ch'orti' is k'ahk' ka ho or "beginning of heated pleasure" - cacao was usually consumed hot. The first cacao was found by the Miskito people, originally Maya, they escaped the heart sacrifice period in about 8250 BCE to Nicaragua. Because the words describing the discovery of cacao are still in Ch'orti', it is likely that cacao was discovered within 1000 years of the Miskito arriving in Nicaragua, or by 7250 BCE.

Cacao was first found in or near Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Matagalpa is mat ak' k'ar bah or "retain the brown one from wrap-around skin." This describes the process of shelling or de-skinning the cacao beans. Matagalpa is about 700 meters above sea level. The hill just south of Matagalpa is Cerro Apante, ap ban te', "good swinging plant." Swinging is the word used for fruit or any seed that hung from a tree. The Miskito also found cacao at Jinotega, now a city 25 kilometers to the north. Jinotega is hin ot te' k'a or "picking the satisfactory sheltered tree." Cacao trees are somewhat delicate and often sheltered from the wind or sun by larger trees. Nearby at Apanas the Miskito planted the cacao. Apanas is ap ban as or "practice the good swinging one."

The Miskito also discovered chocolate, grinding the toasted cacao beans and mixing with hot water. Chocolate is choh kor ha' te' and means "freeing the esteemed plant in water." "Freeing" could also be translated "loosening" and describes the process of mixing up the crushed cacao with hot water. They found a word chocolate that sounds like cacao but shares none of the same syllables. Just west of Matagalpa is the town of Waswali. In Ch'orti', it is wax wahr ri or "blow air beside the gourd cup." This could be from making the first cups of hot chocolate.

The small village of Yasica is about 15 kilometers northeast of Matagalpa. In Ch'orti', Yasica is yatz' tzik ka or "beginning of counting the squeezed ones." This most likely refers to cacao beans and their use as currency, which was common in the pre-Classic and Classic eras. Yasica gives an indication that cacao may have been used as a currency very early and that this practice may have begun by the Miskito in Nicaragua. Because Yasica is translatable in Ch'orti', this practice likely began before 7000 BCE, that is, before the Miskito language diverged from its parent tongue. The Miskito who lived in Matagalpa - the cacao growers - became known as the Matagalpa people.

At some later point the Maya appear to have invited a group of the Matagalpa-Miskito cacao growers to El Salvador to grow cacao there. This group settled alongside the Torola River and named their village Cacaopera, cacao ber ha' - "cultivate cacao at the river." Interestingly, the land that the Maya gave them is very close to the Corinto cave and likely not desirable to the Maya given the history of Xibalba at the cave. It is difficult to determine the date of the arrival of the Cacaopera-Matagalpa. They had to have arrived before 2000 BCE, though, when the Ulua separated from the El Salvador-based Cacaopera and went to the Atlantic coast of Honduras. The Cacaopera can say that they are half-Maya and half-Miskito.

Another community settled at the same time by the Cacaopera is Joateca, about 15 kilometers to the northeast. Joateca is wat te' k'a and means "return home with desired trees." Even if they spoke a different language by then, they still used Ch'orti' as the naming language. The Joateca name is also interesting in that it makes it clear that they considered El Salvador to be home even after hundreds of years in Nicaragua. And it makes it clear that they came with the cacao trees.

Corn

The Maya were born from corn - it was their key cultural crop. Corn was hybridized from teosinte. There wasn't one hybrid moment - it took repeated hybridizing over thousands of years. Earlier I mapped the teosinte place names which tell us at least some of the sources of teosinte that the Maya used to continue to hybridize corn. Aside from two in western Mexico, the "Teosinte" place names are clustered near where Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador come together, that is, around Lago Güija and Teotipa, the site of the senior Maya lineage. This is not inconsistent with the Balsas teosinte theory since the range of Balsas teosinte could have drifted northwest in the several thousands of years of warming temperatures following the Ice Age.

By Mbhufford (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The most likely of the Teosinte sites for early Maya activity is Arcatao, in the mountains of eastern Chalatenango, El Salvador. This is because Arcatao was the location of the get-togethers of the four Maya sites, probably on an annual basis. This is known from the meaning of Arcatao: "the beginning of the gathering times." In addition, the Lempa River near Arcatao is nearly the mid-point, from a water travel point of view, for the four Maya sites. The annual Maya get-togethers at Arcatao probably started as soon as the Maya moved from Isla Tigre in about 8207 BCE.

The place names surrounding Arcatao leave almost no doubt that Arcatao was the place that teosinte, the predecessor to corn, was found. The first clue connecting Arcatao to teosinte is the name of the village Teosinte there. Teosinte means "plants in a row on an island" and refers to the rows on Teotipa island, where hybridization first took place. Just a mile west of Teosinte is Sicahuite, si k'a wih te', which means "origin of the desirable row plant." This is an indication that Sicahuite is likely the place that teosinte was first found.

The river just next to Sicahuite is Gualsinga. It also forms the boundary with Honduras here. Gualsinga is wa'ar sin k'a or "desirable rows rising/standing." The Gualsinga River area may have been the first place where teosinte was planted. The nearest town in Honduras is Zazalapa, which is tzatz ahr lab pa' or "time of pounding hardness to masa." Teosinte may have first been pounded into water and meal - masa - near Zazalapa.

The Guayampoke River goes through present-day Arcatao before it flows to the Sumpul. Guayampoke is wa' yam bohk ker, which means "pull wild vegetation from circle being broken open." After the circle was cleared they would have planted teosinte. This was probably the first step before it was later put in rows. Plant circles were also made at Teotipa (left, in photo) dating to about the same time as the one(s) at Arcatao (~8200 BCE).

In addition to the initial corn hybridization, I wish to discuss two innovations: grain storage and large-size corn cobs. The grain storage moves us back to Nicaragua. Several place names are based on a trip of the Maya from El Salvador to the former Maya, the Chibcha, in southern Nicaragua, to investigate grain storage. Sometime previously the Maya had shared corn seeds with the Chibcha.

Perhaps the first place they visited was Tipitapa, not far from Lake Managua (see map above). Tipitapa is ti' pi t'a'b pa' or "companions' storage of mouth food." "Mouth food" means corn, from the syllables ti' and pa' and is found in the name Teotipa as well. Next stop was the department of Chontales to the southeast. It is choh on tal ehtz or "arrive to observe the previously reputed thing." When combined with the department seat of Chontales, Juigalpa, we understand what the reputed thing is. Juigalpa or wih k'ar pa', "the origin of the retention of food."

Three other towns around Juigalpa fill in more details on the food storage, with the best description provided by Tecolostote: te' k'or os t'ot' te' or "tap the plant matter to fit into wooden carrying box." This makes it clear that the storage unit was mobile. Likely it was strapped on the back - they didn't have any pack animals. Supporting the idea of flattening the corn, Rodeo is lo'ht' te' ho - "flatten liked plant matter." Further north is Teustepe, in Boaco, which may have been the source of the wood to make the corn carrying boxes. It is te' us tep or "useful hardwood."

It took thousands of years for corn ears to reach a large size. In fact the ears stayed quite small until about 1100 BCE, at least in Mexico. It is likely that the larger ears pre-date that by several hundred years in El Salvador. Place names in El Salvador indicate where the large corn ears first appeared: Copinalapa, Cabañas. Copinalapa is the name of the primary river in central Cabañas, flowing north into the Lempa, as well as a village about 15 kilometers north of present-day San Isidro. Copinolapa is k'op in nol lab pa' or "gathering the first large rubbing masa (corn)."

El Salvador and Nicaragua were key for many of the plant products that were so important to Mesoamerican cultures - squash, cotton, cacao, and corn. With the place-name research highlighted here we are able to know much more about how these plants developed.

 

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 Miskito 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
kur - points
yo'r - hole, perforation 

Suncuyo is "foreigner points in hole." 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.

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.

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 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 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 (the Maya) slays the white giant (the Xibalba). The Dance of the Giants is documented in The Esotericism of the Popol Vuh by Raphael Girard. In the dance, the white 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 8,680 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. 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 5,000 years) on the day sign Seven Death would have been about 8,680 BCE. Thus the pre-Maya associated Seven Death with the events that took place on the approximate date we know to be 8,680 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 3,500 and 5,000 years ago, 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 7,900 BCE in the Mars retrograde calendar, 800 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 in pointed hole."

The Mesoamerican Great Escape of 8800 BC

The Mayan and Chibchan bands, as well as band leaders of other Mesoamerican lineages, were subjugated in La Gruta del Espíritu Santo near Corinto, El Salvador, by the Xibalba (xibahkha) lords. At some point they made an escape or guinda, as Salvadorans would call it. The Popol Vuh doesn't speak much about the actual escape from the cave, so much of what I write is a best guess based on the clues that we have from geography and the Popol Vuh.

In terms of a date, my best guess is 8800 BC, +/- 500 years, using the date 7 Cimin (Kame/Kimi) from the Mars retrograde long count calendar. To me the repeated use of the phrase "1 Cimin 7 Cimin" throughout Part 3 of the Popol Vuh (Tedlock revised edition) is a reference to the date of the escape from the cave, with the second name (7 Cimin) the date reference.

One can imagine that the escape took place at night and the clans escaped to the one spot that they knew the Xibalba lords would not follow them to: the impenetrable jungle, the Baja Profunda, several miles north of the cave and likely home, at that time, to jaguars and other wild creatures of the night. The Bradshaw Foundation describes this jungle as a result of the 2002 visit to the cave and the jungle and notes that there are petroglyphs similar to La Gruta cave there.

As day broke the clans ran as the Xibalbans lords threatened, going northwest, straight to the Torola River. With no other choice, they ran into the water. Those that submerged themselves were saved because the Xibalban lords did not pursue them. We know because xibahkha means, "those who are afraid of water." Where the Torola is met by Rio San Antonio there may be enough water to submerge oneself, at least in the rainy season.

From there the bands likely fled downstream to the west, in the river or along the bank, however they could go. They stopped when they reached the confluence of the Torola with the Rio Lempa. Here they made an encampment and any time that the Xibalban lords came near the whole community, with newly acquired swimming skills, could find safety in the Torola or Lempa River.

This is the location where I believe the Popol Vuh speaks of the Great Hollow (pg 157, Tedlock), which I think should be translated Great Canyon. The Rio Lempa is a Lenca name, for which I have not found a good dictionary. But I believe the base name in Chorti Maya would be Rum-pas, which would be "opening up" or "splitting of" the soil or land. The 'r' in Chorti became an 'l' in Lenca and other Mayan languages. The Rio Lempa certainly splits the land of El Salvador in two. 

The Popol Vuh also refers to this as one of the places of reeds. Here two place names provide evidence: The Rio Torola, where Torola is a type of reed and the Rio Jalala, where hararak is a type of cane grass and the 'r' would change to an 'l' in Lenca. The Rio Jalala starts near San Gerardo in northwest San Miguel department and joins the Torola just before it meets the Lempa. Click to enlarge map.

Finally, the first Spanish settlers to the area where quite aware of the importance of the area as a place of origin for the local indigenous, so much so that they named the municipality of this location, Nuevo Edén de San Juan. Even more to the point is the village of Jardín (Garden), near the confluence of the two rivers and two miles north of the municipality. Perhaps this marks the very spot of the guinda encampment of 8800 BC.

The Popol Vuh describes six clans being together in the escape, three from the jaguar room of the cave and three from the bat room. The three from jaguar room all became part of the larger proto-Mesoamerican people. But only one of the three from the bat room became part of the Mayan nation, the greater Quiche clan. At some point later on, the other two bat clans, the Tams and the Ilocs, according to the Popol Vuh, decided not to become Mayan. They preferred to remain mountain people, i.e. hunters and gatherers, rather than agriculturalists.

I believe that the Tams refer to the Talamanca people and all of the Chibchan language group which now spreads from southern Honduras to Columbia. And the Ilocs refer to the Miskitu, Sumu, Matagalpa, and Cacaopera people. The Popol Vuh refers to the 13 associated tribes of the Tams and the Ilocs.

How else does one explain the presence of the village of Cacaopera in El Salvador? Their nearest linguistic cousins would be over 100 miles away in central Nicaragua. Yet there is one lone village of this language group, five miles from the Corinto cave. All the others migrated east and south but this clan did not want to leave their homeland of 8800 BC. Some have mistakenly identified the Cacaoperans as Ulua, but Uluans, as we shall see, are much more closely related to the Lencas, i.e. part of the proto-Mesoamerican people.

El Salvador in 400 BC to 200 AD

The make-up of El Salvador's indigenous peoples changed many times during the Mayan pre-Classic and Classic periods. But one of the key periods was from 400 BC to 200 AD, when El Salvador was the site of the most advanced Mayan cities at that time, along with the southeast coast of Mexico.

The Chol or Chorti Maya began building the Cozumel site at Chalchuapa by 1500 BC, at roughly the same time as Izapa on the Chiapas coast and the first Olmec cities in Veracruz, Mexico. This makes Chalchuapa one of the three most important archeological sites in El Salvador, along with Joyas de Cerén and Cihuatán, important sites in the much later Classic and Post-Classic periods.

By 400 BC, at least three other Mayan cities were established in El Salvador, Cara Sucia, near the Pacific Coast in far western El Salvador, San Andrés, in west central El Salvador, and Quelepa, in eastern El Salvador. Quelepa was a joint Potón-Chorti city and an important trading link with areas to the south. Potón is another name for the Lenca who live in El Salvador.

There are at least three other sites that may have also been established as Mayan cities by 400 BC: Tehuacán, near the Chichontepec volcano in San Vicente; Santa Leticia, in the west near Apaneca; and Las Matamaras, along the Sumpul River in far northern Chalatenango. None of these three sites are well studied, so it is not known when settlements and temples were first built. However, much of Tehuacán is quite similar to Quelepa, which seems to indicate a Potón Lenca-Chorti city that was contemporaneous to Quelepa.

Aside from Cozumel and Quelepa, and possibly Las Matamaras, none of the names used today of these sites was the original Mayan name. Cara Sucia, Santa Leticia, and San Andrés are all Spanish names. Tehuacán is a nahuat name, most likely brought by the Pipiles from the Puebla region of Mexico sometime between 600 and 900 AD.

The Chorti and Potón Lenca were closely allied people who shared at least two cities along with major trade routes. Certainly there were many bilingual residents of the two areas. Among the trade routes managed by the Potón Lenca were those involving the Cacaopera, the Uluas, and the Mangues. The Cacaopera are a Matagalpa people and had significant trade with inland parts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The Mangues extended down along the coast of Nicaragua.

To the west of the Chorti were the Xinca people who were more prominently based in eastern Guatemala. Unlike the Lencas, the Xincas don't appear to have adopted the Mayan philosophy and way of life. Later, during the Classic period, the Pocomam Maya moved into this area, followed, later still, by a small migration of Quiche Maya.

Obviously, all of the groups mentioned extended far beyond the borders of present day El Salvador - the Lenca far into central Honduras, for example, and the Chorti into western Honduras and eastern Guatemala. Later, after the eruption of Ilopango volcano, the Chorti moved their primary eastern city from Cozumel-Chalchuapa to Copán, while other Chorti leaders moved to Tikal, Palenque and other Classic-era sites.