The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Maya Created Outlet River after the Mega-eruption of Ilopango Volcano

The eruption of Ilopango volcano on or about 535 CE was one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years and may have impacted human development and societies, not just in Mesoamerica, but also worldwide. Ilopango volcano is located in central El Salvador in an area that was Ch'orti' Maya until the post Classic era (~850 CE). After introducing the impact of the volcanic eruption, this blog post will bring to light the impact of the eruption on local communities and how they responded to it, based on place name analysis. It will also describe the evidence that the Maya created the outlet river on the east side of the volcanic lake.

Lake Ilopango and its north rim, by Jorobeq at Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Ilopango volcano now has a scenic 8 kilometer by 11 kilometer lake in the middle. It is 450 meters above sea level and is located twelve kilometers east of downtown San Salvador. The rim or lip is 100 to 500 meters above the surface of the lake.

The Ilopango eruption is rated as a 6.9 on the 8 point volcanic eruption scale. This rating is likely to go well above 7 as more research is done on the impact of Ilopango. There have been eight level 7 eruptions throughout the world since 10,000 BCE. It is estimated that 84 kmᶾ of tephra (rock, lava, ash, etc.) was produced in the eruption.

Radiocarbon dating of plant life related to the eruption indicates an eruption between 410 and 535 CE. A more recent carbon dating provides the dates of 450 to 545 CE. There was extremely cold weather globally in 535 and 536 CE most likely caused by a tropical volcanic eruption. Ilopango is the most likely one to fit the weather event.

The extreme weather of 535-536 CE was recorded by the Romans and the Chinese and consisted of cloudy and cool weather, famines, and crop failures. Ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica also indicate a 536 CE cooling event. The 535-536 CE cold weather event resulted in millions of deaths from famine due to failed crops. Some view it as the precipitating event of the Dark Ages in Europe.

One impact of the Ilopango eruption on Mesoamerica hinged on the impact of the eruption on Chalchuapa, one of the primary Ch'orti' coordinating bases, which maintained close contact with Copan, Tikal, and Teotihuacan. Chalchuapa would have helped to coordinate resettlement efforts, with people likely moving north into Chalatenango, Santa Ana, and southwest Honduras. Lenca elites from eastern El Salvador may have moved to Copan.

Chalchuapa may have been right on the border of communities that needed to be re-located due to the ash. It is about 70 kilometers west-northwest of Ilopango. The much closer community of Joya de Ceren reestablished residency sometime before it was buried in a local lava flow in about 590 CE. Joya de Ceren is 35 kilometers northwest of Ilopango.

If Chalchuapa was displaced or severely weakened, it could help explain why Tikal was defeated in 562 CE by Calakmul and Caracol, leading to the 120-year hiatus in monument construction at Tikal. Teotihuacan began to decline in the mid 6th century and suffered a drought. The drought may have been part of the global 535-536 CE climate event caused by Ilopango. The beginning of its decline might relate to Chalchuapa's distracted status as well.

The Story of the Ilopango Eruption from the Local Place Names

The place names around Lago Ilopango tell the story of the eruption and its aftermath. Some names are from the time of the eruption, others are a little bit later, and some are quite a bit later.

East of the volcano, most, but not all, of the Ch'orti' names from the time of the eruption are rather calm and descriptive, indicating that the fiery blast might have been slightly less to the east. Izcanales, about 20 kilometers away, describes the nighttime scene: ix k'an ahl ehtz, which means "time of observing yellow movement." Closer to the volcano is Santa Cruz Michapa, about five kilometers to the northeast. Michapa is mi ch'a' bah and means "cat bodies horizontal." Cats is a clear reference to Maya and horizontal bodies indicates cadavers.

Santa Maria Ostuma, a municipal seat, is 12 kilometers southeast of the volcano. It is also referred to as Ostumac, which is os tuh mak in Ch'orti', or "stink from inside of enclosure." [Click to enlarge map.]

One of the more interesting names is San Emigdio, a municipal seat four kilometers east of the lake. It is an example of a Maya name that sounded like a Spanish phrase, a saint's name. But it originally was a Ch'orti' name: san ehm ik' ti' and means "descent after swelling air at mouth." It describes the blast of air from the mouth of the volcano and then a crater, a descent, being created. It sounds as if this is a description by a survivor, although that seems improbable this close to the volcano.

About seven kilometers southwest of San Emigdio are two Tepezontes towns, San Miguel Tepezontes, about three kilometers from the lake and San Juan Tepezontes, about six kilometers from the lake. Tepezontes is tep ehtz on tech and means "observe the previous hard opening." This seems to be a person observing the crater where previously a volcanic peak had been.

Further west, on the southwest side of the lake, one begins to see the reports of injured people. These names were likely named by rescuers coming to the area quickly following the eruption from points further west like Zapotitan valley, Huizucar, and the Balsam range. Panchimilama is about four kilometers from the southwest edge of the lake. Panchimilama is pan ch'i'h mi lah mah and means "big one breaking open, cats tired, bad condition." "Cats" is a colloquial term for Maya population. It is amazing that only four kilometers from the lake, the rescuers found people alive.

Olocuilta is ten kilometers from the lake, in the same direction as Panchimilama. Here too the rescuers found survivors. Olocuilta is hor lok' wil t'a' and means "escape flying material from crest." The "crest" is a reference to the volcanic eruption. Large volcanic eruptions emit hot flying matter. A couple kilometers from Olocuilta is the town of Cupinco, which is k'ur bin k'o and means "worry about points of the peak." This name has a meaning very similar to Olocuilta and indicates that in this area, flying rocks or points were a major concern during the eruption. Perhaps the people hid in caves and rock shelters or behind large rocks.

About four kilomters southeast of Ololcuilta is Cuyultitan, which is k'o yul ti' tan and means "ash coming from stinky mouth." There the big concern was the tremendous amount of ash falling down.

Two names to the west of the lake indicate that rescuers found only dead bodies and might be an indicator that the immediate violent force of the eruption was felt more to the west and southwest than to the other sides of the lake. Shaltipa is about four kilometers northwest of Panchimilama and is about two kilometers from the lake. Shaltipa is ch'a'ar ti' bah and means "horizontal bodies from mouth." "Mouth" refers to the mouth of the volcano. "Horizontal bodies" would seem to indicate dead persons.

Then there is the name Ilopango itself. It seems to originally have referred to the village, now municipal seat, of Ilopango, rather than the volcano or lake. Ilopango, the village, would have been located about three or four kilometers from the lake. Ilopango is il lo'ob pan k'o and means "see the slackness from breaking open of peak." "Slackness" is a little vague but could mean death and in this context seems likely. Rescuers saw the slack bodies here. Later, probably in colonial times, the name Ilopango was attached to the lake and volcano.

The village (now city) of Soyapango shares the last half of the name of Ilopango, the part that means "breaking open of peak." The front half is soy yah and means "bent and in pain." The rescuers found people with broken limbs or doubled over in sickness and pain from the eruption. Soyapango is about eight kilometers from the edge of the lake.

Santiago Texacuangos is a municipal seat two kilometers northwest of Shaltipa and about five kilometers from the lake. Texacuangos is tech' sak wa'an k'o os and means "rising white from opening up of filling inside peak" and seems to indicate the large smoke or ash cloud rising from the volcano.

In the weeks or months following the eruption, many other villages were named in relation to the eruption, especially the ash. A common name related to the ash is Copinol: k'op bin noh hol - "ponder picking up large amount of crest." "Crest" is somewhat vague but previously it was used to describe the volcano or eruption. Crest is also used to describe the plume of a hat, somewhat similar to an erupting volcano, so it could mean "ash" here. There are three places named Copinol in El Salvador and they are all east of the volcano. One Copinol is a kilometer south of San Emigdio, quite close to the lake. A second Copinol is near San Rafael Cedros, about 15 kilometers northeast of the lake. A third Copinol is located in San Vicente a couple kilometers west of the Puente Cuscatlan bridge over the Lempa River. It is about 40 kilometers east of the lake.

Another name that refers to the ash from the eruption is Tepetitan, located about 20 kilometers east of the lake. It is tep eht ti' tan and means "challenge of ash from opening of the hard one."

Northwest of the lake 10 kilometers is Malacoff or mar ak' k'op, meaning "picking up covering from open space." While "covering" is vague, given the closeness to the lake it seems plausible to refer to ash. Also, the syllable meaning "open space" also means "lake," which would make the whole phrase "picking up covering from the lake," which would be more clearly a reference to the volcanic eruption.

Eight miles west of the lake is the village of Chaltepe or ch'a'al te' pehr, which means "drag horizontal trees." This seems to indicate that the eruption knocked trees down and that later the people had to drag the downed trees out of the way.

Many years later several places at the edge of the lake were named. On the west shore of the lake, near the entry road from Ilopango is Amatitan or ah mat ti' tan, which is "the wrapping around of the ash mouth." This describes the shore all the way around the lake. In fact, Amatitan might have been the Ch'orti' name for the lake.

Going clockwise around the lake, the next place name is Apulo or ah pul lo' and means "the up-and-down of the slack (water)." When used to describe water, the Ch'orti' usually said "slack" for stagnant water. The rest of this name reinforces the notion that the lake was stagnant and had no outlet, thus significantly rising and falling due to rainy and dry seasons and rainier and drier periods.

The next place name along the lakeshore is about six kilometers east of Apulo: Gulushapa is k'ur lux cha' bah in Ch'orti' and means "two points swimming bodies." Gulushapa is a beach bounded by two protruding points. At the northeast corner of the lake is Cujuapa, a narrow bay. Cujuapa is k'ur wahp ha' and means "point of water continuing," nearly a perfect description.

Creating an Outlet River

The Rio Desagüe, the egress river out of Lake Ilopango [Click to enlarge.]

The Rio Desagüe, seen left in its first kilometer from the lake, drains into the Jiboa River which then goes south into the Pacific Ocean. The river does not appear natural and the names in the area support the idea that the Maya created the river by blasting a channel using gunpowder, something they did on a much smaller scale at Lago Güija 8000 years earlier.

The egress river valley a couple kilometers further east (downstream).

Evidence for a human-made egress river include a lip around all of the volcano, with the exception of the egress river, that is 100 to 500 meters taller than the lake. It seems strange that in the process of the lip being created during the eruption that there was a break in the lip. In addition, the egress river runs through a steep valley that is 120 to 160 meters tall in the first three kilometers leaving the lake. It is impossible that the river could have cut this valley in the 1500 years since the eruption. If the river is natural it likely existed prior to the eruption. This may be true from the lip down to the Jiboa, but highly unlikely from the lip in toward the lake, since the eruption would have blasted away much material from the lip inward.

The egress river valley south wall, one to two kilometers from Lake Ilopango, showing scarring.

The meaning of the Jiboa River suggests that Jiboa was also the name of the egress river. Jiboa is jihp po' ha' in Ch'orti' and means "lightning from deep hole river" or "lightning in water from deep hole." Lightning could describe the erupting volcano at night, but it is much more descriptive of a gunpowder blast to create the egress river.

Across the valley from the previous image, on the north side of the egress river valley, also showing significant scarring.

Santa Cruz Analquito is a municipal seat about six kilometers east of the lake and only one kilometer south of the egress river. Analquito is ahn ahl k'it' tob and means "time of pressing pod into current." Pod is a common description by the Maya of the natural container used to explode gunpowder charges under water. Combined with Jiboa, Analquito is very strong evidence for the creation of the outlet river using gunpowder.

The Lake Ilopango egress river (foreground) meets the Jiboa River descending from the top of the image and together they descend to the right (south).

There might have been a second place where the Jiboa River was opened. At the point where the egress river meets the Jiboa River, left, there may have been a lake, with flow toward the ocean blocked. Place name evidence comes from Paraiso de Osorio, a municipal seat. Osorio is os sor ri and means "beside the scraping fittings." Fittings (os) is a common word used by the Maya for explosives. For example, it is seen in Polorós and Anamorós, where the Maya practiced blasting.

Another view of the junction of the egress river and Jiboa River, looking north. This view shows a possible lake bed. [Click to enlarge.]

The word "beside" in a name usually means in close proximity. Paraiso de Osorio is located one kilometer from the Jiboa River and about four kilometers south of the egress river. Its name seems more likely to refer to the Jiboa River, indicating a second possible blasting location.

Looking south along the Jiboa River valley at a possible location of blasting to open the valley. Paraiso de Osorio is located to the right.

Why would the Maya go to the trouble of blasting open an egress river? One reason might have been to improve the water quality in Lake Ilopango, whether used for drinking, recreation, or agriculture. But a more important reason was probably to prevent flooding.

The lip around the lake is lower east of the lake and west of the lake. To the west, near Ilopango, the lip rises to approximately 620 meters. To the east by the egress river, the ridges rise to a height of 640 meters. This indicates, assuming there was no egress river, that as the water level in the lake rose higher and higher, it would have threatened to spill over the western lip and flood the area that is now the San Salvador metropolitan area and was likely at that time, heavily populated.

The Ilopango eruption was a tragedy on a local level that may have had regional and global ramifications. The Maya responded with rescue teams and contemplated how to get rid of deep ash. Many communities were displaced by the ash for a generation or two. Much later, to keep a key population center from flooding, the Maya likely used gunpowder to blast open an egress river to drain the lake and keep it at a more constant lake level. The Desagüe and Jiboa Rivers together may be one local example of Maya civil engineering expertise.

Indigenous Highways

Several years ago when I lived on a farm in northern Illinois, I was overjoyed to learn that the small highway that I lived on had previously been a Native American path, probably called the Piscasaw path after the name of the creek it followed. I checked into other Illinois highways and found that nearly every highway, aside from freeways and streets, had been an indigenous path or highway prior to the arrival of Europeans. Highways 41, 12, 14, 64, 34, and 45 radiating out from Chicago had all been indigenous paths. In fact, the same is probably true in any country in the western hemisphere. This indigenous sense of paths and travel has become part of the collective consciousness of all the people, no matter the race.

Whenever, the first peoples traveled from the Bering Strait, across Alaska, and then down to Patagonia, they didn't walk at random through the countryside. Instead, as long as 12,000 years ago there was a coastal path all the way along the Pacific Ocean. Here in California, highway 1 follows this ~12,000 year-old path for most of its course along the coast. Nearly every Pacific-coast country in North, Central, and South America has a similar coastal highway.

In the United States, a little of the indigenous sense of place is retained through these highways, which followed the terrain. That sense of place was greatly diminished when the Midwest was divided up into mile road grids in the 1860s and 1870s when thousands of settlers, like my great, great grandfather 'settled' there from Europe. Just like that, space could be halved, quartered and sold in a most efficient way. In most cases these mile roads did not follow the terrain and space began to have less meaning, except as private property.

The next step in the transformation of our collective sense of roads in the U.S., and further ridding our culture of its indigenous past, was the introduction of the interstate freeway system by President Eisenhower in the 1950s. To make the interstate 'freeways', hills and mountains were blasted away and huge bridges were constructed rather than winding down a valley to cross the rivers in a natural way. This is what 'free' way meant - speed was everything. Towns were bypassed and local economies were transformed and small businesses destroyed. Every interstate exchange became the same indistinguishable mix of corporate fastfood, corporate malls, and truck stops; place soon meant much less.

Today in Mexico and Central America, the elite economic powers that have brought structural adjustment, export economies, free trade for multinational corporations, and escalated immigration due to entrenched poverty, now try, led by the IMF and World Bank, to push the Plan Puebla Panama, which includes a superhighway through Mesoamerica and southern Central America. This superhighway, like the US interstates, would push Central America into the post-modern world where place has no meaning except as something which can be sold, developed, exploited, or used as entertainment, and in all cases, traveled over in the least amount of time possible.

So, to celebrate the indigenous highways of Central America, I have prepared a map [click to enlarge] to demonstrate some of the first roads in El Salvador, as one example. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list and should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it shows how indigenous peoples traveled along the lay of the land moving between the early cities.

The course of the coastal or 'literal' highway of El Salvador dates from many thousands of years before the start of the Mayans or Lencas and is the oldest road. In some places it moves inland to avoid mangrove swamps and deltas. In other places, like La Libertad department, it follows the coast closely to avoid the steep hills which rise quickly from the sea.

The trail between Chalchuapa in the west and Quelepa in the east, as well as the trail from Chalchuapa west to Kaminaljuyu (later Guatemala City), became the Pan American highway. The Troncal del Norte highway from San Salvador north past Aguilares and into Ocotepeque, Honduras, likely did not become an indigenous path until the founding of the major Classic-era city of Cihuatán in the 8th century. But as the Cihuatanecos traveled north to Copán and the Atlantic Coast they would have established the route through Colima to Tejutla and then joined the existing route over the mountains past La Palma and Citalá to Ocotepeque.

As discussed earlier, there was a distinct connection between Chalchuapa and El Mirador in the Peten as early as 1400 BC. Again, after the Ilopango eruption in 210 AD, the Chorti followed this route to Belize and Tikal. The route would have gone through present-day Santa Ana, past Metapán and Esquipulas, Guatemala, to the Motagua valley. Because of the terrain, the route would have jogged east past Quirigua to go around the Santa Cruz mountains and Lago Izabal. Today there are highways that follow all of these routes. There also would have been a route north from Quelepa in eastern El Salvador to Los Naranjos site at Lago Yojoa, Honduras, and then on to the Atlantic coast. As mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of El Salvador's geography was the short distance between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Later, routes were added between Copán and El Salvador. [Note: Click on map to enlarge. Typo - map should say 'Mayan and Lencan Roads'.]

By the 8th century AD, the Putún Maya arrived in El Salvador, the multi-cultural city-state of Cihuatán was established, and the indigenous highways and political structure of El Salvador would never be quite the same.

Joya de Ceren, the Pompeii 'Jewel' of Mesoamerica

The Joya de Cerén, or jewel of Ceren, is an archeological site of an extensive Mayan farming community in west-central El Salvador buried under volcanic ash in about 590 AD. It is nearly perfectly intact and presents the best example of everyday life during the Mayan classic period of any site in Mesoamerica, hence the moniker, the 'Pompeii of Mesoamerica'. It is also significant in that it provides a fossilized record of manioc which had just been planted.

There are already some great websites on Cerén, so I'm not going to repeat all the information here. The University of Colorado - Boulder has a website dedicated to Cerén, on which one can take a virtual tour. Dr. Payton Sheets, a Professor at the university, encountered Cerén in 1976. UNESCO declared Cerén a world heritage site in 1993 and also has some information on its website on it. Travel Radio International did a video visit of Cerén. Finally, you can read reviews of the site on the Trip Adviser website.

The Joya de Cerén area was first developed into a farming community by at least 900 BC. The San Andrés ceremonial center was founded about 1000 BC, about five kilometers west. San Andrés itself was a satellite of the important early pre-Classic site of Chalchuapa. Between 600 AD and 900 AD San Andrés may have had a population of 10,000 people.

Ironically, Joya de Cerén was covered by volcanic debris - ash - twice in the 1,600 years prior to the final covering of lava in about 590 AD, including the Ilopango eruption in about 210 AD which caused the Chorti Mayan elites to emigrate north to Belize and the Peten. Later, in about 400 AD, some of the Chorti elites returned to the Cerén area.

Some of the old Chorti place names of this area have remained through the Pipil and Spanish times, such as Tehuicho and Masajapa. And then there is Yulpico, which means a type of gourd. The Pipiles changed it to Opico and then the Spanish added a saint's name, making it San Juan Opico, in case there was any doubt who thought they controlled the territory.

Most interesting are a number of place names with the word serpent (chan) in them. Chan is the totem spirit of the Chortis and the place names seem to indicate that this area was very special to the Chortis. Five kilometers southeast of Joya de Cerén is Laguna Chanmico. About five kilometers north is the village of Chantusnene. Tutz means 'extended' and neh means 'tail', so this village name means 'extended tail serpent'. Finally, about 15 kilometers west of Cerén is Lago Coatepeque, on the way to Chalchuapa. It is a beautiful volcanic crater lake which is 10,000 to 100,000 years old. Coatepeque means 'hill of serpents' and was an important site to the Mayans - more on that later.

Return of the Mayans, the Repopulation of El Salvador in 400 AD

Soon I hope to discuss the Joya de Cerén, one of the most important archeological sites in El Salvador and sometimes referred to as the 'Pompeii of Mesoamerica'. But to set the stage, first it is necessary to talk about the repopulation of western and central El Salvador in about 400 AD. Remember that this region was depopulated after the Ilopango volcanic eruption of about 210 AD, which caused the decline of the entire Pacific coast region and the subsequent rise of cultures to the north, such as Petén, in part due to the immigration of Chorti Maya elites from western El Salvador following the eruption.

With the power vacuum in the southern Maya area following the Chorti movement north, the Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu, near present-day Guatemala City, became the predominant power. Perhaps this role of Kaminaljuyu/Guatemala City remained in the collective memory of Central Americans when Guatemala City was chosen as the capital of the Federal Republic of Central America in the first years of this short-lived republic following independence from Spain in 1821.

By 400 AD, the thick Ilopango ash in western El Salvador was transformed back into soil and the area could be re-inhabited. Pocomam Mayas moved into the extreme western part of the country around Itiquizaya, most likely from western Guatemala. In addition, many Chorti Maya moved back, probably from Copán, but possibly from the Petén.

Copán itself received an influx of elites from the Petén between 300 and 400 AD, its start date as a ceremonial center. Perhaps Copán was chosen as a halfway point between the Petén and the old Pacific Coast centers, like Chalchuapa. Or Copán may have given the Tikal Chorti access to the jade along the Motagua River Valley and allowed them to challenge the supremacy of Kaminaljuyu in the south. Soon Copán would be a regional power on its own.

The Chortis resettled San Andres, Chalchuapa, Santa Leticia, Cara Sucia, and surrounding areas, as well as the present-day area of San Salvador. It is likely that during the time period that Chalchuapa was a bilingual Pocoman-Chorti city. By 400 AD, there was likely significant divergence between these two Mayan languages. It is also likely that some local Chorti elites settled in Matamaras in northern Chalatenango and the Lago Güija in northwestern Santa Ana at this time. Both Chalchuapa and Lago Güija would have given the Chortis access to the obsidian at nearby Ixtepeque, to the northwest.

While Tehuacán along the eastern slope of Chichontepeque volcano in San Vicente may have been a Chorti Maya site prior to 210 AD, or, more likely, a bilingual Chorti-Lenca ceremonial and trade center, it is likely that the Chorti elites left with the other Chortis to the north post-Ilopango. In the early classic period of 210 to 600 AD, Tehuacán was clearly a Lenca site and related most closely to Quelepa to the east, with similar jaguar rock sculptures as Quelepa.

E. Wyllys Andrews, one of the first archeologists to study the Quelepa site, noted that there was no evidence of contact between Quelepa and western El Salvador between 200 and 600 AD. On the other hand, prior to the departure of the Chortis in 210 AD, there had been significant trade and cultural contact between the Chortis in western El Salvador and the Potón Lenca in eastern El Salvador. In the interceding 190 years, the knowledge of each other's languages must have disappeared, as well as Chorti memory of Quelepa as a source of obsidian. Ironically, Andrews found that the Lenca continued to trade with the Olmec/ Totonac people of the Veracruz Coast. There is little evidence of the Lenca having contact with peoples on the overland route to Veracruz so it seems that they traveled by ocean canoes or rafts north and then crossed the Tehuantepec isthmus to Veracruz.

The history of the Salvadoran region would take another major twist in 590 AD, when for the second time in 400 years, a volcano would erupt and interrupt the development of civilization in the region. The history of immigration and disaster recovery would continue for Salvadorans.

Salvadorans, an Immigrant People since 200 AD

Many commentaries and histories of El Salvador refer to its indigenous “pre-Hispanic” past in a static way, as if the indigenous peoples and their geographic distribution at the time of the arrival of the Spanish was the way it always was. In this typical history, the western part of El Salvador is presented as though it were always occupied by the Pipiles. For example, Elsa Ramos provides a very thoughtful historical overview of El Salvador’s indigenous people during the colonial time period, but presents a more static view of the pre-Hispanic history.

During the classic and post-classic Mayan civilization periods – 200 AD to 1100 AD – nothing could be further from the truth. There were numerous immigrations into and emigrations out of El Salvador. The most important was the arrival of the Pipiles, a nahuatl-speaking people from central Mexico, toward the end of the period mentioned earlier. But there were also immigrations of Chorti Maya, Pokomam Maya, Quiche Maya, and Lenca that I will be discussing along the way. Many of these groups intersected at the multi-ethnic city of Cihuatan, just north of present-day Aguilares, by far the most important site in El Salvador during the Classic period.

The reasons for all the movement have to do with specific events both within El Salvador as well as throughout Mesoamerica, including central Mexico. However, the underlying cause relates to the fact that El Salvador is one of the richest parts of Mesoamerica, able to support a very dense population. As one of the birthplaces of the Mayas, El Salvador also held a lot of spiritual and cultural importance for all Mesoamerican peoples. But it is also a land of frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods. This caused many emigrations. Earlier I discussed how the newly formed Lenca federation of villages, formed in about 900 AD, avoided the earthquake- and eruption-prone volcanic valleys of San Miguel and Usulutan, and instead populated both the coastal areas and hills along the northern tier of central and eastern El Salvador.

A major emigration from El Salvador occurred in about 210 AD following the massive eruption of Ilopango volcano, one of the largest eruptions the world has seen in the last 2,000 years. In fact, this ended the preeminence of the Pacific coast as the Mayan cultural center, based in Chalchuapa, and coincides with the rise of the Classic period Maya in Copan, Tikal, and other sites in Guatemala and Mexico. For example, the very first monument at Tikal was built in about 200 AD.

It was the Chorti Maya who lived in western and central El Salvador at this time. Chalchuapa, Santa Leticia, and San Andres were in the debris path of Ilopango’s ash and were totally depopulated for nearly 200 years, according to the archeological record. The Chorti elite dispersed north and west into the classical Mayan areas, especially to western Belize and the eastern Peten. Some Chortis of a more common status likely followed to Copan and the Peten, but many migrated locally into the safer hills of Chalatenango, which helps explain the smaller ceremonial site of Matamaras along the Sumpul River. It appears that Xinca communities (non-Mayan) in far western El Salvador were also depopulated at this time.

The Lencan sites of higher civilization at Quelepa and Tehuacan were not covered in ash and remained during this period. The Lenca continued to trade extensively with the Cacaopera people as well as Matagalpas in Nicaragua. By extension, the Lencas were connected with indigenous of Costa Rica, Panama, and South America. But the close link between the Lenca and Chorti in El Salvador was broken, cutting the trade of the Mayas with areas to the south to a trickle. The Lencas also continued to trade with central Mexico during this period as well as with other Lencas near Lago Yojoa in northern Honduras.

By about 400 AD, the thick Ilopango ash was finally transformed into tillable soil. Mayans from Guatemala and Honduras began to drift back in – the next series of numerous immigrations in El Salvador’s history. We will see that Salvadorans have always been a people who have adapted well to immigration, but not until now have they ever been considered 'illegal'.

A summary of Mayan civilization eras

This table can be used as a reference when terms like Preclassic or Classic are thrown out there. I will continue to build a timeline as more things are discussed in this blog.

Chronology 6000 BC - 2000 BC 2000 BC - 1000 BC 1000 BC - 400 BC 400 BC - 250 AD 250 AD - 550 AD 550 AD - 900 AD 900 AD - 1250 AD 1250 AD - 1520 AD 1520 AD - present

Era Archaic or developmental Early Preclassic Middle Preclassic Late Preclassic Early Classic Late Classic Early Postclassic Late Postclassic Colonial and modern

Characteristics Development of agriculture; fishing specialization Expansion of villages, decorative pottery, ocean sailing Expansion to highlands; architecture; calendar Writing, state structures and dynastic rule Great expansion of number of city-states Population peak, warfare among city-states Population loss in old sites; new multi-cultural cities Continued fall and rise of new states Conquest, resistance, assimilation, reappearance in modern social movements

Lago Ilopango and the Beginning of the Classic Maya Civilization

See this updated post about Lake Ilopango, Jan. 2014

Many times while driving east out of San Salvador I have wondered about Lago Ilopango. It is a large natural lake and quite beautiful; yet many Salvadorans are ambiguous of it. Perhaps it is because it looms in the collective subconscious as the source of the largest natural disaster in the last 3,000 years of Salvadoran history – and there have been a lot disasters.

Lago Ilopango is a crater lake, similar to Crater Lake in Oregon, Coatepeque in western El Salvador, and Atitlan in Guatemala. It must have been a massive volcano since the lake itself is about 10 km by 6 km. It likely towered over neighbors Chichontepec and Quetzaltepec. Ilopango Volcano erupted between 200 and 250 A.D., according to Robert Sharer in “The Ancient Maya.” Wikipedia’s entry on the lake mistakenly places the eruption during the 5th Century AD. It was a huge blast – about twice as large as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines.

The timing of the Ilopango eruption coincides perfectly with two of the most important events in Mayan history: the decline of the pre-Classic Maya culture along the Pacific Coast from southeastern Mexico to eastern El Salvador and the start of Classic Mayan civilization in the interior, including Copan and Tikal.

The center of pre-Classic Mayan culture stretched from Izapa in Chiapas to Chalchuapa in western El Salvador. This region consists of broad coastal plains which eventually rise to volcanic mountains. Both Izapa and Chalchuapa showed signs of pre-civilization as early as 1500 BC, matching the establishment of the Olmec centers in Mexico. By 100 AD, there are signs of writing and advanced astronomy. At numerous Salvadoran sites there are remains of the advanced polychrome ceramic that became typical of the Mayan classic period. The Ilopango eruption caused an ash covering so thick that all land within a 60-kilometer radius was uninhabitable for at least 150 years. Chalchuapa would have been right on the edge of this thick ash covering. In any case, all the Salvadoran Mayan centers became depopulated within a few years of the eruption and the entire Pacific coast area up to Izapa began to decline. This shows the importance of the Salvadoran Mayan centers.

Where did the Salvadoran Maya go to? It is well-established that the Mayans who settled Copan in about 1000 BC maintained close connections with the Guatemala-El Salvador coast. Copan is the most logical choice, however, by 250 AD, Mayan city states began to form throughout the interior from Copan to the Peten and beyond. Sharer speculates that the most logical cause of the start of Mayan Classic civilization was the sudden introduction of new local elites forced to leave their beloved homeland in El Salvador. They arrived already with knowledge of writing, astronomy, agriculture, and trade routes stretching from central Mexico to Ecuador, with Costa Rica and Panama in between.

The Ilopango eruption gives us the best clue as to the origin of the Mayan civilization!

First posted Nov. 27, 2009 on BlogBox