The Indigenous History of El Salvador

El Salvador's Four Islands of Civilization

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

How Corn Was Hybridized by the Early Maya in Central America

Biologists have been studying the development of corn in Mexico and Central America and have recently discovered that corn was originally hybridized from the Balsas teosinte that is found at mid-range elevations - 500 to 1,5000 meters - in western Mexico, mainly from western Guerrero north to Jalisco. In addition, the earliest traces of corn were dated back to 6700 BC in this area. [Click to enlarge map.]

By tracing the origin of the word teosinte, the precursor of corn, to the Chorti Maya area of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, by mapping all occurrences of it as a place name, and by determining that teo means 'island' in Chorti and teosinte means 'plants in rows on an island', I have been able to isolate two islands in the Chorti area that appear to be very early biological stations in a deliberate effort to perfect corn. These islands are Teopán (meaning 'Sprouting Island') in Lago Coatepeque, in western El Salvador, and Teotipa (meaning 'Food Island') in Lago Güija, which straddles the El Salvador-Guatemala border. Both lakes are within 20 kilometers of Chalchuapa, one of earliest known Mayan sites. Güija would be wihha in Chorti, meaning 'source of stream': a stream drains out of the lake joining the Lempa River.

I am guessing that the dates of the hybridization with teosinte were taking place between 4000 BC and 2000 BC. The start date could be earlier or later. The end date corresponds pretty closely with the date when biologists have determined that corn was approaching a level where it could support higher population densities.

It is no surprise that some of the earliest Mayan villages would be on islands. An island would isolate the experimental fields from most pests and many animals that could harm them. Islands also would have afforded early peoples a measure of safety from predators or enemies.

In addition, both La Venta and Teotihuacán, early civilization sites in Mexico, were built on islands, so there was a tendency for early Mesoamerican people to build on islands. Furthermore, in the case of Teotihuacán it is clear that the Maya were somehow involved in founding the city, given the prefix 'Teo', identifying it as an island. There is no other instance of a place name in Mexico starting with 'Teo' referring to an island. The Aztec god 'Teotl' and all other 'Teo' place names in Mexico were created in reverence for Teotihuacán.

From the two islands, the early Mayans or pre-Mayans identified various sources of teosinte in the area and named the places 'Teosinte' so that they and future generations would remember their location. While the teosinte grass in this area could not be converted into corn, it was, and still is, extremely useful to hybridize with corn plants. Persistent hybridization with teosinte grass was done to continue selecting desired traits, to make different varieties of corn, including popcorn, and to make the corn more disease resistant.

There still is a need to discuss how the two outlier place names of 'Teosinte' ended up in far western Jalisco (see the map), but to do that I will need to discuss the 260-day tzol'kin calendar more, as well as the Mayan sacred text, the Popol Vuh. And I will also take a closer look at both Lago Coatepeque (Lake Serpent Hill) and Lago Güija. Is it possible that western El Salvador was the founding place of all Mesoamerican civilizations, just as the Salvadoran historian Antonio Arocha suggested in El Salvador, La Antigua Patria Maya?

[Post Script: I now believe that the hybridization process may have begun as early as 8300 BC. Feb. 25, 2010]

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.

From Teosinte to Corn, But Where did Teosinte Come From?

The Mayan, Lencan, and Pipil peoples that now populate much of El Salvador, as well as Honduras and Guatemala, were born of corn. The gods are associated with corn, including both the diseased corn (pellegra), associated with Ixbalamque, and the perfect corn, treated with ash or lime water, associated with Hunapa. And the first Mayan people were made were of perfect corn dough (masa).

Scientists now know that corn was hybridized from Balsas teosinte grass in southwestern Mexico by 6700 BC. The Guatemalan teosinte found in the highlands of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, is similar but was not used at first to hybridize corn.

But where did teosinte come from? When did the very early hunter-gatherers of Mesoamerica first learn that they could eat teosinte? And was it as revered by those early people as much as corn was for the Mayans, Lencas, and Pipiles?

Among many Mesoamerican people teosinte is associated with birds and it is possible that the plethora of bird gods is a collective memory of early peoples learning from birds to eat the teosinte kernels. Certainly teosinte would have been an important food substance at least until about 3000 BC when corn hybridization would have improved to the point where growing corn would have begun to replace gathering wild teosinte. Early peoples ground up teosinte and made it into a drink. It continues to be used by people in parts of Mexico and Guatemala as both a food product and to hybridize with corn to bring out certain qualities - such as resistance to disease.

One of the most surprising things about teosinte, is that nobody today calls it 'teosinte'. Anthropologists have not found any indigenous or Spanish speaking communities that call teosinte grass, 'teosinte'. Among the names used by the Chorti Mayas, for example, are ixim ka, wild corn. So where did the name come from? To help answer that, I have mapped the ten occurrences of the place name 'teosinte' or 'teocinte', 'teocintli'. [Click to enlarge]

Most of the occurrences of Teosinte are located in the Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador tri-border region. There is also one southeast of the area on this map in Nicaragua, Cerro Teosintal. Surprisingly, there are two place names of 'teosinte' many hundreds of miles away in Jalisco, just south of Puerto Vallarta. Many assume that the name teosinte comes from the nahua, teocintli. However, there is only one place with that name in Mexico. In addition, very few place names in the areas surrounding the eight Central American places are of nahua origin (pipil in the case of El Salvador).

This indicates that the name probably originated somewhere in the Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador region and that perhaps this was the first place that the very early indigenous, in the 12,000 to 7000 BC period, began gathering teosinte kernels. As such, teosinte must come from the proto Mesoamerican language that gave rise to the Mayan, Lencan, Chibchan, and other language groups. What is remarkable is that these place names still exist. That would mean that these places have been remembered for perhaps 10,000 years of continuous human settlement as sources of sustenance. So how did the name teosinte get to Puerto Vallarta? More on that another time.

I have been to the two Teosinte villages in central and eastern Chalatenango. In eastern Chalatenango, Teosinte is a village outside of Arcatao, in an area that was Lenca at the time of the Spanish occupation. There is a lot of wild grass growing in the hills above Arcatao, like La Cañada.

In central Chalatenango, Teosinte is a village northeast of Tejutla, in an area that was Chorti Maya in 1525 AD. It is a beautiful village. Teosinte, like Arcatao, is an organized community, part of CRIPDES, and a sister city to Arlington, Massachusetts. In 1991 I took a hike up into the hills above Teosinte and found wide expanses of wild grass. It may not have been 'teosinte' but for 10,000 years this has likely been a source of sustenance for the peoples of El Salvador. Considering its location so close to the Matamaras cave along the Sumpul River, this area should be investigated for signs of very early human activity, like the Corinto cave in eastern El Salvador.

From the Maya, the Beginnings of the Olmecs and Zapotecs

Between 6700 BC and 1600 BC, corn was increasing used as a staple in the Mesoamerican diet, but it actually produced more malnutrition as it became more popular. Diets were improved through more efficient coastal fishing by the peoples of the origin of the Mayan philosophy along the Pacific Coast of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas, when they discovered the 13-day tidal calendar. But that only helped to spread higher culture along the coast itself.

It wasn't until they discovered the 'magic' of soaking corn kernels in ashes (nixtamalization) that civilization spread to the inland areas. At first, this practice was done as a way to soften up the hard encasing of the kernels, but soon the health benefits of the practice were noted. The health of entire communities soon improved dramatically as they overcame the niacin deficiency, known as pellegra, that is common to using corn as a staple food. Later soaking corn in lime was found to be even better than in ashes and it became the norm throughout Mesoamerica.

From Chalchuapa, Monte Alto, and La Blanca, these first Mayans brought this discovery to other peoples. In some cases it may have been a migration, as to El Mirador and Chiapa de Corzo. Other Mayan migrations were made from the Pacific Coast to the Yucatan and the Chiapas highlands, demonstrated by the splitting of the Mayan language groups, Yucateca Maya and Huasteca, respectively, at this time.

In other cases, with the central Mexican valley, the Zapotecs in the Oaxacan valley, and the Olmecs along the Veracruz Gulf Coast, it was an exchange of knowledge and culture, with the Mayans sharing their calendar and the 'nixtamal' discovery. The Olmecs then spread this information and other art and science to areas of present day Morelos and Guerrero.

These same early Mayan leaders had been spreading new hybrid varieties of corn to the same regions, but it only produced more disease and malnutrition. Why and how should they be believed now? The Mayan sacred text, the Popol Vuh, helps to answer that question. Next time we will explore the Popol Vuh, pellegra, and the crisis of leadership in early Mesoamerican cultures.

Put the Lime in the Coco

Something revolutionary happened 3,500 years ago in the Americas. It led to an ALBA of sorts - a giant fair trade alliance. And it spread civilization quicker than almost any other event in human history.

In Mesoamerica 1500 BC there was only one location with village life with any signs toward civilization, along the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador, due to developing a counting and calendar system to track the high tides and allow for much greater fishing production. This advanced knowledge of the tides did little to grow a civilization since it was irrelevant to inland peoples and the tides along other parts of the coast did not follow the same pattern.

Yet, by 1400 BC, there were populated villages moving very quickly toward civilization in at least seven locations, in addition to the Pacific coast: northern Peten of Guatemala (Mirador), central Chiapas (Chiapa de Corzo), Olmec Gulf coast of Veracruz (San Lorenzo and Laguna de los Cerros), Oaxacan valley (San Jose Mogote), central Mexican valley (Tlapacoya and Tlatilco), Morelos Valley (Chalcatzingo), and northern Guerrero (Teopantecuanitlan).

This is also about the time that the Huastecan Mayan and Yucatecan Mayan language groups split off from the main line of Mayan languages. Another sign of quick dispersion of culture.

By 1500 BC, the peoples of Mexico and Central America had been growing squash for at least 5,500 years, corn for 5,000 years, and beans for 2,000 years. Corn was slowly evolving as it was continually hybridized to select the biggest cobs. But most people were still living in isolated groups, gaining much of their limited protein from fishing or hunting and gathering.

Scientists now know that corn produces a condition called 'pellegra', a type of malnutrition when people use corn as a staple crop. Pellegra was a major health concern in places like northern Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries and in the American south - over 1,300 pellegra deaths were counted in South Carolina as recently as 1915. That is because unsoaked corn, by itself, has a noted lack of the B vitamin niacin and amino acids lysine and tryptophan. Pellegra causes confusion, weakness, dermatitis and skin lesions, insomnia, dementia, and death. All things that could keep a civilization from forming. Beans also have lysine and tryptophan and together with corn makes a complete protein, but this wasn't enough to overcome the niacin deficiency of corn.

Soaking corn in ashes or in lime slake (calcium oxide) before cooking the corn releases the niacin when consumed and increases the lysine and tryptophan. How did the early Mesoamericans discover this? The very early corn had an extremely hard encasing, just like the grass it was hybridized from, teosinte. It could only be consumed by popping it or roasting it. In addition to releasing important nutritious elements, soaking corn in ashes or lime also breaks down the hard encasing of the corn kernels, making it possible to mash the corn to make it into masa, which could then be used to make atol, tamals, tortillas, and pupusas. One day, some uncooked corn kernels must have been left out in a gourd or ceramic container, some ashes accidently placed on top, and then it rained. In the morning, the family noticed very soft corn, perfect for mashing. Something that doesn't happen just with water soaking. And the tradition was born. Within a generation or two, the health benefits of the soaking would have also been noticed. Yes, tortillas are linked to higher civilization.

In the Nahuat language, this is called nixtamal, leading to the English word nixtamalization. Nixtamal probably comes from the Mayan - ix or ixim is corn in Mayan, and in Ch'orti Maya, grinding the soft corn is called muxi uixim. Corn mash, which is much easier after the nixtamal process, is a shared root word in all Mayan languages that separated at about 1500 BC. In addition, there are early Olmec drawings of tamals, which would be much easier to make after soaking the corn in ash- or lime-water. While the exact date is not known, I believe that it is such an important discovery that it would lead to a huge expansion in village life and population density. This leaves the most probable date of 1500 BC.

Pacific Coast: First Signs of Civilization

These seven locations - Paso de la Amada and Izapa in Chiapas; La Blanca, El Mesak, Ocós, and Monte Alto in Guatemala; and Chalchuapa in El Salvador - appear to be the first higher culture villages in Mesoamerica. They showed signs of the impending explosion of cultures that began at about 1400 BC, with the Mayans (Mirador and Chiapa de Corzo), the Olmecs (San Lorenzo), the Zapotecs (San José Mogote), and the central Mexicans (Tlapacoya). The main cultural indicator found by archeologists are the ceramic shards, dating from 1800 BC or before, of the type that later symbolized the Olmec and early Pre-Classic Mayan era.

While previously the Olmecs of the Gulf Coast of Mexico were seen as the 'mother culture' of Mesoamerica, now historians paint a more complicated picture of multiple early cultures mutually influencing each other. In fact two early Mayan area sites had ceremonial architecture prior to any built in the Olmec area: a ballcourt built at Paso de la Amada at about 1400 BC and a temple structure at Mirador in the northern Petén of Guatemala at about the same time. In addition, the large sculptured heads at Monte Alto seem to pre-date those in the Olmec area and likely were the inspiration for the famous Olmec sculptures.

It is not known if this early Pacific coast culture spoke a proto Mayan language or a Mixe-Zoquean language like that spoken 500 years ago along the Chiapas coast and spoken by the Zapotecs in Oaxaca and, likely, the Olmecs. By 1400 BC this part of the Pacific coast would have major trade and relationships with both the Mayan interior, including Mirador, and the Zapotecs and Olmecs.

Two scientific discoveries allowed the early Pacific Coast people to begin to flourish and a third discovery would cause a revolution throughout Mesoamerica between 1500 and 1400 BC. The first discovery, somewhere between 1800 BC and 1500 BC, was that of tracking the tides and recognizing a pattern in the tides that repeated every 13 days. This allowed these early people to concentrate on hunting and agriculture on those days that the fishing and crabbing would be bad due to slack tides. This, in turn, allowed for greater population density, specialization of tasks, the creation of local hierarchies, and surplus time to devote to trade, more science, and entertainment (ball games).

Soon thereafter, they noticed a longer tidal pattern that lasted about 170 to 175 days. Every 170 days or so, there would be a period of slack tides that would last for nearly 50 consecutive days. This realization allowed these people to begin to take longer trade journeys to places as distant as Mirador, the Oaxaca highlands, or to the Olmec coast. It is about 265 miles from Chalchuapa to El Mirador, for example. Averaging 15 miles per day, one could travel there and back, allowing for a five day stay at Mirador, in 40 days, returning in time for the next set of days with high tides and good fishing.

The tracking of the tides also led to a number system with rocks and sticks, and, more than a thousand years later, a writing system. Later they also correlated the slack tides with the lunar and solar eclipses, giving a strong pretense to their sun-based religion.

The second discovery was not so much of a discovery as an accomplishment, that is, to become adept ocean voyagers. The peoples of Central America and Mexico were likely using dug-out canoes for hundreds or thousands of years before this on rivers and inland lakes. But given the spacing of villages in the map above, it becomes clear that a primary mode of travel became by ocean. If not, the expansion of culture would have continued from the Izapa - La Blanca area in an overland fashion. The skip in high culture to dis-contiguous points further southeast - Monte Alto and Chalchuapa - indicates the use of coastal canoe voyages at about this time. The ocean-going canoes became a key in the long-distance trade which began in earnest by 1400 BC.

The third discovery was the most important. But before going forward it will be necessary to go much further back. And pick up a copy of Jared Diamond on the way.

Never Conquered, the Lenca Federation

The Poton Lenca Federation of 900 AD

Note: Based on list of villages in the Maya Lenca history. Some locations are guessed, such as Camaguayquin, which is coastal, and Silaiquin, which is referred to as the municipal seat of Las Flores, Chalatenango, and could refer to either Chalatenango or Suchitoto. Also, it is not known which Lenca villages in Honduras were part of this federation.

The Maya Lenca history says that this federation was started when noble refugees from Copan arrived after the collapse of Copan in 900 AD. It is possible that these were Chorti Maya, but it is more likely that Lenca nobility were living in Copan prior to its fall and this is who returned to establish a federation based out of Sesori.

A few things are striking when looking at this map. First, the Lenca avoided the central volcanic range where the most fertile soils are. Most likely they had a collective memory of the destruction following Ilopango eruption in 210 AD and later the eruption that buried Joyas de Ceren in about 600 AD.

Second, nearly all of these place names still exist. The only exceptions are Yusique, which was conquered by the Pipiles and became Chinameca, and three which became Spanishized: Queiquin (San Alejo), Saco (San Jose), and Sinsimontique (San Simon). Besides the 60 villages on the map, there are many more Poton place names of villages, mountains, rivers, and streams throughout central and eastern El Salvador.

So even with the Pipiles conquering most of western and parts of central El Salvador and the Spanish taking over the whole country, the Poton names remain. The early Spanish occupiers said that the east was a desolate land not good for much. But I think that the main reason for the predominance of Lenca place names is that the Lenca were never totally conquered. They maintained their identity, their names, and, to a lesser extent, their culture.

And they maintained their fighting spirit. How else do you explain the correlation between the next two maps? The first shows the areas under FMLN control in 1984 and the second the Lenca federation of 900 AD.

 


Note: Source of 1984 Conflict Map, "Promised Land, Peasant Rebellion in Chalatenango, El Salvador," Jenny Pearce.

This is not to suggest that the FMLN had a 'Lenca strategy', but it is hard to consider these two maps without realizing that the former Lenca villages have been the heart of modern rural organizing in El Salvador. And it's not just the mountainous areas of Chalatenango and Morazan, where this is true. Even the Lenca coastal areas of San Miguel and Usulutan had a lot of rural organizing and at times were under FMLN control during the conflict.

That is why I venture to say that the Poton Lenca people have never been truly conquered.

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.