The Indigenous History of El Salvador

The Fall of Teotihuacan, the massacre at Durango, and the Origin of the Tanoan and Kiowa

Eight miles southwest of Durango, Colorado, was the scene of one of the most gruesome massacres in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans. It is estimated that the massacre occurred between 803 CE and 810 CE. By 810 CE the buildings and trees of the site, called Sacred Ridge, had been burned. The site was occupied from about 700 CE to the time of the massacre. Archeologists have found the bones of dozens of people cut into small pieces - 425 pieces per person according to the sample. The conclusion of the archeological study:

Two of the pit houses contain 14,882 identified human body fragments, belonging to about 35 people, about half the estimated population of the village. The victims show signs of extreme torture and mutilation, including beating on the feet, scalping, and eye gouging. Because of biological and dietary differences between the residents of the village and other villages in the same area, some scientists believe that this provides evidence of ethnic cleansing.[1] [2]

The timeline is helpful as it fits within the timeframe of the massacres that occurred in the aftermath of the halt of Mayan development in Mexico and Guatemala in or very near to 800 CE. The name Durango is the main clue tying the massacre to the massacres in Mexico, as Durango, Mexico, was directly on the route of the Kakchiquel as they chased the Guanajuato Purepecha northwest and into the Barranca del Cobre. Names around Durango, Mexico, indicate that many Purepecha died there. Durango is tu ur ra an k’o or “blades on the corpses of the explainers who were tired of running.” “Explainers” is an ethnic marker for the Purepecha and some of their relatives like the Cuscatlan. This indicates the Cakchiquel and perhaps others committed the massacre at Durango, Colorado, and that the Purepecha were the victims.

Historians indicate that people had been living at Sacred Ridge, southwest of Durango, since around 700 CE. Why would a group of Purepecha have run from central Mexico to Colorado in about 700 CE. Likely to hide. But hide from what? The major event of 700 CE in Mesoamerica was the collapse of Teotihuacan upon a major attack. The Purepecha certainly had the capability, as one of the few groups with knowledge of explosives, which were usually reserved for stonework on the pyramids and other public works. The Purepecha would have been motivated by the desire to end the sacrifice regime at Teotihuacan and to end the support of Teotihuacan for Mayan polities in Mexico and Guatemala. This provides a context for a small group of Purepecha to be hiding in the mountains of Colorado. They likely interacted frequently with their cousins, the Keresan, fellow Sky people.

Several members of the Purepecha remnant survived the Sacred Ridge massacre, mainly because they were not present at the village at the time. This includes at least three persons or families which would become the Tanoan pueblos. Tanoan is ta an no an or “remnant who ran, ran from the Great Ones.” The name says that they ran twice, first from central Mexico, and later from the Great Ones, that is the Kiche/Kakchiquel, at or near Durango. Perhaps these survivors were away from the Sacred Ridge camp at the time that the Kiche/Kakchiquel arrived. Within the Tanoan pueblos are the Tiwa, the Tewa, and the Towa. All three share the ending wa “beings” with the Kiowa. The similarity of these names likely indicate that the founders may have been related.

The Tiwa or Tigua is ti wa or ti ik’ wa, which is “opened beings” or “opened Sky beings”. This identifies them as Sky people, i.e. Purepecha or Keresan. Two northern Tiwa towns are Taos and Picuris. Both names are instructive. Taos is ta os or “remnant of those set down.” The double meaning is Tao which implies “from China.” The ones who set them down were from China. Of the Native American peoples, one of the five original ethnicities was from China, including the Kiche/Kakchiquel and the Osage. The use of tao in Taos is the same use of tao in the Salvadoran municipality of Arcatao, referring to a very early Kiche leader who killed an early Sky (Cuscatlan) leader over the issue of first-child sacrifice. The Tiwa naming Taos was meant to recall their ancestor from 9,000 years earlier who had been killed by the same line of people as who committed the massacre at Durango. Picuris is pi ik’ k’ur ri is or “move beside the Sky companions with the points.” This is a direct reference to the Keresan people. The Keres or Keresan were Iroquois people who were forced to flee the Missouri River area by the early Osage. When they fled west they encountered the Clovis points of another people at Clovis, New Mexico. The Tiwa moving beside the Keres was natural since they came from the same Sky people, although had likely lived apart for 12,000 to 13,000 years, the Keres primarily in North America and the Purepecha primarily in Mesoamerica.

The Southern Tiwa moved along the Rio Grande River at Isleta and Sandia. Isleta is is le et ta or “remnant that moved to the river after the challenge of the paddlers.” They used the let or ret syllable which was somewhat common in Purepecha names such as Queretaro and Loreto. Sandia is tza an ti a or “run from the bloody openings at the water.” They ran from the Durango massacre. In the case of Sandia it is possible that it is a later colonial era name.

The Tewa remained further north, north of present-day Santa Fe. Tewa was meant to sound like Tiwa and Towa. It is te er wa or “beings sticked by the foreigners,” referring to the massacre by the Kakchiquel and other Toltec. It has a double meaning of “ridge beings.” The Tewa name Tesuque has a similar meaning. It is te etz su uk’ k’er or “sad upon observing the slashing of sticks on the plain.” I believe that sticks in this case refers to bones. This makes it clear that the Tewa Purepecha were not at the lake at the time of the massacre but witnessed it from a distance. The name has a double meaning of “bats opened up,” indicating the ethnicity of those who committed the massacre – the symbol of the Kakchiquel is the bat.

Three other names associated with the Tewa refer not to events at Durango but rather to the earlier history of around 700 CE when the Purepecha ended the reign of Teotihuacan. Nambe is nam ber or “disappearance of the workers.” The Purepecha were the workers, i.e. the pyramid workers, of Teotihuacan. Not only did the leaders of the Teotihuacan rebellion leave but the other Purepecha workers left too, likely to other places in Mexico like Puebla, Guanajuato, or Michoacan. The ones most responsible for the fall of Teotihuacan, disappeared to southwest Colorado. Pojoaque, a Mesoamerican style name, is po och cho ak’ k’er or “slashed the skin of the esteemed ones at the entrance of the hole.” Teotihuacan laid at the entrance to the lake of central Mexico. The esteemed ones, in the context of Teotihuacan, was an ethnic marker for the Totonac. This provides a clue that the Totonac were the lead ethnicity at Teotihuacan and that the workers of Teotihuacan, the Purepecha, rebelled and killed the leadership of the Totonac. Ohkay Owingeh, another name associated with the Tewa, is ok’ ka yor wi in k’er or “first ones hit and slashed the source at the beginning splitting.” First ones would be the first Tewa. The source is an ethnic marker for the Totonac. Here to split is used much the same way it is in contemporary English – to leave quickly. Like Pojoaque, it identifies the Totonac as the target at Teotihuacan at the time that the Tewa/Purepecha left central Mexico to hide in southwest Colorado.

The Towa are the third group of Tanoan. Other names associated with the Towa are Jemez and Pecos. Towa is to wa or “sacrificed beings.” Jemez is che em etz or “descendants observed the handling,” where handling is a euphemism for the massacre, with the che syllable recalling the Kiche. However, the name Jemez contains a hidden double meaning which seems to contain guilt. With the hidden meaning it is “descendants failed to handle observing the foreigners.” Here we learn that the Towa were the lookouts for the Purepecha at Durango but failed to observe the stealthy entrance of the foreigners, which is an ethnic marker for the Kakchiquel. Pecos is pek’ k’o os or “greeting of being set down by the blades.” This indicates that the Kakchiquel did not provide the customary greeting given even to enemies. There is a double meaning in Pecos: “foreigners set down the workers with the blade under the stars.” This indicates that the Kakchiquel attack occurred at night-time.

The Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa all have a common language base with the Kiowa. The Kiowa are the survivor(s) perhaps of the leader of the Purepecha village at Durango. Kiowa is ki or wa or “dear beings and leader.” By dropping the ‘r’ in ‘or’ (leader - or) it indicates a difference with the leader warriors of the Kakchiquel. But the name Kiowa is also meant to rhyme with Iowa. The Kiowa were linking their fate with that of their prominent cousins in North America, the Iroquois. The attack that the Iroquois suffered in Iowa at the hands of the ancestors of the Osage, cousins of the Kakchiquel, occurred in about 10,000 BCE. The Kiowa were linking histories on the North American continent that were separated by about 11,000 years.

The names in western Colorado indicate that the Kiowa family or lone survivor fled north through the mountains. First along the Animas River which flows south through Durango. It is an ni im matz or “surrounded, ran through the hills.” It has a double meaning which tells of the story of running from central Mexico originally: “run from the bad practice at the mounds (pyramids) at the foam.” North of Durango is the town of Hermosa. This is er mo os ha or “trapped and set down by the foreigners at the water.” It is fair to ask how the Kiowa names stuck to various places on the journey. It is likely that generations of Kiowa revisited the trip to re-tell the story. In addition, the permanent residents of the region, the Utes, kept the names alive for the Kiowa.

Further north near Silverton is Sultan Mountain or su ul ta an or “remnant of the explainers runs from the plain.” Explainers is an ethnic marker for the Purepecha and plain is an ethnic marker for the Kakchiquel. The proximity of Sultan to Usulutan, the origin point for the male side of the Purepecha, should not be lost.

Anvil Mountain, also near Silverton, is an bi il or “see the companion(s) run.” It was likely named by the Ute who were in this area. Vil or pil was an ethnic marker for the Purepecha, seen later in Pipil. At Silverton the massacre survivor(s) headed northwest. Next, we see the path at Trico Peak about 20 kilometers northwest of Silverton. Trico is ti ir ri ik’ k’o or “see the blade opening the sky beside.” It has a double meaning of “see the Sky person(s) beside opened by the blades.” Sky person would have indicated a Purepecha. The only other Sky people within 500 miles were the Keresan.

Once crossing the pass here, the Purepecha survivor(s) followed the nascent Uncompahgre River, ensuring that they had a fresh water source. Uncompahgre is un k’o om pa ak’ re or “blade of the paddlers on the skin of the bodies of the children.” It is graphic in its recounting of the massacre at Durango. It has a double meaning which matches very closely the account of the archeologists of the massacre, which is “splice the bones.” The spelling of paddler used in the name only could refer to the Serpent people, i.e. the Kakchiquel.

Sixty-five kilometers north of Silverton is Dallas or tal la as or “arrival of those tired of the practice.” With the beginning tala referring to the place of the (bad) practice, Tula. Another 30 kilometers north is Colona or k’o ol lo on ha or “free of the blades of the Na warriors, previously.” It was at this point that the fleeing survivor(s) felt free of the potential pursuing by the Kakchiquel. It has a double meaning of “transport in the river” which seems to indicate the journey here was by canoe.

North of Montrose 15 kilometers is Olathe and then Delta. Olathe is ol la ach che or “turtles handled the tired warriors.” This is likely copying the Keresan name of Olathe (Kansas) when the Keresan were fleeing the Osage warriors 11,000 to 12,000 years earlier. Both the Keresan and the Purepecha were Turtle/Sky people. The route north is not so clear from there, although it is likely the survivor crossed the Colorado River near Grand Junction. From this point on, it is likely that the Ute sent a young person to accompany the survivor all the way to the end of the journey. The path may have been to continue northwest to Vernal, Utah, and then north to Rock Springs, Wyoming. In present-day Utah along the Green River is Manila or ma an nil la or “healing for the tired one(s) running from the badness.” Much further north, before arriving to the Tetons, is Tosi Peak or to os si or “many set down and sacrificed.” The next signs of the Purepecha survivor(s) is next to the Blackfoot Reservation, east of Glacier National Park in northwest Montana, their new home.

Twenty kilometers west of Browning, Montana, center of the Montana Blackfeet, and next to the edge of Glacier National Park is Kiowa, Montana. The Purepecha survivor(s) fled to the Blackfeet because it was sufficiently far from the reach of the Kakchiquel and because the Blackfeet were also Turtle people like the Purepecha. They were cousins. Kiowa, Montana, is the first mention of Kiowa. I think that the name Kiowa implies that there was one lone survivor at Durango and that it was a woman. This is because the name Kiowa has two parts: Ki and Iowa. Ki or “dear one” was usually used to describe a woman or children. In this case, a woman makes more sense.

Iowa was a reference to the place Iowa. As mentioned earlier, it featured prominently in the retreat of the Iroquois and Cherokee from the Osage at the Missouri River near present-day Sioux City in about 10,000 to 11,000 BCE. They were fleeing for their lives. Names there indicate that one small group of Iroquois separated from the rest and fled down the Missouri River, pursued by the Osage. This gave rise to the name Iowa “see the beings free of the warriors.” These Iroquois floated or paddled down the Missouri, down the Mississippi, and then up the Arkansas River, until the junction with the Canadian River about 60 kilometers west of present-day Fort Smith. They paddled up the Canadian River until they passed the present-day border of New Mexico. Here they settled, becoming the Keresan. The Iroquois and by extension the Keresan were Turtle people, like the Purepecha. It seems likely that the Blackfeet and perhaps the healed Purepecha woman made the journey back to New Mexico to find her a Keresan man, the “Iowa” man, who would become the founder of the Kiowa with the survivor Purepecha woman. This explains the name Kiowa.

While the area on the east side of Glacier National Park is clearly Blackfeet, the Blackfeet hosted their cousin(s), the Kiowa, and several names clearly are indicative of the Kiowa. My estimation is that the Kiowa stayed in Montana until the fall of the Toltec in the mid-12^th Century. This would indicate a stay among the Blackfeet of about 350 years. Five kilometers east of Kiowa is the small town of Star. While this appears to be an English name, if it was originally Setar, it would mean “arrival of the slashed.” Twenty-five kilometers southwest of Kiowa is Two Medicine Lake. While the name is in English it could indicate the initial recovery spot of the two Kiowa founders.

Above Two Medicine Lake to the south is Appistoki Peak which is ap pi is to ok’ ki or “movement (to here) of the companion and the dear one who split from the sacrificing swings.” Appistoki Peak and Creek are just a few kilometers east of the continental divide which gives reason for the double meaning of “measure the split,” i.e. the split of the continent’s water. Pitamakan Lake is 25 kilometers west of Kiowa. Pitamakan is pi it ta am mak’ k’a an or “remnant of the companions trapped and received blows from the spiders, relieved to have run.”

Twenty kilometers northwest of Kiowa is Kupunkamint Mountain, which is kur up pu un ka am mi in ni it or “one listened to the spiders’ points cutting up the children of those who blew up the hills of the cats at the beginning.” This indicates the haunting feeling of having to listen to the children being slaughtered, asymmetrical punishment for destroying the hills – the pyramids – of the Maya at Teotihuacan.

Five kilometers to the northwest is Kakitos Mountain. This is k’ak’ k’i it to os or “dear ones set down and sacrificed by the blows of the fire.” The name repeats the use of ki found in Kiowa. The phrase “fire” – k’ak’ – refers to the Kakchiquel. Otokomi Mountain is on the north side of Saint Mary Lake. It is ot to ok’ k’o om mi or “shelter for those who split from the sacrificing of the cats at the foam.” The name has the double meaning of “spliced,” referring to the way the bones were sliced into small pieces at Durango. The name also implicates the Otomi, another member of the Toltec, in the massacre, with oto at the beginning and mi at the end of the name.

Closeby is Matahpi Peak which is ma at ta ap pi or “remnant of the companions swung at by the evil ones from the bath.” From the bath is a reference to the large lake in central Mexico. It has a double meaning of “arrival of the tired ones.” On the south side of Saint Mary Lake is Mahtotopa Mountain or ma at tot to op pa. This translates as “sacrificed by the evil dancers from the bath who tapped on the bodies.” This name implicates the Totonac, the third member of the Toltec, just at Otokomi Mountain implicates the Otomi. The mountains of Glacier National Park make it clear that all three ethnicities that would become the Toltec were involved in the Durango massacre. This was likely the first “military” operation of the Toltec.

Fifty-five kilometers north of Kiowa, Montana, is Apikuni Mountain. It is just north of Lake Sherburne. Apikuni is ap pi ik’ k’un ni or “hill of the Sky companions swung at by the tender.” Tender is an ethnic marker, which dates back to Asia, for the Kiche and Kakchiquel and other Serpent people.

It is interesting that Montana is called the Big Sky Country. While it would appear to be a name given by white settlers, Big Sky, i.e. chic, is an ethnic marker for the Purepecha, one of the two founders of the Kiowa.

Perhaps around 1150 CE the Kiowa moved to eastern Colorado, western Oklahoma and western Texas. Anadarko, Oklahoma, is a current center for the Kiowa. It is an nat tar k’o or “arrival after running from the blades in a distant place.” It shares the syllables of anat with the Canadian River, an important name for the Keresan, one half of the Kiowa founders. In 1833, the Kiowa were camped alongside the Washita River, east of Cooperton. While nearly all the men were out of camp, the Osage attacked the Kiowa women, children, and elderly. It was mass murder. About 150 people died. The Osage are cousins of the Kakchiquel - they are both Serpent people. Ironically, 900 years after the Kakchiquel killed almost everyone in a Purepecha/Kiowa village near Durango, Colorado, the Osage did the same thing in western Oklahoma. This is called the Cutthroat Gap Massacre.

It is likely that the Washita River, named after Wichita, was named following this massacre. It is wa ach chi it ta or “remains of the large turtles from the blows of the beings.” Both “large” and “turtles” were ethnic markers for the Kiowa.

Meanwhile, it was a tradition in the Americas that, after a long journey, a group of people would stay at their destination point rather than return home. This occurred with the Toltec warriors who carried out the massacre at Durango. This provided a benefit for the Toltec in Mexico of expanding their military, political, and cultural reach. This makes it clear that whole families made the journey north from central Mexico, not just warriors.

The purpose of this article is not to say what they did or who they battled in present-day New Mexico and Arizona. Rather, I will identify who they are and where they ended up. The Totonac were the easiest to absorb alongside their neighbors, many of whom were their cousins, like the Ute, Yuman, Apache, Navajo, and Comanche. They became the Hopi, op pi, the “dancing companions.” With a double meaning of “loose ones trapped at the hole.” The hole referred to the Grand Canyon. It is notable that someone sent for the Navajo/Apache, the Hopi’s cousins, from Canada to essentially surround the Hopi to keep them in check – hence the double meaning of their name. The Hopi descend from the long-time leaders of Teotihuacan.

The Cahuilla were the Otomi/Toltec who moved to the Coachella valley after they and all the Toltec in the north were defeated. Cahuilla is kar wi il ha or “see the Source detained at the river.” The Source were the Hopi. The Otomi/Cahuilla saw that the Hopi were detained and instead of becoming detained themselves moved into the desert hundreds of miles to the west. A name that they give for themselves Ivilyuqaletem tells the same story. It is ib bil yuk’ k’al le et ter em or “challenge of the descendants of the paddler spirits to join and be retained at the ridged waterway.” They responded to the challenge, the pressure to join the Hopi at the Colorado River and be retained in the process, by moving to the west to remain free. The Cahuilla name for person is Taxliswet or ta ach li is wet or “neighbors beside, remnant of the Turtles who moved.” This refers to the Tanoan people.

The defeated Kakchiquel/Toltec were forced to live the furthest away from the Colorado River area. On the other hand, they moved to the advantageous Pacific Ocean of the present-day Los Angeles basin. Like the Cahuilla they speak an Uto-Aztecan language which had been common in central Mexico in the 9^th century when they traveled north to massacre the Purepecha at Durango. Tongva is to on ba or “previously sacrificed the body.” This indicates that the Tongva gave up the practice of human sacrifice soon after migrating to the area. Some Tongva call themselves Kizh which is a shortened Kiche, which itself meant “handle the hearts.” Both the Cahuilla and the Tongva are part of the Takic, which is essentially a northern Kakchiquel-Otomi Nahuatl language grouping. Takic is ta ak’ ki’ ik’ or “skinned the remnant of dear Sky people,” with the ki syllable recalling the Kiowa. It has a double meaning of “dry sky” which describes their desert home.

 

[1] Bower, Bruce (6 November 2010). "Massacre at sacred ridge: A violent pueblo incident sparks debate regarding prehistoric genocide". Science News. 178 (10): 22–26. doi:10.1002/scin.5591781023. Retrieved 2 November 2014.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Ridge

The Chupicuaro, key central Mexican culture prior to Teotihuacan

The area around Acambaro and Queretaro, Mexico, became a center for the Purepecha and Otomi in the Pre-Classic era. The settlement of this area northwest of the central valley of Mexico may have started shortly after the Kiche arrived to the west coast of Mexico in 2300 BCE (+/- 200) from El Salvador. The motivation for the Purepecha and Otomi to form a culture there would have been to provide shelter and safety to Kiche women escaping the sacrifice practice of the Kiche. The descendants of these women became known as the Mazahua. These three ethnicities, Purepecha, Otomi, and Mazahua, became the founders of the Chupicuaro culture. The Kiche arrived to Mexico because they were forced out of El Salvador due to the pellagra crisis.

Numerous names provide evidence of this narrative in northern Michoacan, southern Guanajuato, and Queretaro. Chupicuaro is a name of a town in southern Guanajuato and the name of an archeological site now under the water of a reservoir. The name of the Chupicuaro culture was given in modern times based on this site. Chupicuaro is chu up pi ik’ kur ra ar ro or “time of Sky companions listening for the beings, tired of the points, free from the guards.” The phrase “tired of the points” refers both to violence and a sexual connotation. The Sky companions in this region could only be the Purepecha - the next closest Sky people at that time were the Zapoteca. The Purepecha were listening for those freeing themselves from the guards, probably coming up the Lerma River. The name has a double meaning of “observe for the suckers (bees).” The Kiche were long known as bees, going back to the early history recorded in the Popol Vuh. Not only did the Purepecha have to listen for those escaping the Kiche, they had to watch for the Kiche guards trying to take back or kill those who escaped.

The nearby town of Acambaro is consistent. Acambaro is ak’ k’a am bar ro or “boats to free the skin of the beginners from the spiders.” This provides evidence that the Kiche continued the practice of first-born (beginners) sacrifice and that, like in ancient times in El Salvador, it was pregnant Kiche women escaping the Kiche men. The use of boats in the name helps confirm that the Purepecha had boats in the Lerma River waiting to pick up escaping Kiche women to bring them upriver to safety.

The Paredones, a neighborhood of the town of Chupicuaro, tells that the Chupicuaro culture was not just Purepecha.  Paredones is par re et to on ne es or “challenge of the previous sacrificers observing the tail (river) for the boats of the paddlers (Kiche). It uses a spelling for paddler, re, that was used to describe the Kiche. The phrase “previous sacrificers” could refer to several people, such as Chola, Totonac, or Huasteca, but those groups would have more likely used the syllable kon rather than ton. This seems to point to the Otomi in the name Paradones.

The town of Jerecuaro is 25 kilometers northeast of Chupicuaro, with the same suffix, indicating a close relationship between the towns. Jerecuaro is che er re ek wa ar ro, which means “time of handling the women under the stars who freed themselves from the paddler beings.” The spelling of paddler - re - indicates the Kiche. The name - “under the stars” - indicates that the women often escaped at night. It has a double meaning of “spread out to observe,” indicating that the Purepecha were observing various points along the river for the Kiche women.

Tarimoro, Guanajuato, is a town 30 kilometers north of Chupicuaro. It is tar ri im mo or ro and means “time of the remnant free of being trapped and blasted by the men beside.” It also appears to refer to the escaping Kiche women. It has a double meaning of “structure for those arriving.” Structure could refer to temple or pyramid.

The Purepecha also named the Lerma River after the escaping Kiche women. It is le er ma or “others (women) of the bad paddlers.” The Purepecha, who have roots on one side with a group of Cuscatlan along the Lempa River, appear to have named the Lerma River after the Lempa River, which was named, ironically by the Kiche. As already discussed Lempa means “descendants of the corn paddlers” or “paddler descendants of corn.”

The escaping Kiche women impacted the place names (history and culture) of a broader region including Morelia to the southwest and Toluca to the southeast. Morelia is mo or re el li ha or “beside the others (women) on the river, who were trapped by the paddler men.” Toluca is to ol lu uk’ ha or “sadness for the sacrifice of the swimmers in the river by the leaders,” with the tol prefix a reference to the Kiche. Tenango, near Toluca, is te er ren nan k’o or “women to the trees from the bladed paddlers,” indicating that the Kiche women settled in the mountains to try to escape notice of the Kiche men.

Another center of the Chupicaro culture was Santiago Queretaro. The taro suffix is similar to the tar prefix of Tarimoro, linking the two areas. Names in this area convey a similar story about the Kiche women but also indicate that the Otomi were a third group to integrate the Chupicuaro culture. Queretaro is about 80 kilometers northeast of Chupicuaro.

Santiago Queretaro is tza an ti ak’ k’o ok’ k’er re et tar ro, which means “challenge of the arrival of those running from the opening of skin, split from the slashing paddlers along the wetness.” The women split (separated) from the paddlers of the river (Lerma) and arrived at Queretaro because they tired of the sacrifice practice.

Several nearby towns provide a similar meaning. Jurica is chu ur ri ik’ ka or “beginners explain about the guards to the sky people.” The sky (or wind) people were the Purepecha (like the Cuscatlan). Beginners refer to first born Kiche survivors. The name Jurica has a double meaning of “sacred river.” San Pedro Tenango is tza an per re et tar ro ot ten nan k’o or “The challenge of clearing to provide shelter for the harvester women who ran to be free of the blades of the paddlers at the wetness.” The ped or pet syllable is an ethnic marker for the Purepecha. Tenango borrows from Chalatenango and Tenango, El Salvador, which was named prior to the Tenango place names in Mexico. El Vegil is 15 kilometers south of Queretaro. It is el pech chi il or “large orphans see the women,” where women is referring to the Kiche women. Large orphans refers to the Otomi: large corresponds to the Poto woman founder of the Otomi while orphan refers to the Kiche man founder, orphaned on the beach after the tsunami of ~7250 BCE. This helps clarify that the Otomi were present and likely an active part of the Chupicuaro culture.

Many of the neighborhoods in Santiago Queretaro also provide meaning around the Chupicuaro neighborhood. Zenea Gardens or Zenea is tzen ne ha’ or “knowledge of the tails (rivers) and waters (oceans).” The Purepecha were originally ocean sailors and probably never lost the ability to sail as well as to navigate the rivers of Mexico.

Other names reflect the plight of the Kiche women, including Bahamas or ba am ma as - bodies from the bad practice of the spiders. This name recalls the Kiche women and first-born who escaped to Bahamas 6000 to 8000 years earlier.  The name has a double meaning of “tired ones in the boat.” El Rocio neighborhood is el ro os si or in the first language or “many women freed of being set down by the dancer men.” The Kiche were considered dancers, just like the Itza. It has another meaning of “guided on the foam,” referring to the Lerma River. The Bugambilias neighborhood is pu uk’ k’am bil li as or “useful on the waterway for those from beside (Kiche), sad from the cutting up practice.” It has a double meaning of “reeds of the waterway” which seems to indicate that the escaping women would hide in the reeds.

On the south part of Queretaro is a neighborhood called Rincon de Guadalupe. While it sound like it derives from Spanish, Guadalupe was a pre-Hispanic name. I believe the name come from the original language, where it would be ri in k’o on de ek’ wat tal up per. This means “harvesters arriving through the trees under stars beside those who previously sacrificed the first-born, make a home at the hole listening.” The harvesters arriving through the trees would have been the escaping Kiche women. These women formed the ethnicity known as Mazahua. Mazahua is ma as tza wa or “beings from the bad practice at the wetness.” It has a double meaning of “circle,” most likely indicating the guards who tried to prevent women and first born from escaping. The Guadal prefix is shared with Guadalajara, indicating where the women came from. Rincon de Guadalupe has a second ethnic marker from the phrase “swimmers who previously sacrificed the first-born,” which could have referenced the Huasteca or Totonac, but here seems much more likely to refer to the Otomi, who were related to the Mazahua. The Otomi had practiced child sacrifice when they first arrived in Mexico thousands of years earlier but in a confrontation with the Purepecha had stopped the practice. Swimmers would also refer to the Otomi founders who survived a long swim after the ~7250 tsunami. This seems to indicate that the Chupicuaro included the Otomi and Mazahua in addition to the Purepecha, as other names have suggested.

There is a small set of pyramid and temples on the southwest side of Queretaro. There are several names associated with the pyramid and the neighborhood there: de las Ranas, El Cerrito, and Toluquilla. Ranas is ra an na as or “run tired of the practice of the Na.” Na is an ethnic marker for the Kiche and others in their ethnic family that goes back to Asia, ultimately to China. El Cerrito is the most common name for the pyramid near Queretaro. The name seems like it came from Colonial era Spanish, but I would suggest it could be in the original language, where it would be el ser ri it to or “beside the women who were bound and sacrificed by the blows.” This name is consistent with Ranas and indicates that the Chupicuaro were waiting for the Kiche women escaping from being bound and sacrificed along the Pacific coast (Jalisco and Nayarit). Toluquilla is to ol lu uk’ ki il la or “See those sad, tired of the leaders sacrificing the dear ones.” It also refers to the Kiche women as well as the practice of sacrificing first born (the dear ones).” It shares most of its name with Toluca, which may indicate that the Chupicuaro helped escaping Kiche arrive and settle in the mountains above Toluca, 200 kilometer southeast of Queretaro. Toluca is along the upper Lerma River.

Left: By Michel wal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The artwork of the Chupicuaro reveals the Purepecha, Mazahua, and Otomi components of the culture. For example, the ceramic figurine to the left represents the Otomi (400BCE-100CE). The original Otomi were a mix of a Poto woman and a Kiche man, hence the half-and-half nature of the figurine. The legs represent the Poto (Chibchab/Olmeca) woman, the Poto known as chi or large. The painting of the temple structures on the hips shows that the Olmeca were the first to begin to build temples. The upper body and head represent the original Kiche man, who used the red paint on the body. I think that the partial split in the skull represents the sacrifice practice that the Otomi man forced on the Poto woman when they met on the shore of Guerrero. The patterns on the face to me represent snakes. The Kiche were known as serpent people.

Other figurines represent the Mazahua people. The key clue is the eyes. The Kiche, and therefore the Mazahua, had slanted eyes, given their origin in China. There are ceramic figurines from Lago Coatepeque - the original home of the Kiche - with nearly identical eyes (2nd photo below). Directly below, there is a male and female and both could be young children, representing the first born that their mothers saved from the sacrifice practice (500BCE to 0BCE).

y Madman2001 (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Photo by author (2012): Casa Amacuilco collection, Lago Coatepeque.

Finally, the last set of figurines are two women of a very different style than the previous figurines and date from 400BCE to 100BCE. The woman on the left with the slanted eyes probably represents the Mazahua. The woman on the right would represent the Purepecha. With her short hair and earrings, she has a much more modern or urbane sense.

By Lfurter [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

When the Purepecha were first confronted with the challenge of responding to Kiche women running away from the human sacrifice practice, they formed a new culture to respond to the crisis. The new culture, we call Chupicuaro, included the Kiche women and their newborn, who came to be called Masahua, the Purepecha, and the Otomi. The Otomi connection was important because it helped the Chupicuaro have control over much of northern Mexico. In addition, for the moment it kept the Otomi, who were part Kiche, from joining the Kiche’s human sacrifice practice when the Kiche arrived from El Salvador to the west coast of Mexico in about 2300 BCE.

 

Surviving the Tsunami Part 3: The Tlalpaneca, Otomi, Amuzgo, Chatino, and Purepecha

Part 3 in a 5-part series on the tsunami of 7200 BCE in Mesoamerica. Part 1   Part 2

The Tlapaneca

The Kiche’ had extended beyond Lago Coatepeque over the years since their 8200 BCE beginning at the lake, including south toward the ocean and had sailing communities on the Sonsonate coast. Like communities elsewhere on the coast of El Salvador, some were swept out to sea in the tsunami of 7200 BCE and survived. The names on the southwest coast of Sonsonate indicate that there were Kiche’ communities there that also were swept out to sea. Cauta drops the ‘b’ consonant and would be kab bu ut ta or “remains of the hold-in-mouths gashed open.” Kab or "hold-in-mouth" was a designation for the Kiche'. Rio Suncita is su un si it ta and means “remains of many youth in the blowing layer.” It has a second meaning of “foreign,” indicated the belief that the tsunami came from somewhere else. Nearby Monzon is mo on soh on and means “previously trapped, previously the curve (blade),” indicating that it was the source of the Tlapaneca and the first hint that they decided not to continue the human sacrifice practice.

Sonsonate uses a similar structure as Monzon - a rare double on - so on so on nat te, meaning “previously on the curve (wave), previously with the curve (blade), distant on the branches.” It is named specifically for the Tlapaneca people. The Sonsonate River name was a longstanding reminder of hope for all Kiche people that human sacrifice could be a practice of the past. This means that those who named the Sonsonate River did so in defiance of the leaders of the Kiche based at Lago Coatepeque. Also, Tepetoro is tep pet to or ro and means “loose ones sacrificed by the hard crest of the pouring (tide).” It has a double meaning of “free from the sacrificing of the leaders,” indicating that it was named after word was received back from the survivors in Mexico that they didn’t practice sacrifice. Acajutla is ak’ ka ach chu ut la or “tired of the guards who open the skin of the turtle beginners.” Turtle beginners refer to the first born of the pregnant women (turtles). The Kiche’ (Tlapaneca) who left from this area were tired of the sacrifice practice.

This group of Kiche’ survivors who made it to Mexico seem to have arrived near Marquelia, Guerrero, 110 kilometers east of Acapulco. These survivors called themselves Tlapanec: tal la ap pa an ek’ – “tired bodies arrive from swinging on the current under the stars.” The tla prefix in Mexico would become indicative of the Tlapanec. It has a second meaning of “remnant tired of the swinging at the body,” indicating that they quickly decided to stop the human sacrifice practice, as indicated above. Marquelia is mar k’el li ha’ and means “the time of being beside the bad water that gashed.” It also indicates their position next to the Otomi. One kilometer west of Marquelia is Islaltepec. It is is la al te pek’ in Mi and means “time of being tired on hill after moving on the branches,” with a double meaning of “time of moving the tired ones on wood (dug-outs) to the hills.” This indicates that they helped the Otomi women who were escaping.

Copala is k’op pah al lah and means “time of gathering the bodies from the water,” referring to corpses on the shore from the tsunami. Its double meaning refers to helping the escaping Otomi women: “boats for those tired of the teeth (blade).” Cuautepec, a little inland, was meant to sound like Coatepeque, the original home of the Kiche’, and is ka wa ut tep pek’ in Mi and means “hard hills of the beings with openings at the beginning.” Coacoyulichan has coa referring to Coatepeque and coy referring to the chewers, making a clear reference to Lago Coatepeque in El Salvador and the Quiche. K’o ak’ k’oy ul li cha an is “chewers explain about running from the blade and double skin beside,” with a double meaning of “breaking through.” When the Tlapanec decided not to practice human sacrifice it also was a commitment to help those escaping from the practice.

The Tlapaneca seem to have moved to Laguna Chautengo soon after landing at Copala. Laguna Chautengo is distinctive for having two islands near the entrance of the lagoon to the ocean. Chautengo is cha ut ten k’o, which means “clearing on the two teeth at the opening.” “Clearing” has the implied meaning of a person-made living site. The second meaning of Chautengo is consistent with the nickname of the Tlapaneca, which is Yopi or yor ro pi, meaning “companions free of striking.” The name also employs a convention where an unusual syllable like ten is meant to convey extra meanings through the insertion of three “droppable” consonants, the ‘m’, ‘p’, and ‘r’. Undropping them, Ten then becomes temen, tepen, and teren. The extra meanings are “shade (nighttime),” “separate,” “descend,” “wilderness,” “women,” and “paddlers.” All of these refer to Otomi women separating at night paddling in the wilderness of the ocean, occasionally descending. The spelling of paddler, len, makes it clear it is referring to the Poto (female) portion of the Otomi. Maya-related people would spell it lep. At Chautengo the Tlapaneca helped the escaping women to move further east, becoming the Chatino.

The Otomi, part 1

The tsunami scattered people to places they never imagined living and brought people together who would otherwise never be together. Nowhere was this truer than with the Otomi. The Otomi landed near Laguna Coyuca, just west of Acapulco, Mexico. Actually it’s not that simple. The first to land it would seem was a single man from the Kiche’-Cakchiquel communities on the coast of southeast Sonsonate, El Salvador. The name Barra de Coyuca is ba ar ra at te ek’ k’oy yuk k’a in Mi and means “the time of the tired body(ies) on the branches in the bath under the stars, satisfied to the be joining the chewer(s).” The chewer is a clear reference to the Cakchiquel who were the main users of tobacco in early times. But Coyuca was named by the person joining the Cakchiquel man: a Poto woman, with Poto being indicated by other names. Coyuca has a double meaning of “sadness at the beginning,” indicating the mixed feelings of the woman.

The name Chinameca shows up near Acapulco and indicates that the second party to land here was from Olmeka (Poto) heritage. In this context Chinameka is chi in am ek’ ha, meaning “one spidering (swimming) in the large water under the stars.” It indicates one person of Olmeka heritage.

The name Otomi also gives a clue about who the woman was. Otomi is ot to om mi, meaning “shelter for those sacrificed by the cats in the foam (at Isla Tigre),” referring to one of the four groups that left Isla Tigre due to human sacrifice practice. The name Otomi repeats three of the letters of Poto, one of the Chibchab (Olmeka-related) groups in Nicaragua, indicating that it was a Poto person(s) who landed at Coyuca. The mi in Otomi frequently referred to the Maya, i.e. Cakchiquel, indicating that the Otomi were a combination of Poto and Maya.

Nearby on the coast is the name Luces en el Mar, which in Mi is luz tze etz zen hel mar and means “upright one observing the woman with knowledge of swimming in the sea.” The Kiche’ man was standing (already there), impressed that the Poto woman made it. “Upright” may also have a sexual connotation. After the Poto back in Nicaragua heard about this name, likely from a visit, they sarcastically named a place on the Nicaraguan coast Aposentillo, or ap po os sen ti il lo, which means “one set down (swimming) sees person with knowledge of swinging (a blade) and opening a hole (in the body),” implying that all the person could do was human sacrifice. Luces en el Mar helps to confirm that it was a Poto woman and a Cakchiquel man.

Los Mogotes also speaks of the moment when the two parties saw each other. From the Cakchiquel man’s perspective, it is lo os mo ok’ k’o ot te etz in Mi and means “observe the loose one on the branches who had been trapped, set down, of those who had sought shelter from being split open by the blade.” Like the name Otomi, it references those who fled human sacrifice at Isla Tigre. The Otomi were the most ironic of all possible combinations: the descendant of those who first started human sacrifice (Cakchiquel) and the descendant of the first ones to be sacrificed (Olmeka/Poto).

Espinalillo is etz pi in al il li lo and means “time of observing the one loose companion beside who is seeing.” This seems like it might be a name the woman gave when she saw the loose (unattached) man onshore. As she observed him, he observed her. Nearby Conchero seems to be a sexual reference, although not necessarily consensual. It is k’o on che her ro in Mi and means “previously from the tooth handles the loose woman.” “Previously from the tooth” is a reference to Coatepeque Lake with the tooth-like walls, the ancient home of the Kiche’ and Cakchiquel.

Tuncingo, near Acapulco, was probably named by the Poto woman at the time of the awkward moment of having a baby knowing that the Kiche’-Kakchiquel tradition was to sacrifice the first child. Tuncingo is tu un ci in k’o is “corpse of the first child of the tz’i (dog) and the tooth.” A nickname of the Poto (and Xinca) was dogs. The Kiche’-Cakchiquel were known as the teeth. This may have been when the Coyuca name was created, which on the surface is “joined to the chewer at the beginning” but has a second meaning of “with the chewer happy but sad.” Happy she didn’t die alone but sad that her first baby was killed. This may be the origin of the Central American saying, “Que yuca!”

Before the baby was sacrificed near Tuncingo, the Kakchiquel man explained the reasoning behind the practice. This is stated in the name Acapulco. It is ak’ k’ap ul k’o and means “hold-in-mouth explains the tooth (blade) on the skin.” Hold-in-mouth is an expression for the tobacco chewing Cakchiquel.

One name near the coast speaks about the bodies that began to wash ashore. Cobadonga, near Acapulco, is k’ob ba at to on k’ar and means “gather the retained bodies at the bath, those who used to sacrifice.” This indicates that the bodies were coming from the Totonac communities along the La Libertad coast. "Used to sacrifice" was an expression for the Totonac.

Aguacatillo, near Tuncingo, is ak’ wa ak’ k’at ti il lo and means “see the beings free from the opening of the skin cross the covering.” The name indicates that women began to escape along the ocean shore. The k’at syllable in the middle seems to indicate help from Cuscatlano persons, likely from the Amuzgo. Aguacatillo has a prefix -agua- it shares with Nicaragua’s suffix and a suffix -tillo-, like Ocotillo, that it shares with many names in northwest Nicaragua, including Somotillo, Jiquilillo, and Aposentillo. This indicates that Aguacatillo and the presence of the Amuzgo may have given great hope not only to Otomi women but also to Poto back in Nicaragua. Nearby Carabali is k’ar ra ab ba al li and means “time of the being tired of the swinging at the retained bodies beside.” A second meaning is “boat beside stroking.” An Amuzgo boat.

Tixtlancingo is somewhat inland. It is ti ix ta al la an si in k’o in Mi, meaning “the time of the remnant of several first ones moving from the mouth of the fatigued current (Laguna Coyuca) to the teeth (hills).” The phrase “several first ones” is not referring to a large origin group but rather more than one line or lineage. The name then says who those lineages were: the lan, “fatigued current,” a nickname for the Olmeca who lived near the nearly tide-less Gulf of Fonseca (of which the Poto were a part); and the k’o or teeth, the Cakchiquel, as explained above. The name also has a double meaning of “movement of several in the current tired of the opening of the first-born by the blade,” indicating the moment that pregnant women - descendants of the first two Otomi - began to attempt escape by sea.

Ocotillo, east of Tixtlancingo, is near the place of rebellion of the Otomi and seems to indicate the start of the rebellion. It is ok’ k’o ot ti il lo and means “see those sheltered from the opening blade splitting off free.” Like other names it has second meanings referring to the Chibchab and the Cakchiquel. Ocotillo also shares a prefix with Playa Ocosme in Nicaragua where the Poto woman may have been from. It’s not clear which came first but one of the names came after a visit by boat to the other place. Ocosme is ok’ k’o os mer and means “failure of the teeth to split open the one(s) set down,” expressing the lack of trust in the Kiche’-Cakchiquel and surprise that they had not killed the female survivor.

Where did the Cakchiquel side of the Otomi come from? In the southeast part of the Sonsonate coast, Playa Sihuapilapa is si wa ap pi il la pa: “see the swinging bodies of many tired beings.” This name seems to have been created after news came of survivors making it to Mexico because it has a double meaning of “continue in the waterway.” It has a third meaning that indicates it was the source of the Cakchiquel portion of the Otomi people: “companion who saw the Tzi being (Poto woman) who later grew tired of swinging at the body.” The name seems to also be part of the later inspiration for the Toltec name Cihuatan, El Salvador, built by the Otomi and Cakchiquel, as well as the Totonac. Not far from Sihuapilapa is Amatal. Amatal reuses the name of the first entry point of the Mesoamerican people 1400 years earlier, since the original Amatal, 60 kilometers to the east, was memorializing the person(s) who lost their life on the sea journey from South America to Central America. Amatal here is am ma at ta al or “the time of the remains of the spiders (sailors) in the bad bath.” But Amatal also indicated the source of the bad Otomi remnant, those that continued the sacrifice practice, just as Amatal, La Libertad, seemed to indicate the source of the Huave.

The Amuzgo

Among the westernmost of the Cuscatlan (Lempa Maya) remnants in Mexico are the Amuzgo, 260 kilometers west of the Triqui and 470 kilometers west of the Zapoteca, although they did not arrive directly to Guerrero. They first arrived to Oaxaca in the tsunami as either Triqui or Zapoteca, moving later to Guerrero. Coastal names do not indicate an arrival from the tsunami. The coastal town of Barra de Tecoanapa indicates an origin of Tecoluca, El Salvador, which is near where the Zapoteca originated at the mouth of the Lempa River, linking the Amuzgo to the Zapoteca. The name Amuzgo suggests they deliberately moved from Oaxaca to Guerrero as the best sailors among the Zapoteca. It is am mu us k’or – “capable spidering (sailing) transport in the hole (ocean).” It has a double meaning of “teeth” or “blades”, indicating that they were transporting people (pregnant women) escaping from the blades of the Otomi and perhaps the Huave as well. The name was a virtual advertisement to Otomi women - enter the water and we will transport you to safety.

The name Barra de Tecoanapa, Guerrero, indicates it was an early settlement site of the Amuzgo. The Teco prefix matches Tecoluca in San Vicente, El Salvador, along the lower Lempa River. Tecoluca was probably named just after the tsunami so Tecoanapa would have been named after a visit from lower Lempa people. Barra de Tecoanapa is bar ra te ek’ k’o an ap ba and means “boats for those tired of the swinging blade on the body, on wood (dug-outs) under the stars.”

The inland name Quetzalapa is also a reference to San Vicente. Laguna Talquetzal, in the lower Lempa, may have been the first place that the ancestors of the Maya saw a quetzal bird after they arrived from South America. Quetzalapa is kech tz’a al la ap pa, and means “the time of transporting in the wetness those tired of the swinging at the body.” It also has a double meaning: “tired of the swinging at the body by the possessors.”

San Luis Acatlan is san lus sak’ k’at la an and means “search for swimmers crossing the wet current tired of running.” The name contains the suffix lan, the typical expression for the Gulf of Fonseca and the Olmeca lineage, including the Poto women who in part founded the Otomi. The name Igualapa is ik’ wa al lap ha’ and means “time of beings stroking the water in the wind.” But it also seems to show amorous activity between the Otomi women and the Amuzgo. Its double meaning is “time of Ik’ (Amuzgo) and beings rubbing bodies.”

The Amuzgo appear to be responsible for the introduction of cacao to Mexico. Perhaps without the Amuzgo there would be no mole. Cuajinicuilapa is an important cultural name, it is ka wa hin nic wih il ap ba or “beings see satisfying hanging (fruit) food with origin in Jinotega, Nicaragua,” with a double meaning of “for tiredness.” The syllables jinic are a reference to Jinotega, Nicaragua, identified in Chapter 5 as the origin of cacao, along with Matagalpa. While the name could indicate that the Amuzgo found cacao in the wild, other names indicate it was brought by raft from Nicaragua. The Amuzgo were likely growing the cacao back in the lower Lempa before the tsunami. Otherwise the appearance of the cacao here seems quite random. In El Salvador they likely had received the cacao from the Miskito/Matagalpa who had discovered it. The Miskito are from the same lineage as the Amuzgo. The name indicates that the Matagalpa discovered cacao prior to the tsunami (~7220 BCE).

Maldonado is at the shore south of Cuajinicuilapa where the cacao was first brought in. Maldonado is ma al to on nat tob and means “the time of the pods from distant ones whose ancestors were sacrificed by the bad ones.” This would fit the Miskito. It has a double meaning of “sea” indicating how they were brought. San Nicolas is a town halfway between Maldonado and Cuajinicuilapa. San Nicolas – Sanicolach – is tz’a an nik’ k’ol lach and means “the shiny grooved one (cacao pod) from Nicaragua transported on the current.” This name likely also references San Nicolas Lempa in the lower Lempa valley, indicating it was named after a visit from the lower Lempa after the “Lempa” towns had been named.

Two names indicate that it was hard to grow cacao in the hard soil of the Guerrero-Oaxaca border area. San Antonio Tepetlapa is tza an to on ni ot tep et tal ap ha in Mi and means “shelter for the challenge of the hard hills for the shiny swinging one (fruit) arrived by water current from the ones previously sacrificed.” “Shelter” refers to the canopy of shade trees usually grown above the diminutive cacao trees. There is a second meaning of “pouring” referring to the hot water poured over the ground cacao. “The ones previously sacrificed” refers to the Miskito/Matagalpa. Huajintepec is wa hi in te pec and means “first beings sand the plants in the hills.” This seems to indicate that they carried sand up from the beach into the hills to try to loosen the soil. This name also references Jinotega, source of cacao, with the jin syllable.

Further up in the hills is Cacahuatepec. This name deceptively sounds like it is about peanuts but I don’t think it was initially. It is caca wat te pec or “cacao plant(er) makes a home in the hills.” It indicates a move of the Amuzgo cacao grower(s) further inland. The fact that the first four syllables of this place name became the name for peanut - cacahuate - would seem to indicate that it was the same Amuzgo who brought the peanut into Mexico from South America and it was named after this place, in part because the peanut shell, like the cacao, looks like caca. It was likely the Amuzgo communicating with their relatives, the Quechua, that is travelling to Peru, which facilitated the arrival of the peanut to Mexico. These names indicate the important role that the Amuzgo have played in Mexican agriculture.

A second group of Amuzgo seem to have settled even further west toward Acapulco at a lagoon called Tecomate. It means “bad teeth of the foamy ridge, on branches under the stars in the bath,” with a double meaning of “join Teco,” which seems to mean Barra de Tecoanapa. From Tecomate they were in good position to rescue escaping Otomi women and have them join other escaped Otomi at Tecoanapa.

The Chatino

In the first few generations of the Otomi, pregnant women attempted to escape, just like the Huave women did. According to names on the Oaxaca coast, two Otomi women paddled west to the Lagunas de Chacahua National Park along the western coast of Oaxaca, 260 kilometers east of the Otomi near Acapulco. Maybe the first escaped Otomi women, it seems that these two women became the Chatino. Chacahua is cha ak’ ka ap wa in Mi, meaning “two from the swinging at the skin of the beginning beings.” The name also makes reference to Chaac, the rain god, and to “holding in the mouth,” a reference to the Kiche’-Cakchiquel. They were escaping from the wearing of the skin associated with Chaac. The name Chatino also suggests that there were only two women who founded the Chatino: cha at ti in no – “two large ones from the bath where they opened the first ones.” Large ones refer to the Poto Chibchab who were larger people like the Olmeca. Bath ones refer to those originally from Coatepeque (“teeth at the bath”).

[click to enlarge] Very near to Chacahua on the coast is Galera, which is k’al her ra, and means “women tired of the retainings.” Galera is the first evidence that only women were among the Otomi escapee group who would call themselves Chatino. A double meaning of Galera is k’a al her rab, meaning “the time of women satisfied with their stroking (paddling).”

Another name on the coast 10 kilometers west of Galera is El Azufre. It is hel la as su ub ba ar rep and means “time of the similar ones (women) tired of the practice on the surface of the body, paddling while listening.” They listened as they paddled, sneaking away from the men in their community. El Azufre seems to link linguistically with the later Subtiaba, indicating a possible Chatino/Otomi origin for the Subtiaba. Chacaija is next to Chacahua. Chacaija is cha ak’ ka ir cha or “see the two from the double skin of the beginners,” making another reference to Chaac. Two (or double) is in the name twice, making it clear that in one instance it is reiterating that there were only two founders of the Chatino, although they each were likely to be pregnant.

To the east of Chacahua is Zapotalito, which is tz’a ap po ot ta al li to in Mi, meaning “time of shelter for the remnant beside, sacrificed by swinging blows by those from the wet hole.” It has double meanings of “arrival” and “Pot,” indicating that the women were Poto - Chibchab from Nicaragua, like the Otomi female founder. Like some of the other names, it has a second sexual meaning: sap pot tal li it to in Mi, which is “sacrifice ourselves rubbed, pressed by those next to us who arrived.” The Zap prefix indicates that it was the Zapoteca who arrived and found the women and helped them. The women had arrived alone with no partners but a raft arrived giving them hope they would not die alone along with the story of their journey. This may have been the location where the Zapoteca took their name, with its close similarity to Zapotalito.

Inland about 15 kilometers is Chacalapa. It is cha ak’ k’al la ap ba in Mi, “two tired of the swinging at the skin of the retained bodies.” This is another name referring to being tired of Chaac and the double skin ritual. This name might also have a sexual meaning, “time of being tired and happy, two swinging skin bodies.” The double sexual meanings indicate that while the Chatino are mostly Otomi, they might have a mix of Zapoteca as well. The Otomi themselves are a mix of Kiche and Poto (Chibchab).

A place name to the west of Chacalapa is Santa Maria Chicometepec, which is san ta am ma ar ri ach chi ik’ k’o om et tep ek’. This means “the time of the challenge of remnant of large swollen turtles spidering under stars of the sky in the current from the foam beside the bad hard blades.” The remnant is called large because the Poto, like the Chibchab and Olmeca, come in part from the Xibalba, a taller race of people. The bad hard blades are the Otomi guards. The name has a double meaning of “join Ik’ (Zapoteca) in hard hills of the interior.”

The Purepecha

Another Mexican indigenous group has roots in the flood, the Purepecha, like the Otomi and Chatino, partially from Nicaragua. Today’s Purepecha are primarily based in Michoacan. Purepecha is pur rep pech cha, which means “two orphans paddle on the up and down (ocean).” While the two survivors may have been orphaned by the storm, the use of “orphan” in the name is a clear reference to the Chibchab, who used the same name in the aftermath of the earlier human sacrifice episode at Isla Tigre. In addition, the word two could mean a group of survivors from two communities in Nicaragua. The second syllable rep indicates a second origin that is not Chibchab or Olmeka, but rather is from one of the other three lineages (Ch’orti, Kiche, or Cuscatlan). This will be revisited, but first we’ll look at the Nicaragua reference.

Beside the Otomi (female) origin of Chinandega, an examination of the Nicaraguan coast reveals a second location where people were swept out to sea – just west of Leon. San Juan Venado is san wa’ an ben nat toh is “beings sacrificed in the swollen current and lost in the distance.” Distance seems to refer to the Poto women who made it to Guerrero. Rio Telica is beside the town of Poneloya. It is te hel li ik’ k’a and means “women on the branches satisfied to be beside the wind (Ik’).” This name was clearly given after the Nicaragua communities heard about the survivors making it to Mexico. Ik’ seems a clear reference to the Ik’ lineage. The literal meaning “sky” or “wind” doesn’t really fit in the name. Finally, the female reference (hel) – literally “the other” – seems to indicate that all the survivors were women.

Poneloya, on the beach, is po on ne hel lo yar and means “the others (woman/women) formerly from the tail (river) hurled loose into the hole.” “Formerly from the tail” could be a reference to the Telica River. Poneloya also makes a female reference, so clearly it was also named after news of the survivors reached back to Nicaragua.

The names of the Guerrero coastal communities east of the mouth of the Balsas River tell the story of arrival of the Purépecha. They appear to have landed at Los Organos, which is or k’a an no os in Mi, meaning “happy to be set down by the large crest of the current.” Ixtapa may have been one of the first names given. It is ix ta ap ha’ or “remnant moved in the swinging water.”

Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo By Alejandro Linares Garcia (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Some of the bodies of the Sonsonate Kiche seemed to wash ashore near Ixtapa. East of Los Organos is La Majahua or ma cha wa, meaning “two bad beings,” seeming to refer to two bodies in the water. They called them bad because they seemed to recognize them as Kiche’ - those responsible for the sacrifice death of their own ancestors. A little further east is Pantla – pa an tal la or “arrival in the current of the tired bodies.” The ones who got tired in the journey did not make it.

The two women would have grown old and died alone, along with their story and their place names telling of their heroic journey on the ocean and telling of seeing the bodies wash upon the shore, except for what happened next. A sail raft appeared near the present-day town of Valentin. Valentin is bal len ti in and means “paddlers and boat from the first mouth.” Using the syllable len shows that the paddlers (women) were Poto (Chibchab), who like the Olmeca, used len rather than leb for “paddler.” Valentin also says where the boat was from. The first mouth refers to the first large river that the ancestors of the Mesoamerican people, including the Poto women, encountered as they started walking in the first days in El Salvador after arriving from South America: the Lempa River. The boat (raft) was from the mouth of the Lempa, making them Lempa Maya, i.e. Cuscatlan or Ulua, closely related to the Zapoteca. Ironically, the love relationship between the Cuscatlan men and the Poto women began at a place called Valentin.

About 10 kilometers inland from the present-day Zihuatanejo airport is the small village of La Boloncha. This has a double meaning. The first is bo ol lo on cha, which means “the two previously loose on the crest of the hole,” referring to the tsunami. The second meaning is simply two numbers. Bolon means 9 and cha means 2. So Boloncha is “the 9 and the 2,” indicating that there were two women and nine sailors who had arrived on the raft. It is possible that the number 9 (bolon) was named at this time.

But the women also knew that they needed men to survive and have future generations. Two place names indicate that this took care of itself, perhaps one name for each woman. Barra de Potosi is on the coast about 10 kilometers west of Valentin. The name has at least three meanings. The first is ba ar ra te po ot to os si or “The time of being set down tired, finding shelter, many sacrificed bodies in the hole (ocean).” This meaning seems to demonstrate the conversation that the women had with the sailors, telling of their tsunami experience. A second meaning is quite explicit in indicating an amorous relationship: ba ar at tep pot to os si and means “the time of sacrificing ourselves to the many, set down, hard bodies pressing.” The many here simply means plural, i.e. could mean two. The third meaning simply refers to the boat or raft.

The name Potosi, meaning “the Poto dogs (guides),” may have become an indicator of the presence of the Purepecha in Mexico, as well as a possible migration to Bolivia.

A second nearby name, San Jeronimito, refers to the Poto origins of the women who arrived in the tsunami. It is tz’a an che her ro on ni im mi it to and means “handle women loose in the wetness whose ancestors ran from the sacrificial blasts of the cats on the hill.” I believe that “handle women” was an expression for amorous relations.

The Poto women and Cuscatlan men continued to share stories. The women asked what happened on Isla Tigre after their people had fled the human sacrifice practice. This is known from the town of Coacoyul. It is k’o ak’ k’oy ul in Mi, which means “explain the smoking and teeth (blades) on the skin.” They especially wanted to know how the practice of human sacrifice turned out.

But the men also talked about their journey to assess the damage after the tsunami, probably offering help as they went. Their journey was likely deliberate, planned by the Cuscatlan/Ulua leadership. Two names near the coast, Petatlan and Petacalco, indicate that the men had sailed at least as far north as the San Francisco Bay on the Pacific Coast, at least as far north in the Atlantic as the Bahamas and the current state of Georgia, and at least as far south as the Amazon River also on the Atlantic Coast.

The best clue that the names indicate places is atlan in Petatlan. Atlan is a very Mesoamerican construction, similar to the itlan used by the Xinca in Guatemala. Atlan is most well-known for being part of the name Atlanta in Georgia and the fabled Atlantis. The Bahamas had a specific condition – it was sinking, and the Maya (Cuscatlan more likely) had helped to figure this out. The construction of Atlantis describes this: at la an ti is or “fatigued current of the bath, movement to the opening.” What had been land previously, was slowly sinking so that it was at some point, a fatigued current (very shallow waters). The “movement to the opening” is somewhat vague but I believe it refers to the Bermuda Triangle.

The Arawak who lived spread out in the Bahamas were very affected by the tsunami. At least some survived and floated and paddled on the current until reaching the coast of Florida from Miami up to Georgia. To indicate where they came from they named a place Atlantis in today’s Palm Beach County and another place Atlanta in Georgia (which means “remnant of Atlan”). Atlan in Petatlan refers to the remnants of the Arawak originally from the Bahamas, spread out by the tsunami to Florida and Georgia. Now called the Timucua. Petatlan indicates that the raft of nine men went to help the Arawak-Timucua survivors.

The Peta in Petatlan is a rare prefix in the Americas. The only coastal place where it shows up is Petaluma, California, north of current-day San Francisco. Most of the indigenous names in the San Francisco area relate to the tsunami, indicating serious effects there. One of the most dramatic and beautiful names in the area is Petaluma, meaning “arrival of the bad pouring (tide) over land,” describing the tsunami waters coming up the Petaluma valley. The San Francisco area had a direct connection with the Cuscatlan who had arranged for various ethnicities to settle there, including the Miwok who settled in Petaluma, a few hundred years before the tsunami. This is indicated by the two examples of the name California in the lower Lempa area. The name Petaluma both indicates the range of the sailing journey of the nine Cuscatlan men on the raft, but also acknowledges their Miwok relatives who suffered greatly in the tsunami. The name Petatlan helps to make this connection.

Petacalco repeats the Peta prefix, emphasizing its usage as a literary device. Like atlan and peta, calco is an unusual prefix or suffix within a place name in the Americas. The only Calco prefix along the coasts is Calcoene, Brasil, not far north of the Amazon River. Calcoene is k’al k’o ol len ne in Mi. It means “teeth (stones) for the tail (river) paddlers retained by the crest.” I think that river paddlers refers to people who lived along the Amazon River and were swept out to sea and washed ashore near Calcoene. Calcoene might seem like a random reference until one considers that the archeological site known as the Stonehenge of the Amazon resides there. While the stones are thought to be from a couple thousands ago, the seeming reference to the stones in Petacalco would indicate that they were placed soon after the 7220 BCE tsunami. The site is called Cromlech. In Mi this would be k’ar ro om lech and means “retained in the foam, freed, then climbed up.” One or more persons were trapped under water and where able to free themselves to get to the surface. Based on the name Petacalco the raft of nine Cuscatlan men were able to travel this far to help out after the tsunami.

By Yurileveratto (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There are several place names that indicate that two of the men who traveled to North and South America and the two women began a life that was the start of the Purepecha people. East of Valentin and ten kilometers off the coast is the village of Cacanicua. It is k’ak’ ka an nik wa’ in Mi and means “ran from the shaking fire beings at the beginning.” The shaking fire beings were the ones lighting up and smoking tobacco on Isla Tigre or shaking when they didn’t have tobacco. The name Cacanicua is also a clear reference to Nicaragua, their place of origin. This name helps to establish that Nicaragua was named by its first residents soon after they left Isla Tigre in about 8250 BCE. The name also makes a reference to Ik’, an identifier of the Cuscatlan-Ulua people who made up the male component of the Purepecha.

El Parotal and La Parotita are 10 to 20 kilometers inland and seemed to be named for each other. El Parotal is par ro ot tal in Mi and means “shelter for the one(s) who arrived in a boat and the loose one(s).” It seems to be the site of one (or two) of the first houses of the new Purepecha families. The name emphasizes again the unattached status of the women who probably lost partners in the tsunami. La Parotita is almost the same: par ro ot ti it ta, meaning “shelter for the loose one(s) and the remnant from the blowing (sail) boats from the mouth.” This name indicates that only a portion of the men stayed (likely two) and that the men came from the river mouth (Lempa) or upstream from there.

It was probably sometime after this first generation settled in the hills that the place Zihuatanejo was named on the coast. Zihuatanejo is si wat ta an ne ho in Mi or “several happy remnants make a home on current of the tail (river),” with a double meaning of “interior.” The several remnants simply mean the two lineages (Poto, related to the Olmeca, and the Cuscatlan or Ulua, related to the Zapoteca).

About 70 kilometers southeast of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo is Coyuquilla – there are several nearby places with this name. Without a doubt Coyuqilla is referencing Barra de Coyuca near Acapulco and the early home of the Otomi. It is k’oy yuk’ ki il la, which means “see the dear ones who had been joined to the chewers.” It seems to indicate seeing for the first time the Otomi women, or an Otomi woman, escaping from the Otomi men, because of the first-born sacrifice practice. The syllable koy or “chewer” refers to the Kiche, the original male component of the Otomi. The name has a double meaning of “sadness.”

Several other names in this area have a double meaning: on the one hand referring to the Kiche bodies washing ashore from El Salvador soon after the tsunami, but also many years later to the arrival of the escaping pregnant women from the Otomi.

• Papanoa or pa ap an no ha: “swinging bodies in the current of the big water.” It also refers to women escaping the Otomi: “large ones running, tired of the leaders who swing at the body.” The Poto were known as larger people due to their partial Xibalba heritage.
• Loma Bonita or lo om ma ab bo on ni ta: “loose remains in the foam of those whose ancestors were bad on the hill by the hole.” This refers to the volcano on Isla Tigre where the human sacrifices took place. “Those whose ancestors were bad” would be the Kiche. The second meaning is “remnant free from the bad ones who swung (a blade) up on the hill at the foamy hole” - also referring to Isla Tigre and the Poto who escaped.
• El Tular or hel tu ul la ar: “the time of the women who explain being tired of the corpses.” While this meaning is clear, the name is also a clear reference to Tulan, the ancient place on Isla Tigre, the Poto’s last reference point for those who would become the Kiche’ Maya.
• San Luis de la Loma (next to El Tular) or tza’ an lus te hel la al lo om ma: “women swimmers on branches in the wet foamy current, tired of the badness, free.” Some of the women (or at least one) escaping the Otomi swam all the way from Acapulco on branches, 110 kilometers. The lal syllable is an indicator for the Kiche, another clue this name involves the Otomi.
• San Luis San Pedro or san lus tz’a an pet tar ro: “arrival of the swimmers running to be free in the swollen pouring (tide).” The swimmers were the Otomi women escaping by swimming on branches. The name has a double meaning of “arrived to the Pet,” a syllable denoting the Cuscatlan, the male lineage of the Purepecha.
• Acapulquito or ak’ ka ap pu ul ki it to: “explain about beginners cut open with blow to skin to sacrifice heart.” “Beginners” refers to the first born who were sacrificed by tradition by the Kiche’. This name was clearly named after Acapulco, 110 kilometers to the southeast, an early home of the Otomi.

The various ethnicities in Mexico likely travelled back to El Salvador for corn seed stock, hybridizing it with the teosinte found in Mexico. The Purepecha may have been leaders in this process. Corn dated from 6700 to 7200 BCE was found in the Balsas valley, an area near the border of Michoacan, Guerrero and Mexico state. While this is closer to the Otomi landing location, the Purepecha landed near the mouth of the Balsas River and were much more likely to have reached this location near the Balsas River by 7200 BCE - the ancient Mesoamericans seemed to travel faster by river than over land. This area is within the current natural range of balsas teosinte and the Purepecha would have been capable of hybridizing corn from teosinte, given their knowledge base from El Salvador. It appears that they soon shared the hybridized corn with the Zapoteca in the area of Tehuacan, Puebla, where remnants of Balsas corn have also been found. The Purepecha and the Zapoteca were from the same lineage (on the male side of the Purepecha). It was necessary to continue hybridizing corn with teosinte to make it more drought and weed resistant and a stronger plant. By 7200 BCE it is possible that the range of balsas teosinte had shifted definitively northwest from Central America to southwest Mexico.

The name of the central Mexico volcano Popocatepetl indicates that the Purepecha traveled early to the region of the central valley of Mexico. Popocatepetl is pop (baking) po ok’ k’at tep pet ta al and means “the time of crossing to the baked residue from the hard split open pouring through hole.” Crossing refers to the move from the Pacific Ocean to central Mexico. Popocatepetl has two cultural markers for the Ik’ lineage, k’at and pet, indicating that it was likely named by the Purepecha, since pet is a syllable specific to the Purepecha and Ulua. The Choluteca named nearby Iztaccihuatl Mountain and Cholula. The phrase popo apparently was used later to indicate explosives, likening the gunpowder explosion to the volcanic eruption. This is seen in the name Popoluca and in the name of the Quiche history Popol Vu, which indicates the defeat of the Olmeca, some of the foremost explosive workers.

The names of the deities of the Purépecha are translatable using Mi. One deity is Kurikaweri and is the sky god, the god of war and the sun. It is k’ur ri ik’ k’a wer ri and means “satisfying beside-each-other points in the sky beside the rip (lake),” referring to the triple star event (points beside each other) of 8208 BCE, described in Chapter 3. But in the case of the Poto side of the Purepecha, they were likely beside Lake Managua not on Isla Tigre. The double “beside” in the name is probably meant to describe the three planets right next to each other. A second meaning of the name is quite sexual, describing the arrival of the Lempa Maya and a sexual partner: k’ur Ik’ ka wer ri is “point (penis) of Ik’ (lineage name) beside the tear of the woman/women at the beginning.” A third meaning of this name might come from Africa, meaning “points (spears) beside Ik’ at the beginning beside the rips (Great Lakes of Africa).” The Mesoamerican people seemed to recognize Ik’ (Sky) as the name of one of the leaders as early humans moved out of Africa to escape repression.

A second deity is Kwerawaperi and she is the creator and mother earth goddess. Kwerawaperi refers to the difficult journey that the two women made watching the people around them tire and die along the way. It is ka we her ra wa ap per ri and means “beings tired and collapsing in the swinging beside the flesh of other (female) at the beginning.” A second meaning also refers to Africa, like the first deity name, ka wer ra wa ap per ri: “beings tired of the collapsed ones from the swinging at the beginning beside the rips (Great Lakes of Africa).” The use of the syllable wer (“tear”) is rare in the Americas, while commonly used to describe the Great Lakes of Africa region. A third meaning of this name is “beings tired of the swings at the collapsed being (just born) at the side” which could refer both to the escaping Otomi women and what occurred earlier on Isla Tigre.

A third deity, Xaratenga, is the offspring of the first two and represents the west, perhaps indicating that it was the offspring who moved west and north to present day Michoacan. Xaratenga is the goddess of the sea and the moon and is cha ar ra at ten k'a in Mi. This means "time of the two (families) tired and happy to make a clearing at the bath." The structure of the name suggests that the two men who in part founded the Purepecha were from upriver on the Lempa River in Chalatenango. Xaratenga could also be written or pronounced as Chalatenga, a very similar sound as Chalatenango.

In fact, the name Potonico in Chalatenango indicates it was the source of the men who sailed throughout the Americas and then close to shore in Guerrero, finding the Poto women and staying there to found the Purepecha. Potonico is po ot to on ni ik’ k’or or “wind transport to those sheltered from the hole (ocean) whose ancestors were sacrificed on the hill (Isla Tigre volcano).” Embedded in the name are the phrases Poto (the ethnicity of the women they found), nic for Nicaragua (where the women were from), and Ik’ for their own lineage. The men would have been Ulua, closely related to the Cuscatlan.

Four other names in El Salvador, in Cuscatlan department, also speak about the events of the Ulua-Cuscatlan raft encountering the two Poto women. While two Potonico men stayed to found the Purepecha, it appears that at least some of the other members of the raft lived about 30 kilometers south of Potonico in the current-day department of Cuscatlan:

• Santa Cruz Michapa - tz’a an ta ak’ ruz mi cha ap ba - “two swimmers in the wetness from the remnant that ran from the Mi swinging at the skin of the body.” Mi refers to the Maya who started human sacrifice on Isla Tigre; the Chibchab (Poto) were one of four groups that ran. Two double meanings are “Ik’” - the Ulua who found the two swimmers and “Mich” referring to Michoacan and mining. It seems that the northwest coast of Guerrero was originally considered part of Michoacan.
• Tepechapa - te pech cha ap ha - “the two orphans on branches on the swinging water.” The clear use of orphans here is a clear marker for the Poto women. Only the Poto and Chibchab were called orphans.
• Tenancingo - te nan tzi in k’o - “dog women on branches, first in the blade.” Dog (Tzi) women was an expression for the various Olmeca ethnic groups, like the Poto because they were the first to take the place of dogs as sacrifice objects by the Kakchiquel and others, i.e. the first in the blade. Tenango has a similar meaning.
• San Pedro Perulapan - san pet tar ro per ul ap pa an - “explain (to Peru) the arrival to the loose collapsed bodies in the pouring (tidal), swollen, swinging current.” The positioning of Peru in the name is clear. The Cuscatlan-Ulua made a trip to Peru after the tsunami to see how people were, sometime after their encounter with the Poto (Purepecha) women. The neighboring town of San Bartolome Perulapia appears to have been named in the post-Classic period over 8200 years later. Its meaning fits events of that period in Peru much more than the post-tsunami time period. But a similarly structured name was used to link the two events.

The Otomi, part 2

Guerrero is named for the early Otomi. It is k’er her ro and has a double meaning. First, describing the Poto women who survived the tsunami: “loose and cut up others (women).” Guerrero indicates that the Poto survivor(s) was female. Loose has a double meaning – first, they were loose in the water and they were without men. Second, it describes the liberation of the Otomi women from the sacrifice regime of the Otomi men. In this context, Guerrero means “women free of the gashing.” This section tells the story of the liberation of the Otomi women.

As generations passed, the Otomi children (i.e. those not first-born) likely heard the narrative of both the Poto side and the Kiche side, creating a type of schizophrenia. During the first several generations, several pregnant women successfully left the Otomi, as evidenced by the Chatino and the name Coyuquilla in the Purepecha area. The practice of the first-born child sacrifice seems to have continued among the Otomi until a rebellion broke out, at Xaltianguis, 30 kilometers north of Acapulco. Xaltianguis is cha al ti an k’i is and means “time of the movement of the two who ran from opening of the heart.” This name presages the name Chalatenango, highlighting who would come to help. The two rebels from human sacrifice, most likely pregnant women, ran north more or less along the present-day highway from Acapulco to Chilpancingo. No doubt these were not the first pregnant women to try to escape the bad practice by running into the mountains. But what followed was unique.

Solapa is a little north: so ol la ap pa – “tired of the leaders who swing the curve at the body.” Curve refers to a blade. A double meaning is tz’ol, meaning “story,” indicating the beginning of names that would tell the story and also linking to the Ch’orti’ phrase tz’olkin - “story of the first dear ones (first-born).” Omitlan, 20 kilometers northeast, is om mi it la an and means “tired of running from the blows of the cats from the foam.” The lan suffix indicates it was the Poto (Olmeca) heritage that ran. Foam is likely a reference back to Lago Coatepeque but also in this context could indicate bloody. Omitlan is both a town name and the name of the downstream portion of the Papagayo River, which leads to a double meaning of “cats from the blowing foam.” It indicates the sailing path taken a little later by a group that would help out the rebels.

Moving north, Palo Gordo is pa al lo ok’ k’o or to and means “time of being free of the leaders splitting the body with the blade sacrifice.” It has a double meaning of “boats of the transporters,” referring again to those who came to help. Tierra Colorado is ti her ra ak’ k’o ol lo or ra to and means “crest (hill) of the women tired of the opening of the skin, loose ones tired of the sacrifices of the leaders’ blades.”

Garrapata, a nearby village, suggests that the Otomi rebels were captured. It is k’ar ra ap pa ta or “remnant that is tired of the swinging at the body is retained,” with double meaning, k’ar rap pat ta, or “retained ones rub the pod (large belly)” (as they descended). Nearby is where the Tehuacalco archeological site is located. It is te wa ak’ k’al k’o, or “blade-on-skins retain the beings in wood (cage)” Tehua at the beginning of the name makes it clear that it was the Purepecha men who came to aid the Otomi rebels, with a similar sound as Tehuacan, their original home. “Blade-on-skins” refer to the Otomi (Kiche) pursuers. The Purepecha assisted the Otomi rebels who were retained in some sort of wooden cage. The archeological site was a memorial both to the Otomi rebels retained in the fight to end human sacrifice among the Otomi and their rescuers, the Purepecha.

There are several Cuauhtemoc references in Acapulco and Chilpancingo. The origin of this Mexican heritage name seems to be here. Cuauhtemoc is k’a wa’ ut te’ em mo’ ok’ and means “break the small opening in the wood, trapped beings descend satisfactorily.” Perhaps the wooden cages had been placed up in a tree; in any case, the Purepecha were able to help the Otomi rebels break free from the cage.

Ocotito is where some of the remnant Otomi sought shelter. It is ok’ k’o ot ti it toh or “shelter for those who split from the blade opening sacrificers.” It uses the Oco prefix to play off of Playa Ocosme in Chinandega, Nicaragua, where the Otomi women were from. Ocosme is ok’ k’o os mer and means “blader (Kiche) failed to split open the one who set down,” saying a little sarcastically that when the woman arrived she wasn’t immediately killed. Ocotito is suggesting that Ocosme isn’t true anymore – they are willing to kill the ones who they set down. It also has a double meaning of k’ot or “arrival.” Cajelitos, five kilometers north of Ocotito, indicates that one (or more) of the Otomi rebel women was killed by the Otomi men. Cajelitos is k’a ach che hel li it to os, meaning “sacrificers handle turtle woman with blows; woman who was beside them at the beginning.” Turtle woman indicates a pregnant woman. This would mean a young woman pregnant with her first child; the child destined to be sacrificed according to Otomi/Kiche tradition. The young woman ran to save her unborn child. It probably wasn’t the same woman who arrived on the shore from Nicaragua but rather a later generation.

Acahuizotla indicates that those escaping from the blades sought shelter here. It is ak’ k’ap witz so ot la and means “shelter mountain for those tired of the curve to the skin by the hold-in-mouth.” Curve is another word for the cutting blade. Hold-in-mouth refers to the chewing tobacco used by the Kiche. The name has a double meaning of “movement of the origin,” referring to the first-born.

North a little and up in the hills is Chacotla. It is describing what happened below in Palo Blanco. It is cha ak’ k’ot la and means “arrival of the two-skins to those tired (of the two-skins).” The Chaac (two-skin) sacrifice is where the skin is peeled off of the sacrificed person and worn by the shaman. Chacotla has a double meaning of “shelter from the blades,” which seems to say that the families of the Otomi rebels were sheltered there. In the valley, Palo Blanco indicates the place where the Otomi leaders were killed by the Otomi rebels and Purepecha. It is pa al lo bel la an k’o and means “time of the collapse of the bodies by those tired of and free of the blades.” The syllables pal (boat) and lan (tired current) are associated with the Purepecha and the Poto, respectively, indicating that both the Purepecha and the Otomi rebels were involved.

Then, moving further north toward Chilpancingo, one arrives to Mazatlan, the most important name in this tz’ol (story). It is ma as sat ta al la an, which means “time of the disappearance among the remnant of the bad practice, tired of running.” It indicates where the Otomi decided to forego the practice of human sacrifice, with the proponents dead at Palo Blanco. It also references the masa, first used to describe those who ran from human sacrifice at Coatepeque in El Salvador, intimating that the Otomi had now become masa or deer. Lan is a cultural indicator which here indicates that the Poto side of the family was responsible for ending the practice. The name Aztlan later derives from Mazatlan. A name present in Mazatlan, as well as nearby Chilpancingo, is Tulipanes, which comes from this era. It is tul li ip pa an ne es and means “runners observe the body-spirits of the Tul beside the tail (river).” Tul refers to the Kiche, with a reference to Tulan (Isla Tigre).

A little north is Petaquillas or pet ta ak’ ki il la as, meaning “remnant of the pouring (pet) see those tired of the practice of the skin of the heart." The Pet prefix is a reference to the Purepecha and to Petatlan, indicating that the Purepecha had assisted the Otomi rebels. In Chilpancingo is Barrio San Agustin, which is san ak’ k’us ti in, or “birth of the first of the swollen one who ran from the opening of the skin.” One pregnant woman, who had fled, gave birth to her first child, free from the bad practice, her child lived. A new Otomi culture, free of the practice of human sacrifice, was born. The name refers to Cuscatlan as well, the heritage of the male-side of the Purepecha who assisted.

 

Surviving the Tsunami Part 2: the Huave, Zapoteca, Mixteca, Triqui, and Choluteca

Paddling on Branches in the Ocean under the Stars

The most important event in the ancient history of Mesoamerica was the tsunami which occurred in about 7220 BCE, caused by the bursting of a massive post ice age lake in Canada.

There were at least six groups that were washed out to sea and then floated and paddled from El Salvador to Mexico, following the water currents, after the tsunami: the Huave, the Zapoteca, the Triqui, Choluteca/Itza, Tlapanec, and Otomi (one part), and two groups that survived from Nicaragua to Mexico, the Otomi (other part) and Purepecha (one part). The water current flows from Nicaragua and El Salvador toward Mexico during the rainy season from May 1 to October 31 each year. Three other groups paddled from one of these original Mexican locations to a nearby place on the coast: the Mixteca, the Amuzgo, and the Chatino. All of the names that they took describe the tragic story of the tsunami. Most of these groups had a major impact on the history of Mexico. In addition there were two groups that survived the tsunami and paddled on the Atlantic from Central America: the Tunica and the Mopan. The story begins with the Zapoteca and the Huave.

The Zapoteca and the Huave

The Huave were likely the first people to land in Mexico from El Salvador, having been washed offshore by the tsunami. Various names indicate that they were Totonac from coastal present-day La Libertad. Probably several hundred years before the tsunami the Totonac had given up the human sacrifice practice. But for some reason - religious or power - the small group of Totonac who paddled in the ocean toward eastern Oaxaca decided when they landed to reintroduce first-born child sacrifice. Their name explains: Huave is wa ap per and means “beings who swing at the collapsed (newborns).”

It seems it was the Huave who named Oaxaca, or wa as tza ak’ ka, meaning “beings who practice on the skin of the beginners (newborn) at the wetness (the Laguna Superior).” The ‘x’ in Oaxaca likely had an ‘s’ sound. A ‘ch’ sound also refers to newborn sacrifice: wa ach cha ak’ ha or “double skin from the turtle beings at the water,” with double skin referring to wearing the peeled skin of the sacrifice victim. And turtle is an expression for pregnant woman. Oaxaca with the ‘x’ sounding like an ‘h’, as it is most commonly stated today, does not have a good translation with Mi.

Within a few days or weeks, the Cuscatlan (Zapoteca) survivors landed at the very same place as the Huave - they started from a more easterly point so it would have taken them longer to arrive. The Zapoteca would have heard the names Huave and Oaxaca and have known exactly what was going on and would have been horrified. They would have been living about 100 kilometers from the Totonac-Huave in El Salvador and likely knew them.

Like the others, the Zapoteca ancestors still spoke Mi when the tragedy happened. Zapoteca is tz’a ap pot te’ ek’ ha’ and means “pressed by the swinging wetness on branches under the stars in the water.” They survived on branches out in the ocean, the ocean current took them west-northwest and they paddled to move closer to shore until they landed at present-day eastern Oaxaca. Like the name Tecoluca, Zapoteca mentions navigating or being under the stars, and references the lineage name Ehecatl, leader of the migration from Chile to El Salvador about 1400 years before. This reference links the Zapoteca to the Tecoluca-Lower Lempa area of El Salvador and with the Ik’ (Ehecatl) lineage.

The name Zapoteca has a double meaning meant specifically for the Huave people: “shelter by wood (dugout) under the stars for the swung-at beginners (newborn) at the hole (Laguna Superior).” Not only did the Zapoteca name let the Huave know that they would be there to support them if they escaped but also told them the best way to escape - by canoe along the coast at night. This simple but clear invitation to Huave pregnant women existed for the thousands of years that the Zapoteca lived alongside the sacrifice-practicing Huave. No wonder that the Huave male leaders had so much enmity for the Zapoteca.

Salina Cruz is located near the ocean at the western edge of Laguna Superior, perhaps where the Zapoteca landed. It is sal li in nak’ k’er rus and means “beside the swimmers in the wall who gash the first sperm (firstborn).” This name indicates that the Huave decided from the beginning to practice sacrifice.

Further to the west, Tehuantepec is te’ wa an tep ek’ and means “beings on the hard logs in the current under the stars.” This name recalls the cultural name Tehuacan, El Salvador, where the Zapoteca had come from, making it clear that the Zapoteca, not the Huave, named this place. The double meaning here is te uh an tep pek or “those of the sacred plant (corn) run to the hard hills” - running away from the Huave.

While Tehuantepec talks about the floating journey to Oaxaca, Juchitan de Zaragoza, north of Tehuantepec, looks back at those who died in present-day El Salvador. This name also links Tehuacan, in the lower Lempa of El Salvador, with these tsunami survivors. It is an indicator that the name Tehuacan, El Salvador, came before the name Tehuacan, Puebla. Juchitan is huch’ ch’i’h it ta’ an and means “large blow of current pressed the remnant,” with remnant or remainder referring to those who didn’t make it to Oaxaca. Juchitan has a similar sound as Ojushtada, with both using the uncommon syllable huch’, indicating that the Cuscatlan in El Salvador likely named Ojushtada after they had visited Juchitan. Zaragoza was used by the Zapoteca to identify for others the ethnicity of the Huave, since Zaragoza refers back to Zaragoza in the present-day day department of La Libertad of El Salvador, where the Totonac were based. In this context Zaragoza is tza ar ra ak’ k’o os ha’ and means “tired of blades on skin on those set down at the water by the wall.” The Zapoteca left the lagoon area because they were tired of the sacrifice practice.

A little to the north, the town of Ixtepec Oaxaca is at the base of the mountains that lead to Oaxaca City. It is ix tep pek’ Oaxaca and means “moving to the hard hills, from the Oaxaca.” Oaxaca refers to the Huave. A double meaning of Ixtepec is “separate and move in the trees under the stars,” indicating that they snuck away at night, likely at risk of death.

One hundred sixty kilometers west of Ixtepec Oaxaca is Miahuatlan, which is mi ar wat la an and means “time of the cats from the fatigued current to make a home.” This may be the first place that the Zapoteca survivors settled upon arriving to the Oaxaca valley. The ending syllable lan or “fatigued current” is the same as that often used to describe the Gulf of Fonseca. But here it is referencing the Laguna Superior and is not meant to suggest that the Oaxaca people were of the same lineage as the Gulf of Fonseca people (Olmeca/Lenca/Anahuac). The hidden ‘r’ after ‘Mia’ could also be a hidden ‘p’, giving a meaning of “run to make a home, tired of the swinging of the cats (Huave),” which indicates that not only were the Huave practicing sacrifice but also were violently opposing those who challenged their sacrifice practice, like the Zapoteca.

Names on the north and west side of the lagoon are likely Huave names or were named by those who escaped from the Huave. Just like the Ch’orti’ earlier in Central America, the pregnant women of the Huave began to flee the first-born sacrifice practice, first going by canoe along the coast and later going to the hills to the northeast of the coastal lagoons. Santiago Niltepec is san ti ak’ k’o on ni il te’ pek and means “previously at the mouth, covered by the biting swelling, saw the knobby hills and trees.” It has a double meaning of “healing plant for skin,” indicating they found a healing plant. It has a third meaning of “run from the blades opening skin by wood on the wetness and trees to the hills.” This name was named by those running from the Huave and refers to escaping by canoe on the water or running through the trees to the hills to the north. It also has a meaning of "previously putting blade on skin" which refers to the Totonac who earlier had practiced human sacrifice but then stopped that practice before the tsunami.

San Francisco Ixhuatan is san ber ra an si ix k’o ix wa’ ta’ an in Mi and means “movement of beings tired of the blade on the collapsed, remnant running movement from the wetness of the fatigued current." It has a double meaning of "make a home in the interior.” This name speaks of the remnant of escaped Huave women who ran to Chiapas and became called Mocho. Ran is a cultural indicator for the Olmeca, suggesting that the San Francisco portion of the name was added after the Olmeca arrived along the Gulf Coast and Chiapas in about 1600 BCE, when the Olmeca began to assist the escaping Huave women.

The next town north is Reforma de Pineda. Using the whole name provides rep po or ma te hep pi in ne eht ta or “challenge of paddling from the bad leaders, remnant of the treed separated tailed first ones.” “Tailed first ones” refers to the firstborn who still were attached by the umbilical cord. This that after some time it became impossible for the Huave pregnant to escape by water toward the western Oaxaca coast and instead began to run by land to the north into the mountains, given the double meaning of “separating by the trees.

Xocotepec on the north coast of the Laguna Occidental, the lagoon to the east of Laguna Superior-Inferior, also speaks of the escaping Huave women. The obvious meaning of Xocotepec is cho ok’ k’o ot tep pek or “shelter in the hard hills for those splitting from the blades of the reputed ones (Huave - Totonac Ch’orti’) for the hard hills.” The name indicated to escaping women that Xocotepec was a place to go up to the hills. The Xoco- prefix was meant to mimic the Joco- prefix of Jocotan, Guatemala. And similar to Jocotan, Xocotepec had a hidden pronunciation. Like the ‘x’ used in much of Mexico, the ‘x’ here had a second pronunciation, a ‘z’. The hidden Zok prefix of Xocotepec refers to the Mixe-Zoque or Olmeca, which let women know that the Olmeca would shelter them in the hills, but in the more distance mountains of the Central Highlands rather than the coastal range. This would have been more than 5,000 years after the tsunami, after the Olmeca arrived from Central America.

Santo Domingo Zanatepec or san to om mi in k’o tza an aht tep ek’, which means “first ones sacrificed by the teeth of the swollen bath, cats in current of foamy wetness on hard pieces under the stars,” describing both those who perished and the journey on the hard branches. It also has a double meaning referencing the Huave women who ran up to the hills from here: “cats’ blades sacrificing first ones at the foamy wetness, run to the hard distant hills.” Inserting the adjective far into the meaning informed women to run to the more distant mountains.

The lagoon southeast of the Laguna Occidental is Laguna La Joya or la ach cho ya, meaning “turtles (pregnant women) tired of the pain of the Cho (Huave).” A double meaning is lach or “strip,” telling women to use the strip of islands on the south part of the lagoon for cover. These islands will be covered later. Cabeza de Toro is on the east coast of Laguna La Joya. It is k’ar ra ab etz tza at te eht to or ro and means “challenge of those tired of the swinging, observe the bath and trees to retain those freeing themselves of the sacrifice demanded by the leaders.” This place was named by the Huave as they watched the lagoon for women who tried to escape. It has a double meaning of “disappearance.” The women who did disappear called themselves Mocho, mo och cho or “trapped by the reputed ones at the entrance (Laguna Superior).”

The Huave likely originated from the Playa San Diego area east of present-day Puerto La Libertad. The name Playa Toluca, site of the ancient sailing stones from the journey from Chile, appears to be referring to the Huave. It is to ol uk' ka and means "sadness for the beginners (first-born) sacrificed by the leaders." The name Toluca is very similar to Tecoluca, indicating that it was the Cuscatlan, sister people of the Zapoteca, who named it. One kilometer from the sailing stones is the village of Santa Cruz, which is san ta ak' k'er rus or "remnant that swam in the swollen and gashed the skin," another reference to the Huave.

While the Zapoteca names at times refer to the mouth - the mouth of the Lempa River - as an origin point, it is also possible that they or a portion of them were from the peninsulas just west of the Lempa River. Peninsula La Colorada is k’ol lo or at ta or “remnant loose in the crest of the bath and transported.” Peninsula El Zapote, now called Costa del Sol, is west of Colorado and appears like it may have been named after the Zapoteca. Zapote is tz'a ap po ot te, meaning "pressed by the swinging wetness, on branches" with a double meaning of "shelter for those on wood (dugouts) from the swinging at the wet hole."

Monte Alban and the Zapoteca

Returning to the Zapoteca, soon the descendants of the survivors of the tsunami created a memorial on top of what they would call Monte Alban hill, perhaps with a few stones to begin with. Monte Alban is moh on ter ra al bah an in Mi and means “ridge for the time of the ancestors’ bodies which tired trapped in the current.” The use of the term “ancestors” seems to indicate that those who created the memorial were at least one generation beyond the survivors. Monte Alban has an alternate meaning as well: “the time of the ancestors who ran through the trees tired of the constricting of the bodies.” It seems to be a memorial both for those who died in the tsunami and for the ancestors who escaped the Huave by running through the woods at night. Another name for Monte Alban is Daniban, which, for the Zapoteca, has the meaning of “sacred hill of the dead.” Its original Mi meaning was similar to Monte Alban. Daniban is ta’ ni’ ib bah an and means “hill for the spirits of the remains of the bodies in the current.” An alternate meaning here is “run for the hills from the remnant at the current.” The presence of the Huave is a reason that the Zapoteca went up to the mountains so quickly and the continued pursuit of the Huave may also explain their later move to Tehuacan, Puebla.

Another name of a Zapotec-related people also seems to have its origin at the time of the tsunami: Ixcatec: ix k’at te’ ek’ – “cross (from El Salvador) moving on wood by the stars.” This name repeats k’at, a syllable found in Cuscatlan, the name for El Salvador, and was found in the name of founding ancestor Ehecatl. K'at was associated with the Ik' lineage.

Other ethnicities closely related to the Zapoteca include a group of Cuscatlan (Ik’ lineage) swept off the coast of present-day La Paz of El Salvador, landing ashore in western Oaxaca, the Triqui, and the Amuzgo, a group of Zapoteca who moved to eastern Guerrero.

The Date for the Tsunami

It would appear that the Zapoteca arrived at Tehuacan, Puebla, soon after they arrived to Oaxaca in the tsunami. The Tehuacan name indicates that it was likely the Zapoteca who arrived at Tehuacan, Puebla, since they were from Tehuacan, El Salvador. The nearby cultural name Coxcatlan cave indicates why. Coxcatlan is k’o och k’at la an, meaning “crossed because of the blades at the entrance of the fatigued current.” This indicates that the Zapoteca went to Puebla from Oaxaca in order to evade the Huave who had pursued them up into the Oaxaca mountains. Coxcatlan also refers obviously to Cuscatlan.

The 7220 BCE date for the tsunami is arrived at by the archeological record at Tehuacan, Puebla, which shows a consistent presence a little after that date and the dating of the end of Nipigon stage at Lake Agassiz, estimated to be 7150 BCE. MacNeish studied the history of habitation at the Coxcatlan cave and other sites near Tehuacan, Puebla. Douglas S. Byers and Richard S. MacNeish, ed. The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, 5 vol. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967. He found sporadic habitation or visits prior to 7200 BCE, some as early as 9000 BCE and others just prior to 7200 BCE. The earliest visits were likely made by the ancestors of the Xibalba, although after the arrival of the pre-Maya from South America, either group (Xibalba or pre-Maya) could have made long distance journeys to Mexico. MacNeish’s findings are consistent with a tsunami date between 7250 and 7200 BCE.

Like many other Mesoamerican people, the Zapoteca have a flood story as part of their story of origin. While some of the Zapoteca flood myth closely parallels the Biblical story, making it hard to know which parts were original and which were borrowed from the Spanish, one part of the myth states that Petela, a great Zapoteca chieftain, descended from flood survivors. Petela is pet tel ha’ and means “water pouring over the ridge.” It has a double meaning of pet te hel la or “women tired of the tree (position) at the pouring.” The pouring refers to the tides pouring in and out of the Laguna Superior. This indicates that the earliest Zapoteca leaders assisted Huave women to leave. Petela also contains the cultural prefix pet- which is found in Purepecha and Miwok names as well, linking these ethnicities.

The Triqui and the Mixteca

The Triqui may have been from the Rio Jiboa area of present-day La Paz, El Salvador. They appear to have landed near the southernmost point of Oaxaca, Puerto Angel - just east is Salchi, tza al chi, or “time of the large wetness,” with “wall” as a double meaning. One link to Rio Jiboa is the name Tilapa, a very early name next to Rio Jiboa in El Salvador which appears to identify a mastodon in the very first weeks that the Mesoamerican ancestors were in Central America. There is also a Tilapa close to the Triqui center of San Juan Copala. In addition, with ik’ in their name, the Triqui identifed as an Ik’ lineage, like the Zapoteca. They landed west of the Zapoteca, which would likely mean that they were from an area to the west of the Zapoteca Lempa River origin in El Salvador. The Rio Jiboa mouth is the most likely place of their origin. A further reference to the area currently named La Paz, El Salvador, is the town of Zacatepec in western Oaxaca, a reference to Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, named in the aftermath of the tsunami.

Soon pregnant women from the Huave, facing the sacrifice of their first-born, began to escape toward the Triqui on the coast, paddling 140 kilometers on the ocean current. Puerto Angel is an che hel or “women handled the current.” They may have hid and slept in the day and paddled at night. They became the founders of the Mixteca. Mixteca is mi ix te’ ek’ ha’ and means “cats moving on water under the stars and among the trees,” a hint that they slept among the trees of the shore to hide during the day. The autonym mi (in Mixteca) was much more frequent among the Ch’orti’-Totonac lineage (including the Huave) than among the Ik’-based lineage, like the Zapoteca and Triqui. The name Triqui makes sense alongside the Mixteca founders. It is ta’ ar ri ik’ ki and means “time of the dear remnant beside the Ik’,” with a double meaning of “arrive.”

East of Puerto Angel is Playa Estacahuite, which is etz’ ta ak’ k’ar wi te, which is “observe for the wood (canoes) of the remnant from the blows to the navel skin of the retained (newborn).” It was the Triqui who were waiting there to observe and help the escaping Huave women. The name also carries a cultural lineage syllable hui, which indicates a Ch’orti’ lineage originally from Güija. The name has a second meaning regarding the Triqui's first landing on the shore themselves, “observe trees on dry ground since beginning of explosion (blast),” with another meaning of "dry," i.e. dry land. Nearby El Radar is hel ra at tar in Mi, meaning “women arrive tired from the bath.” To the east, Tahueca is ta wer kah or “remnant whose beginners were torn away.” Inland is Santa Maria Huatulco. It is tza an ta am ma ar ri wat tu ul k’o and means “time of the remnant who explained the corpses from the blades and ran in the wetness from the bad spiders, make a home beside.” Huatulco describes the first home of the pregnant Huave women who became the Mixteca. The syllable tul recalls Tulan, the island home of the Maya where human sacrifice began.

Also inland a few kilometers is San Pedro Pochutla, which is tza an pet tar ro po och chu ut ta la and means “arrival of remnant tired of the guards at the entrance of the hole, through the pouring (tides) current at the opening of the wetness, free,” with a double meaning of “peeled skin.” This is another indication that Huave pregnant women and perhaps men too escaped by boat from Laguna Superior and made it to the Mixteca coast. One of the barrios of San Pedro Pochutla is Guaydiguelle. This appears to be as old as Pochutla. It is way ti Ik’ hel lep and means “women paddling through the opening dreaming (at night) to the Ik’.” This meaning reinforces the meaning of Pochutla.

Names on the west side of Puerto Angel indicate that the Triqui and Mixteca also lived there. First, is Cometa or k’o om et ha’, which means “challenge of the teeth (rocks) in the foamy water,” indicating the difficulty in reaching shore there. But Cometa has a second meaning, “challenge of joining the remnants,” perhaps indicating a challenge in bringing the Mixteca and Triqui together, being from different lineages, although it could also be speaking about the Chatino, a remnant from the Otomi.

Just inland is Mazunte, ma as su un te, “on wood (canoes) from the bad practice to the children on a layer,” describing the child sacrifice practice of the Huave. There are two double meanings: “wrap-around,” which describes the umbilical cord still attached to the newborns at the time of sacrifice, and “foreign,” which indicates a belief that the practice originated much earlier with the foreigners (Xibalba).

Just east on the coast is San Agustinillo, which directly references the name San Agustin in the Ik’ (Cuscatlan) area of El Salvador. San Agustin, El Salvador, describes the first death of the ancestors at the hands of the Xibalba. San Agustinillo, Oaxaca, is very clear about the first-child newborn sacrifice practice. It is tza an nak’ k’us ti in ni il lo and means “see from the hill those running from the wetness free from the opening up of the first sperm at giving birth.” It has a double meaning of “curing” - their leaving cured them from the practice. Another meaning is “come to life” which describes the hope that the Mixteca had in a new place.

Another nearby name is Chacahua or cha ak’ k’ar wa’ is “beings retained for the two skins.” This name references the two-skin practice of the god Chaac, usually used to invoke rain. I understand this name to refer to a practice back in the Huave area, not along the Mixteca coast. Chacahua recalls the name Chalagua found back in the Jiboa area of El Salvador, near where the Triqui were likely from. El Carnero is k’ar ne her ro or “women free from being retained for the tail (umbilical cord).”

Cuatode is ka wa at to ot te and means “wood shelter for the beings from the sacrifice of the beginner (newborn) at the bath.” It has a double meaning of “make a home” and Totonac, another link between the Mixteca and the Huave (and Totonac). Inland from Cometa is Santa Maria Tonameca. It is tza an ta am ma ar ri at to on nam ek’ ha and means “time of the remnant beside who ran in the wetness from the bad spiders at the bath in the water under the stars, disappearance of the previous sacrificing.” It has double meanings of “depths” and “wrestle” which might indicate that a woman (women) was drowned when a Huave guard caught up with her. The name also makes it clear that the bad practice of the Huave did not continue with the Mixteca. The closest nations to the Mixteca are the Mocho Maya, followed by the Kanjobal, the Ch’orti’, the Chol, the Tzetzil, and the Choluteca.

Inland to the west is Santa Rosa de Lima Tututepec which became a Mixteca kingdom in the Classic period. It is san ta ar ro os at te hel li im ma tut tu ut tep ek’ in Mi and means “small opening in the hard plug from swollen bath, corpses beside from the bad blast, time of remnant of women set down after loose under the stars.” This indicates a knowledge of the cause of the tsunami, describing Lake Agassiz (Winnipeg) and the deaths that took place there, followed by a brief description of the Mixteca remnant who began a new life after surviving the tsunami and the conditions of the Huave. The phrase "hard plug" can not be translated in another way and is the key to linking this name to Lake Agassiz.

Finally, the place name Santa Cruz Zenzontepec, 60 kilometers north of Zapotalito, is a direct link to the Cuscatlan and Ulua and the place name of Sensuntepeque, El Salvador, an Ulua place name 10 kilometers off the Lempa River and 80 kilometers north of the mouth. Sensuntepeque references the Xibalba, therefore it was named at least 200 years earlier, when the Maya defeated the Xibalba. Because the Ulua and the Triqui came out of the same lineage, Santa Cruz Zenzontepec would be a Triqui name and means "hard hill of those with knowledge of the ancestors in the curve (tsunami)."

The Mixteca have a similar flood myth as the Zapoteca. It says that the earth was well populated but humans were punished with a flood due to a significant fault. One can imagine that this fault related to the violence display of power (human sacrifice) which afflicted the Totonac for a time prior to the tsunami. Like the Zapoteca, the Mixteca people descended from the few survivors of the flood, according to the myth.

The Choluteca (Itza)

The Huave were not the only part of the Ch’orti’-Totonac lineage to be washed offshore by the tsunami and to float from present-day El Salvador to present-day Mexico. Names along the coast of western Oaxaca indicate the Choluteca (Itza) also floated from west-central El Salvador to Mexico.

The Choluteca consists today of groups in the Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The Choluteca migrated to Puebla, Mexico. Later the main group of the Choluteca (Mangue) migrated to southern Central America during the late Toltec period when they were attacked. Their strongest tie to the Oaxaca coast is linguistic – they are part of the Oto-Manguean language group. The name Mangue appears to come from when they were attacked in Puebla, while Chorotega was probably a name taken upon arrival to Honduras and Nicaragua. While the Chiapaneco are grouped together with the Choluteca linguistically, it is possible that the Chiapaneco originated from the Huave, another Totonac-related group.

The Choluteca seem to have arrived on the southwest coast of Oaxaca near San Jose Manialtepec. The cultural name Choluteca probably dates from this time. They used the convention of the -teca suffix, similar to their neighbors Zapoteca and Mixteca. Choluteca is cho hol uh te ek’ ha and means “esteemed sacred one (shaman) on crest of water on branches under the stars.” The spiritual leader mentioned in the name is likely the same one mentioned in the names Sunzacuapa and Chiltiupan on the La Libertad coast of El Salvador. San Jose Manialtepec is san cho os tze em ma an ni al te pek and means “time of descending the hills in the bad upright swelling, in the current on branches, Cho set down by the hills.” Cho is a cultural marker for the Ch’orti’ lineage. It has a double meaning of “swollen lungs in the current.”

La Alejandria is just east of San Jose Manialtepec. It is la al leb ba an tar ri ha and means “time of tired bodies arriving beside by paddling in the water current.” East of there is Bajos de Chila, a name which was chosen after a visit by those in La Libertad, as it mimics La Shila there. It is ba os tech’ chi’ il ha’ in Mi, meaning “see the expanded bodies set down by the large water.” It discusses seeing bodies washing up on shore after they arrived there.

To the west is El Cacalote. It has three meanings. First, ka k’al lo ot te is “wood shelter for those retained and then loose (in the ocean) at the beginning.” The second meaning is clear, kaka al lo te’ and means “time of the loose cacao pods.” This indicates that the Amuzgo shared cacao pods with the Choluteca to be planted. Using the adjective “loose” makes it clear that they were pods, not plants. A third meaning of Cacalote is k’ak’ k’al lo ot te’ and means “shelter for those free on wood (dug-outs) from the retentions of the fire,” with fire (k’ak’) referring to the Kakchiquel. This indicates that in addition to the Amuzgo (to be discussed), the Choluteca assisted Otomi women escaping from the sacrifice regime of the Otomi men. Both the Huave and the Choluteca were from the Totonac (originally Ch’orti’) lineage, but unlike the Huave, the Choluteca did not re-initiate human sacrifice once in Mexico.

A couple kilometers northeast of El Cacalote is San Isidro Campechero San Martin is san ni is it ta ar lo ok’ k’a am pech che’ her ro’ os san ma ar ti in and means “loose Pech women remnant handle spidering (paddling) in the wet current, happy to be free from the blows which split open the set down first ones (newborns), movement to the swollen hills.” They used a cultural identifier “orphan” Pech that pertains to the Poto (Olmeca-related) lineage: in this case referring to an Otomi woman. If the Choluteca themselves practiced human sacrifice they would not have assisted the Otomi women fleeing the practice of human sacrifice. San Isidro Campechero San Martin was likely the source for the name of the Mexican state Campeche, named thousands of years later by the Choluteca (Itza).

Tiltepec is 10 kilometers inland from San Jose Manialtepec. It’s ti il te pek’ and means “see the opening in the hard hills.” It has a double meaning of “see the wood (dug-outs) under the stars” indicating the boats of the escaping Otomi women. Another 12 kilometers is Santa Lucia Teotepec, perhaps the strongest link to La Libertad, El Salvador. Teotepeque was the first center for the Ch’orti’ (Totonac) in La Libertad following the flood at Lago Guija. Santa Lucia Teotepec is san ta al lus si at Teotepec and means “time of the many swimmers in the swollen bath, shelter for remnant in trees of the hard hills,” with a double meaning of “arrival.”

San Pedro Mixtepec to the east speaks about the arrival of the Mixteca, next to the Choluteca. It is tza an pet ta ar ro om mi ix te pek and means “time of the remnant cats who moved in the wet current then to the hills to be free from the foamy tree at the pouring.” Foamy tree refers to human sacrifice. The pouring refers to the tide pouring through the entrance of the Laguna Superior. The Choluteca and the Mixteca were from the same lineage, so there was a natural affinity.

It seems that the Choluteca may have moved quite early to Puebla. The names there indicate a possible early habitation while names from El Salvador were still fresh in their minds. San Pedro Cholula is san pet tar ro och cho ol uh lap, meaning “arrival to the entrance (between the volcanos) by the esteemed shaman who had been loose stroking in the swollen crest of the pouring (tides).” San Pedro Cholula lies near the saddle (the “entrance”) between two 5,000 meter (17,000 ft) mountains, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. The name also recalls San Pedro Mixtepec. Interestingly, Cholula also seems to mimic the name Ulua. That would not be a lineage marker, but rather a political marker to indicate that they had chosen not to resume the human sacrifice practice, unlike the Huave.

Iztaccihuatl Mountain is it tza ak’ si wat ta al in Mi and means “time of the movement of the remnant to make a home by the blowing residue covering (ash from Popocatepetl).” The name has a double meaning of is tak or “move to the dry one” to indicate that it was a dry volcano (not active). Popocatepetl was named by the Purepecha rather than the Choluteca.

While the Puebla part of Puebla de Zaragoza probably comes from the Post-Classic period, the name Zaragoza is likely ancient and links it to the same name in La Libertad, El Salvador. Zaragoza here is sar ra ak’ k’o os tza, meaning “setting down by the wall (Iztaccihuatl) and the wet one (Popocatepetl) tired of the blade on the skin.” It is another confirmation that they did not resume the sacrifice practice. The Huave also used the name Zaragoza to link back to El Salvador.

Later, in the Classic era, the main portion of the Choluteca began to call themselves Chorotega and Mangue. It was from the mountain, Iztacchihuatl, that the Itza (Choluteca) took their name, although by switching letters, the name seems to refer to Popo, as Itza means “the wet one (active volcano) blowing.”

The next installment will describe the amazing struggle to end the practice of human sacrifice among the Otomi. Cuauhtemoc finally prevailed.

The Pipil, Cihuatan, and the Toltec Humanitarian Crisis

This post tells the story of the rise of the Toltec civilization in central Mexico about 50 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, comprised of two of the seven ethnicities that made up Teotihuacan, the Totonac and Cakchiquel. It describes the oppressive practices of the Toltec which caused refugees fleeing north and south, the latter becoming the Nawat-speaking Pipil who went to El Salvador. Some of the Toltec followed the refugees to El Salvador where they ruled for about 130 years until their centers were burned. Seventy years later, in a bitter split of the Toltec, the losers, the Nahuatlized Totonac, also fled to El Salvador.

The Toltec civilization was active from 800 to 1150 CE, based in Tula in the current Mexican state of Hidalgo. Tula is located 60 kilometers northwest of Teotihuacan and 75 kilometers north of Mexico City. Tula is Tollan in Nahuatl and probably comes from Tulan in Ch'orti'. Tulan shares the last syllable with Aztlan and in Ch'orti' would be tul lah ahn or "condition of fatigued current," describing the Gulf of Fonseca where the ancient origin place of Isla Tigre is located.

Tula developed about 50 years after the fall of Teotihuacan. It was likely settled by one or more of the seven ethnicities who made up Teotihuacan - more on the likely Toltec ethnicities later.

The Toltec civilization is known for the god Quetzalcoatl. As I demonstrated earlier, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, refers to the meditation (coiled up snake) and gymnastics (bird swinging in the air) that the Maya began in the early pre-Classic at Chalchuapa. The Toltec were known for their yoga or kinam. Kinam is kin am in Ch'orti' and means "spider sticks" or "spider limbs".

Tula and Chichen Itza in the Yucatan have some architectural similarities that could indicate a relationship. (Fowler)

Many of sculptures and images at Tula are warriors or relate to human sacrifice. The wikipedia entry for Tula says, "War and sacrifice are prominent themes at the site with images representing warriors such as jaguars and coyotes as well as eagles eating human hearts. There are also images of serpents eating skeletal figures and skulls in various areas." The name Toltec reflects this identity. It was a name given by the Ch'orti' and it is not complementary. In Ch'orti' it is tol tech and means "expansion of the bruisers." Bruisers could also be translated mutilators, torturers, or sacrificers.

The chakmool sculptures are common at Tula. They have a reclining person with a stone tray on their stomach. It is thought that they were used to hold sacrificing gifts like tamales although a later Aztec one contained an object like a human heart. The name chakmool indicates that at Tula they were also for human hearts. Chakmool is chak mol in Ch'orti' and means "red pile," a reference to a bloody heart.

The "expansion of the bruisers" created a humanitarian disaster in central Mexico. The captures, killings, and human sacrificing must have been at a scale never seen before in Mesoamerica. The rise of human sacrifice at Tula may have contributed to the downfall of the Maya at the end of the Classic period. First, it may have created a moral crisis for the Maya that a Mesoamerican people (of Maya background) could engage in such a high level of human sacrificing. Second, many of the Maya likely became involved in plans to evacuate much of the central Mexico population. Coordinating the evacuation would have distracted the Maya leadership. Tikal's last major pyramid and monuments were built in 810 CE, about ten years after the founding of Tula. Copan's last king came to power in 822 CE but the monument he commissioned was never finished.

I believe that much of the dispersion of the Uto-Aztecan language group is due to the evacuation of Nahuatl speakers from the central valley of Mexico during the time of the Toltec. Later, Nahuatl speakers also fled the Aztec, especially the Nicarao who fled to Nicaragua. At the time of the Toltec, Nahuatl-speaking groups who became the Shoshone, Paiute, Hopi, Comanche, Pima, Yaqui, Mayo, and Tarahumara were likely fleeing the Toltec bruisers.

Some have names, likely given by the Ch'orti' coordinating the evacuation, that reflect the difficult time. For example, Yaqui is yah ki' in Ch'orti' and means "painful heart." This likely reflects both the pain suffered by their relatives who were sacrificed, as well as their emotional pain of losing loved ones and leaving their homeland. Mayo is mah yo'b in Ch'orti' and means "bad ones strike" and would seem to indicate the blows from the Toltec warriors that they endured.

Among those who went north were nahuatlized Mixteca, Otomi, Huasteca, Quiche, Olmeka, Mejica, and Purepecha. As they went north they gained new identities as Hopi, Comanche, Shoshone, Pima, and Yaqui, etc. As they got to know their new neighbors, the Zuni, they gained the name Chicano, ch'i' kah noh, which means "small ones and large ones from the beginning." The Zuni were a taller race and were cousins of the Xibalba, whom the Maya ancestors confronted for over a thousand years when they first arrived in Central America. Relations were probably not much better with the Zuni.

It is hard to know if the migration of the refugees to the north or the migration to the south happened first. The oral tradition of the Pipil suggests a 9th century migration and that the Pipil were adopted by the Ch'orti'. Perhaps the Ch'orti' supported the 1200 kilometer overland migration with logistics.

The oral tradition calls the migration, the "Pipiltzin". The last syllable is sin or "series," which suggests that there were several waves of migrations from Central Mexico to eastern Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Pipiltzin could also mean "numbers of Pipil," signifying a large migration.

My reading of Fowler's The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations, the Pipil-Nicarao of Central America, is that likely there were four post-Classic migrations from Central Mexico to Central America:

• Those fleeing the Toltec who went to western El Salvador, the first to be called Pipil
• A Toltec group that followed the refugees to El Salvador
• A Nonoalco group that was timed with the winding down of the Toltec, who also went to El Salvador
• The Nicarao group that fled the Aztec probably in the 14th century and went to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The first migration, and possibly later ones, was called Pipil, a name which confirms the oral tradition that the Ch'orti' accompanied the Pipil. In Ch'orti' it is pi pil or "companions on the journey" - a beautiful name. The Pipil journey and name make the other name for the Pipil - Nahuat - that much more ironic. Nahuat also comes from Ch'orti' - nab wat - and means "forget about returning home." At the end of the Teotihuacan days a new common language developed, Nahuat (Nabwat) or Nahuatl, and people left behind their old languages because they resigned themselves to the idea that they would never return home (to El Salvador).

But the Pipil, the Nahuat, did return home, although likely under duress. Just like the refugees who fled north, the Pipil were likely made up of many different ethnicities. To clarify, at that time Nahuat was a language, not an ethnicity. But on the journey, the Pipil became a new ethnicity. Their ethnicities of origin would have been Mixteca (or Zapotec), Otomi, Huasteca, Quiche, Olmeka, Mejica, and Purepecha. All, without exception, had roots in El Salvador.

The Mixteca, Zapotec, and Otomi people had moved from the San Vicente department of El Salvador to the Puebla state of Mexico in about 7000 BCE. The Huasteca and Totonac were of Chol-Ch'orti' origin and were forced to move from western El Salvador to the northeast Mexico coast between 2400 and 2000 BCE as part of the pellagra crisis. The Quiche moved from Coatepeque to the northwest coast of Mexico due to pellagra in about 2300 BCE. The Olmeka, Mejica, and Purepecha all moved from southeast El Salvador to Mexico due to pellagra, first the Purepecha to the Michoacan coast and later the Olmeka (some of whom later became the Mejica) moved to the Guatemala/Mexico coastal area in about 1800 BCE.

A 9th century arrival of the Pipil to El Salvador is mostly supported by Fowler, who cites two linguistic studies, one showing a Nawat language divergence of 650 to 850 CE and another one of 801 CE. Fowler also cites de Borhegyi who saw evidence for three migrations, the first of which was in about 800 CE.

The place name Santa Isabel Ishuatan, in southeast Sonsonate department, supports the idea of the Pipil as refugees. It is ix wat ahn in Ch'orti' and means "return home in running movement."

Soon after the Pipil arrived in El Salvador, it appears that a group of the Toltec decided to follow them. In part this may have been to expand Toltec culture to historically important El Salvador. But it was more likely to intimidate the newly arrived Pipil who had just fled the Toltec and their human sacrifice ways. Based on the Cihuatan Archeology Project, the site of Cihuatan, near Aguilares, was established in about 900 CE, marking the arrival time of the Toltec. They likely came by boat from Mexico - walking from Tula to a river like the Rio Balsas, down the Pacific Coast, then up the Lempa, and disembarking at Suchitoto. From Suchitoto it is a 20 kilometer walk west to the Cihuatan site, around the north side of Guazapa volcano.

The name Suchitoto tells us who the Toltec were. It is a Ch'orti' name, either given by the Ch'orti' or the Toltec used a Ch'orti' naming protocol. Suchitoto is sutz si t'ot toh and means "numbers of bats and tap sacrificers." The only Mesoamerican people with a bat emblem are the Cakchiquel. The Cakchiquel are also mentioned in the Popol Vuh with a bat emblem. Even more, during the first round of human sacrificing in about 8300 BCE, the Popol Vuh says that the Cakchiquel were the only lineage to be exempt from human sacrifice, presumably because they first cultivated tobacco so they did not have to "draw a straw."

The other half of Suchitoto - "tap sacrificers" - does make a vague reference to the practice of heart sacrifice of the Toltec, but it is the two syllables together "toto," that tell us that the Totonac were the other lineage that were part of the Toltec. The Cakchiquel and the Totonac made up two of the seven groups that founded Teotihuacan and it appears that they were the two strong groups coming out of Teotihuacan ready to form the next culture.

Source of photo. Cihuatan is one of the most important archeological sites in El Salvador. It is located about 45 kilometers north of San Salvador and just a few kilometers northeast of Aguilares. The fertile soils on the west and north sides of Guazapa Volcano were utilized extensively for cacao as well as staples like corn, squash, and beans.

Cihuatan was a large, multi-cultural city, similar to Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. Those who have studied it (Brahn) have found at least seven neighborhoods, including Maya and Lenca neighborhoods, each with its own ceremonial center. Based on who was living in El Salvador at the time, groups present at Cihuatan likely included the Cakchiquel, Totonac, Lenca, Ch'orti', and several ethnicities of Pipil.

The meaning of Cihuatan supports a Mexican migration. Cihuatan has a double meaning. The name crafters were skilled, finding a name with meaning in Nawat and in Ch'orti'. In Nawat, Cihua means "woman" and refers to the feminine reclined shape of the nearby Guazapa volcano.

Ch'orti' was used as a naming language throughout Mesoamerica, including the second meaning of "Cihuatan". It is si wat ahn and means "return home to the series of currents." The use of the phrase "return home" is relevant since the Cakchiquel and Totonac were each banished from El Salvador to Mexico due to pellagra, the Cakchiquel in about 2300 BCE and the Totonac between 2300 and 2000 BCE. The "series of currents" - many rivers - would have been in contrast to the dryness of Mexico's central valley and Veracruz. By using the syllable wat ("return home") in the name of Cihuatan, the Toltec legitimized their move to El Salvador on humanitarian grounds - people returning to their ancient homeland. The name helps to mask their possible motive of intimidation in their move to El Salvador.

The Toltec built many other ceremonial centers in addition to Cihuatan. Some of these other centers include Santa Maria, Mucuyo, Monte Redondo, La Esmerelda, and Zacotonal (San Francisco).

One can see a broader extension of Toltec and, especially, Cakchiquel influence in the place names to the east of Cihuatan: Chalatenango, Pepeishtenango, Papaturo (maybe), Tenango, Tenancingo, and Pepeto. Tobacco growing and processing is still somewhat common in this area - another Cakchiquel influence, as it was the Cakchiquels who first grew tobacco on Isla Tigre, Honduras.

The Toltec at Cihuatan did not arrive to a power vacuum. The Ch'orti' at Chalchuapa and San Andres effectively controlled most of El Salvador west of the Lempa River, as well as Chalatenango. The Ch'orti' were weary of the Toltec. The name Aguilares shows the Ch'orti', watching the arrival of the Toltec: ak' il ahr retz, which means "viewing the occasion of the rising of the flag." In addition, the Cotzumalhuapa had controlled Cara Sucia since about 600 CE. And the Lenca controlled the east.

The Toltec arrived with a military force. Archeological evidence indicates that Chalchuapa and Cara Sucia were taken over by a central Mexican presence in about 900 CE (Fowler). Toltec warrior plaques were present at the Loma China site in San Vicente near the Puente Cuscatlan (Fowler). Controlling the Lempa River would have been very strategic for the Toltec, given the predominance of water travel by the Ch'orti'. The Toltec also took over Lago Guija (Fowler), especially important for the Totonac since their roots were there.

Further evidence that Cihuatan was a Toltec center consists of the figurines and biconical spiked censers there that are like those at Tula (Fowler). Likewise, the wheeled figurines are like those on the Gulf Coast (Totonac). The architectural structures at Cihuatan are central Mexican and similar those at Chichen Itza.

The Toltec ruled over western El Salvador for about 130 years. In about 1030 CE, according to the Cihuatan Archeological Project, Cihuatan fell. Enemies destroyed Cihuatan and all the other ceremonial centers by fire (and possibly gunpowder explosions). It is unclear who these enemies were but at the top of the list of their enemies would have been the Ch'orti' who were displaced by the Toltec and were against the human sacrificing ways of the Toltec. The Ch'orti', and their likely allies, the Putun, also would have been capable, even in the Post-Classic.

The surviving Toltec leaders most likely fled north to the Lempa River to boats that would take them eventually to Mexico. It seems likely that many of the Toltec-related people in the area stayed. They spoke Nawat, like the Pipil. These Toltec descendants, whether Totonac or Cakchiquel, would have been counted as Pipil at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.

A third migration out of central Mexico occurred around 1100 CE, about 70 years after Cihuatan fell. It is called the Nonoalco migration and is associated with the Veracruz Gulf Coast (Totonac). It is known that there was an internal power struggle at Tula in about 1100 CE. It is likely that the Cakchiquel were victorious over the Totonac in this power struggle and that the Totonac Toltec, called the Nonoalco, fled to El Salvador, the second major wave of the Pipil.

According to the archeology, a new wave of central Mexicans founded Antigua Cuscatlan, El Salvador, at about that time (Fowler) - most likely the Nonoalco Pipil. Later, Antigua Cuscatlan became the center of the Pipil kingdom. Place names indicate that the Nonoalco also settled in La Paz department in the area of Zacatecoluca.

Counting the Toltec and Nonoalco waves, I would roughly estimate the ethnicities of the Pipil in El Salvador to be about one-third Totonac, one-fourth Otomi, one-sixth each Cakchiquel and Mejica, and smaller portions of Quiche, Mixtec, and Purepecha. The presence of Quiche Pipil is likely at San Antonio Masahuat and San Pedro Masahuat in La Paz department. Masa is "deer" in Nawat and Ch'orti' and wat means "return home" in Ch'orti', so Masahuat is "return home of the deer". Deer is the totem animal of the Quiche, seen at Mazatlan, for example. Also many "deer" leaders of the Quiche are listed in the Popol Vuh.

The last migration wave from central Mexico was caused by the Aztec (Mejica) oppression and practice of human sacrifice. This is the Nicarao wave that primarily went to Nicaragua. The oral history of the Nicarao states that they had been subjugated by the Olmeca. Earlier I showed that the Mejica (Aztec) and the Olmeca were the same people, linking the migration of the Nicarao to the rise of the Aztec. Some of this last wave likely settled eastern Guatemala as well, with some possibly going to Honduras and El Salvador.

In conclusion, the rise of the Toltec threw central Mexico into chaos. Refugees fled north and south, giving rise to many new Native nations in the north and the Pipil in El Salvador, the "companions on the journey." One group of Toltec followed the refugees to El Salvador where they ruled for about 130 years. Ironically, one of the two Toltec ethnicities, the Totonac, had to flee themselves from Tula, becoming the second wave of the Pipil. A major portion of the Salvadoran indigenous milieu is based in this complex post-Classic history.

Seven Lineages of Chicomoztoc and Teotihuacan and Aztec Migration from Aztlan

Three of the most important concepts for the founding of the Mexican people are Teotihuacan, Chicomoztoc, and Aztlan. In the case of Teotihuacan it is not just a concept but also a site with structures. What the first two have in common is a cave motif. At Teotihuacan there is a human-made cave under the Pyramid of the Sun. The Chicomoztoc theoretical cave is a place of origin for most of the peoples of central and northern Mexico. Aztlan is the almost mythical homeland of the Aztec (Mexica).

The Pyramid of the Sun cave at Teotihuacan has four chambers while in the legend the Chicomoztoc cave has seven. The Teotihuacan cave probably came first and is an attempt to hark back to the four founding families of the Mesoamerica who arrived on four boats from South America in about 8680 BCE. On the other hand, the Chicomoztoc cave speaks to the seven specific ethnic groups who eventually populated Teotihuacan and who created a language new to them all, called Nahuat or Nahuatl.

The four lineages represented as founders at the Pyramid of the Sun are Ak'bar, Ik', K'inche (Kitze), and Maix (Majukutaj). The name Teotihuacan also speaks to this same mix of founding lineages, with Teo representing the three Maya-related lineages, and Tihuacan representing the Ik' (Zapotec) lineage, named after their first sacred site in El Salvador, Tehuacan, meaning "island of learning."

The seven cave chambers of Chicomoztoc represent the seven ethnic groups who came to populate Teotihuacan, rather than the founders, and who came to form central Mexican culture, including the Nahuat language. These ethnic groups were Totonac and Huasteca from the Ak'bar (Chol-Ch'orti') lineage, the Zapotec and Otomi from the Ik' lineage, the Quiche (including the Cakchiquel, etc.) from the K'inche lineage, and the Olmeka (Mexica) and Purepecha from the Maix lineage.

The Totonac were among the closest to Mexico's central valley, coming from directly east, and probably one of the strongest groups at Teotihuacan. The Huasteca came from much further north up the Gulf Coast and were likely a minor group in the central valley. The Zapotec came from Oaxaca, quite a distance, yet there is strong Zapotec influence at Teotihuacan. It could be that those that went to the central valley became the Mixteca. Mixteca means "beginning of the expansion of the cats" in Ch'orti'. The Otomi-Pame are cousins of the Zapotec and didn't have much pre-Classic presence but they were located in the Puebla area, near to the central valley.

The Quiche included the Cakchiquel and other sub-lineages and may have been the largest contingent at Teotihuacan. They would have come from the northwest coast of Mexico where they lived due to their pellagra banishment. The Olmeka sent a migration group the Valley of Mexico soon after their arrival to the Veracruz Coast. This migration group became the Mexica and they joined the Teotihuacan formation. The Purepecha were cousins of the Olmeka and lived relatively close to the central valley in northern Michoacan and southern Guanajuato. The lead four lineages would likely have been the Totonac, the Zapotec, the Quiche, and the Olmeka/Mexica, one from each of the four founding Mesoamerican lineages.

Chicomoztoc cave. By Nanahuatzin at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain, GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

The Chicomoztoc cave shows seven chambers with a group of people in each who smoke a peace pipe and then join together to populate Teotihuacan. Whether speaking of the four founding lineages of Teotihuacan or the seven Central Mexican ethnicities, they had to find a common cultural icon to form their union. This means they had to go back before 7000 BCE when the Zapotec and Otomi moved from El Salvador to Mexico. The main choices would have been the Corinto cave and the sight of the rising triple planets of 8208 BCE on Isla Tigre. The earliest symbols of Teotihuacan contain both of these cultural touch points.

None of the Mesoamerican people were cave dwellers - they lived out in the open. Using a cave as their founding symbol can only mean the Corinto cave in northeast El Salvador. This cave figured most prominently when, only days into Mesoamerica, the four founding families were captured by hunters they later called Xibalba, and taken to Corinto cave. Soon they escaped and ran toward the Lempa River. Later the cave was the scene of astronomical contests and battles. Eventually, by way of cunning, the Xibalba were defeated. Corinto cave was a place of bondage, a place of contest, a place of triumph, and the ultimate bonding between the four founding families. The caves of the Pyramid of the Sun and Chicomoztoc carry this symbolism.

All seven ethnic groups at Teotihuacan left or were forced out of El Salvador by the lead Ch'orti' lineage. For the Huasteca, Totonac, Quiche, Olmeka-Mexica, and Purepecha the reason was the pellagra crisis from 2400 to 1600 BCE. For the Zapotec-Otomi it is less clear but one explanation is Zapotec-Otomi unhappiness over the location of their home island of Teokan/Tehuacan at the mouth of the Lempa River while the ocean was rising following the end of the Ice Age. They went to Mexico in about 7000 BCE.

It is clear that the seven ethnic groups in central Mexico also identified with the rising planets of 8208 BCE, the beginning of the Third Age. In fact, there were seven rising luminaries on November 1, 8208 BCE, with Saturn rising first, then the triple star of Venus-Mars-Jupiter, then the Moon, then Mercury, and finally the sun at dawn. The symbolism of seven - the seven rising luminaries and the seven ethnicities - was surely not lost in the Valley of Mexico.

One place associated with Chicomoztoc is Culhuacan, a village/city in the Valley of Mexico. While it has a meaning in Nahuat, Nahuat likely did not exist yet when it was named. Instead its original meaning derives from Ch'orti', the language that several of the seven ethnicities would have spoken, at least as a second language, when Culhuacan was founded. In Ch'orti' it is kur wa' k'an or "being yellow points" or "yellow point beings." Yellow points is one way of describing the planets. Culhuacan associates the village's identity with the triple star event of 8208 BCE that was the defining moment of the Mesoamerican people.

Another place associated with Chicomoztoc is the Cerro de Culiacan, a high point in southern Guanajuato state. Culiacan references the triple star of 8208 BCE, rising over the Gulf of Fonseca, more clearly than Culhuacan. In Ch'orti' it is kur li ha' k'an and means "yellow points beside the water." The Cerro de Culiacan was likely a meeting place of the various ethnic groups before they chose the Valley of Mexico as their settlement area and before their founding of Teotihuacan.

While all seven ethnic groups no doubt thought about returning to El Salvador, their unity and construction of something fabulous like Teotihuacan, allowed them to forget about El Salvador. This is clear from the name of their common language Nahuat. In Ch'orti' it would be nab wat or "forget about returning home."

The Chicomoztoc cave symbolism does not represent humans emerging out of the earth. Rather, it symbolizes the escape of the four founding families out of the cave, Corinto, and into freedom in a land, El Salvador, which became the founding ground of all the Mesoamerican peoples. The founders of Teotihuacan used the same symbolism of escape and freedom as they created a new city.

The Mexica and Aztec of Aztlan

The Chichimeca and Mexica are two of the most important founding people of Mexico. The Chichimeca are a catch-all term for the semi-nomadic people living in the north of Mexico and the present-day southwest U.S. The Mexica are equivalent to Aztec and were the major power at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.

The term Chichimec or Chichimeca is a name in Ch’orti’ and is a play on the important site of Chinameca, El Salvador. Chinameca means “wrestle giant over disappearance of water” and was the site of a wrestling match between the Maya ancestors and the Xibalba hunters just a few days into the Maya ancestors living in Mesoamerica, circa 8680 BCE. The “chi” in Chinameca means “giant” but in Ch’orti’ a different vowel tone also gives “small” for chi. In Chichimec it is ch’i (small) ch’i’ih (giant) mek or “small ones wrestle giants.”

The Xibalba “giants” were long gone but their cousins were still around in the New Mexico area, the Zuni. Both the Xibalba (Manik) and the Zuni are distant relatives of the Ainu in Japan, lighter skinned and taller people. What may have happened is that each lineage was asked to send a contingent of warriors and their families to the north to protect the new populations in the north (i.e. Quiche, Otomi, Huasteca) from the Zuni. While at once protecting the populations in northern and central Mexico, the Chichimec warriors became a threat to peace in the Valley of Mexico.

The name Mexica has a similar meaning as Chichimec but they have a different path. Where the Chichimec were warriors of common descent, the Mexica are the elite of one of the original four founding Mesoamerican lineages. The names tells us which one. Mexica is mek ch’i’ih kah and means “wrestle giant at beginning.” It was the young Olmeca/Lenca lineage founder, Maix, who fought the Xibalba hunter at Chinameca at the beginning of Maya Mesoamerican history. Olmeca has a similar meaning: “wrestle leader over water."

One group of the Olmeca became the Mexica (Aztec). Two of the closest relatives of the Mexica are the Lenca and the Purepecha. In fact, the close relationship between the Mexica and Purepecha could explain why the Mexica never defeated the Purepecha – they didn’t really try since they were family (until a fierce 1479 war).

The Gemelli Aztec Migration Map

The Aztec provide us with an additional historical source to the Popol Vuh, a view from the Olmeca Maya lineage rather than the Ch’orti’ or Quiche Maya lineage. One of the best abbreviated Aztec views of history is provided in the Gemelli Aztec migration map.

By ... [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Following an extensive visit in Mexico, Italian Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri drew a map in 1704 of the Aztec migration from Aztlan to Chapultepec Hill. The map was a rendering copied from indigenous sources, maintained by D. Carlos Siguenza. The stops along the way of the map include a Nahuatl (or what was thought to be Nahuatl) element, a loose English translation, and a drawing. According to legend, on May 24, 1065 CE the Mexica (Aztec) began this journey. The original drawing was 12 by 16 inches and full size is available.

The first part of this map corresponds to the history of the Popol Vuh and the names in the first third of the migration map are in Ch'orti', the language the Aztec ancestors spoke when those events occurred, rather than Nahuatl. In the middle the names are likely close to the Olmeca language of Veracruz rather than Nahuatl. I have numbered various stations to help explain what is happening.

1 - The first station is a hill and tree with a stand-off involving the ancestors of the Aztec (and Maya, Zapotec, etc.) on the left and the Xibalba hunters on the right with the horns. (Click on map to enlarge.) This does not seem to symbolize any particular event as much as the 1000-plus year conflict between the two sides, starting a few days after the Aztec ancestors, et al, arrived in El Salvador in about 8680 BCE. The droplets coming out of the mouth of the bird on top of the tree likely represent blood spilled and lives lost due to the Xibalba.

2 - Station 2 is also in the shaded square, the time prior to the cultural formation of the Aztec ancestors, et al. This depicts the god Auilix or Ahwilix, one of the three gifts the Aztec ancestors received in eastern El Salvador before they had a permament home. Ahwilix means "the wing movement" and was a raft for babies and small children which the women would secure under their arm, like a wing. With the ahwilix raft, families were able to enter the water to escape the Xibalba hunters, who were not too keen on water. Ahwilix was probably first used at the junction of the Torola and Lempa Rivers.

3 - The group of people walking likely symbolizing the wandering of the Aztec ancestors, et al, for several dozen years in eastern El Salvador. Places they likely lived at during this time include San Juán de Edén, Laguna Alegría (Tecapa volcano), and Laguna Jocotal. Their heads are bare, indicating that they did not yet have special abilities or knowledge.

4 - The five people walking represent the migration from the mainland to Isla Tigre, Honduras. Each of the five walkers have an item above their head. My best guess of what these represent, from left to right: red ochre paint (most likely a re-connection with Taltal, Chile); an edible bird; skins for clothing; honey from bees; and turtles (for food).

5 - Aztlan. First, translating Aztlan: as tal lah ahn or "arrive to practice at the fatigued current." The fatigued current or lan is a quick way to say the Gulf of Fonseca where tidal action is limited (fatigued). Isla Tigre is where the ancestors went to and began to practice. They were practicing the beginning of Mesoamerican culture - the calendars, astronomy, animal husbandry, and cultivation.

The text says, "A place of Magpies where the Mexicans were called Aztlanechi." Aztlanechi would be Aztlan nechi. Neh ch'i' in Ch'orti' is "grow bushy ferns" and would refer to the tobacco that the Aztec ancestors, et al, learned to grow on Isla Tigre. To the right of the tree is an image of a parrot. It was at Aztlan (Isla Tigre) that the Aztec et al ancestors first learned to tame animals, beginning with the macaw parrot. To the left of the tree is a pyramid structure. While no pyramid structures have been found on Isla Tigre, there was a possible ceremonial structure on top of the volcano. In addition, the volcano of the island may have been an inspiration for later pyramid structures. The pyramid also may represent the formation of an elite.

6 - The next station is the migration off the island to the four islands on the mainland of El Salvador, represented by ten men. Each of the ten has a special ability or significance symbolized above their head. Some of these abilities were acquired soon after they left Aztlan, but they are all from the Maya formation period before 7600 BCE. The first, from the right, might be ability to navigate the oceans. The second might be cacao, first grown in Nicaragua. The third appears to be an underwater fuse to ignite gunpowder charges in plugged up lakes and waterways. The underwater fuse was first used at Lago Guija after a landslide blocked the egress. The fourth appears similar to the glyph in the first station and may represent the defeat of the Xibalba. The seventh one appears to be Ahchuk (One Hunapuh), the leader who was beheaded by the Xibalba but who made major advancements in astronomy. The eighth one is tobacco and is similar to the atl glyph. The ninth one is corn, first hybridized at Teotipa.

7 - The station in the top right corner has a near-naked man in an odd position and a cave-like structure with a door. The man has the words "Tocolco, Humiliation" by him. Tocolco in Ch'orti' is toh kol kot or "kneeling naked sacrifice." The Xibalba stripped their enemies naked before killing them. The cave structure has the words "Oztotlan, A Place of Grotts." Oztotlan is os t'ot' lan or "fit inside, knocking, near fatigued current." It appears the method of death was to lock the subject in the grotto with no food or water. There is one grotto-like hole at Corinto Cave that might have been used.

This refers to the story in the Popol Vuh of Xibalba warriors hearing loud noises from the Maya ancestors, capturing the ancestors and placing them in the Dark House. The place names in northern La Union department make it clear that the Aztec ancestors - the Olmeka - were practicing with gunpowder to make better water flow on the rivers. (The Olmeka were based in eastern El Salvador, next to the Xibalba, while the Maya were based in western El Salvador.) Some of these rivers would have been within ear-shot of Corinto Cave where the Xibalba were based. For example, Lislique, no more than 10 kilometers from the cave is li is li k'er and means "beside the movement, beside the dividing."

8 - The next set of two scenes took place back on Isla Tigre, so the order is slightly off. There is a scene marker, then an image of a baby perhaps, being carried by a bird; a pyramid; and then a tree with the word "Mizquiahwala." This word in Ch'orti' is mis ki' ahwa'al ha' or "cat hearts to jaguars by water." The cats are the common people and the jaguars are the elite. This is the story of heart sacrifice that led to many orphans (image of the baby).

9 - The image here is a thistle bush, with the words "Huitzquilocan. The place of Thistleflowers." Huitzquilocan is witz ki' il lok' ahn and means "see escape by current from heart mountain." This matches the Popol Vuh story of the escape of the masses by boat to Nicaragua where the escapees became the Miskito and Chibchan people. As a result of the heart sacrifices and the escape of their own people, Aztec et al ancestor elites began the practice of bloodletting by attaching thorns to a string and running it through their tongue, to promise to never harm their own people.

The fact that the events in the 8th and 9th stations have a prominent place in this abbreviated Aztec history, are an indication that one of the fleeing groups, either the Miskito or Chibchan people, come from the same lineage as the Aztec-Olmeka.

10 - There is a stone circle with the words "Tetepanco. Wal of many stones." This event skips forward 6,000 years to the migration to Monte Alto and Izapa. Tetepanco is tet' tep ahn k'ot and means "arrival by current to hard flaps." This is not completely clear but might be a reference to the large stone carvings at Monte Alto.

The migration trail continues to the bottom right portion of the larger drawing.

11 - There is a tree with fruit and the words "Teotzapotlan. A place of Divine fruit." Teotzapotlan is te' ox ap ot lan and means "place of sheltered plants with penis-shaped fruit." This refers to the cacao and its phallic shape as well as to the aphrodisiac qualities of chocolate. Much cacao was grown along the Chiapas and Guatemala coasts.

12 - An interesting symbol with the word "Ylhuicatepec". Ylhuicatepec is il wih k'at tep pek and means "cross to see source of hard knob." The Aztec ancestors (Olmeka) crossed from the Pacific coast over to the Atlantic Gulf Coast of southern Veracruz. This tells us that they crossed in order to check out vanilla, also an aphrodisiac, which can cause a hard knob. The Olmeka had heard about the vanilla from the Totonac and went to live close by them. The symbol seems to have a crested vanilla orchid on the right and a vanilla vine on the left.

13 - A symbol of the crested vanilla orchid and the word Papantla, the Totonac city associated with vanilla. The English words are "an Herb with broad leaves." Papantla would be bah ban tal or "arrive to thing valuable to the body" and refer to the vanilla. I think Papantla here is referring to the vanilla plant rather than a move to the site of Papantla.

14 - It is not totally clear but this most likely refers to Lago Tzumpango in the Central Valley of Mexico. Tzumpango is sum pahn k'o or "twisting teeth over a pit" and perhaps teeth could be a skull. Then it would match the picture. It doesn't look like a happy scene. This does seem to indicate that the Mexica were the group of Olmeka who decided to move from Veracruz to the Central Valley very early (1400-1200 BCE).

Tlatilco ceramic. By Wolfgang Sauber (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

15 - Apazca is ahp as k'a or "practice happy swinging." This refers to the movement and meditation also practiced at Chalchuapa, El Salvador at this time. Tlatilco may be the oldest settlement in the Central Valley, settled no later than 1200 BCE, and is famous for its acrobat ceramics (right), dated to 1300-800 BCE. The nearby site of the same culture is Tlapacoya and is tul ahp bah kor yah in Ch'orti'. This means "sore body condition due to free swinging." Both sites were named at a time when gymnastics was common. This indicates that it was the Mexica ancestors who practiced movement at Tlatilco and made the ceramics.

16 - Atlycalaquian - "a whirlpool where the water is swallowed." Apparently they built some pools, but it's not clear where. Atlycalaquian is aht li k'al lah ki' ahn or "fatigued (relaxed) heart next to retained current baths."

From there, the names in the map vary too much from the Ch'orti' to understand. In addition, it is hard to translate without knowing the context.

The Gemelli Aztec migration map makes it clear that the Aztec have common heritage with the Olmeka and the Maya. Many of the events shown on the map have parallels in the Popol Vuh. It also helps to clarify some of the unknown questions, such as why the Olmeka moved to the Veracruz Gulf Coast from the Chiapas/Guatemala coast.

The Mexica continued to use Ch'orti' as a naming language long after the end of the Maya Classic era. The first example is the city of Tenochtitlan, which the Mejica built in the middle of Lake Texcoco in 1325. It is built on an island, just like the ancient home of the Mexica ancestors at Lake Olomega, El Salvador. In Ch'orti', Tenochtitlan is ten noh ch'i' ti' (plus Nahuatl suffic tlan) and means "important growth after opening of flatland (valley). Tenochtitlan was built after some of the water was drained out of Lake Texcoco.

At the center of present-day Mexico City is the Zócalo, one of the largest public squares anywhere in the world, at 240 meters by 240 meters. It was used by the Mexica or Aztec for a variety of public events. Most or all of Tenochtitlan's 200,000 to 300,000 population in 1519 would have been able to fit in the Zócalo. In Ch'orti', Zócalo is tzok k'al lo', meaning "opening up the slack retention." This signifies that in order to build the city of Tenochtitlan, including the Zócalo, Lake Texcoco, and likely all five lakes in the Valley of Mexico, had to be partially drained. The trick was to drain it sufficiently to keep Tenochtitlan above lake level, but not so much that it lost its island condition, an important cultural attribute. Either the Mexica used the Ch'orti' language to name Zócalo because of the spiritual-political significance of the Ch'orti' language or the Ch'orti' (Putun) themselves assisted the Mexica to drain the lake and were given the right of naming the newly partially reclaimed lake bed.

A remaining chinampa. By Jflo23 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

A second method of reclaiming the lake bed along the shore of the island was the chinampa. A chinampa is a lake-recovered field, formed by creating a rectangular fence and piling neighboring lake bottom material into the fenced area. These were right next to the city of Tenochtitlan. Canals separate the chinampas. Like Zócalo, Chinampa is a Ch'orti' word, which may point to Ch'orti' assistance in creating the chinampa: chinam is town or city and pa' is food. Chinampa is "city food" or we would say "urban agriculture." Chinampa has a clever second meaning that makes it likely that the Ch'orti' picked this name. Chinam itself is ch'i' nam or "lack of growith (cultivation)." A city was a place where there was no space for cultivation. Chinampa broken down would be ch'i' nam pa' or the contradictory "cultivation of food where there is a lack of cultivation."

The Mexica at Tenochtitlan continued to gain strength and power in central Mexico. In 1428 they formed the Aztec triple alliance with two other city-states Texcoco and Tlacopan. Texcoco was Acolhua, who were likely linked to the Otomi. Tlacopan was Tepaneca and were possibly linked to the Quiche, i.e. Quiche who decided not to migrate to Guatemala. Tlacopan was also called Tacuba, a name of a town in western El Salvador that is associated with the return of a group of Quiche in the post-Classic period.

The Mexica, Acolhua, and Tepaneca created a new term for the leaders of the Aztec triple alliance: Huetlatoani. Using Nahuatl this is translated as “Elder Speaker," but Huetlatoani is a Ch'orti' phrase constructed to also appear Nahuatl, for local people. Using a Ch'orti' phrase would add legitimacy for populations outside the Valley of Mexico, especially for non-Nahuatl speakers. Every city or ethnic group would have had Ch'orti' translators. Huetlatoani is wet lat toh ahn ni' and it means “pointed tips supported by neighbors with sacrifices and currency.” Pointed tips refers to the weapons of the triple alliance. Neighbors near and far would have then known that they would be expected to provide human sacrifices and tribute to the triple alliance. And they would be taken by force if not given freely. Not so neighborly.

What's especially curious about this name is the ni' at the end. It seems that the Ch'orti' may have gotten the last laugh with the name. The -ni' suffix could have been changed to ni by some neighboring groups. The -ni suffix negates the statement so that it means “not supported by neighbors with sacrifices and currency.” This may mean that the Aztec triple alliance asked the Ch'orti' to support them by creating a name for their new leadership and the Ch'orti' obliged by slyly creating a name that suggested to neighboring peoples not to support the triple alliance.

Examining the history of the Aztecs and their ancestors has been useful for four reasons:

• Bringing to light previously unknown details that are helpful in better understanding Aztec history
• Understanding the extensive use of the Ch'orti' language, as protocol or naming language, even up to the point of European contact. It was the old, sacred language that was used to legitimate.
• The Ch'orti' assisted with the public works projects of neighboring people, such as draining the Valley of Mexico lakes and helping construct the chinampa, including in the late post-Classic period.
• The Aztec history is consistent with details of Maya history presented here for the first time. In other words, the Aztec history is consistent with the Popol Vuh, as translated herein.

Pellagra, Nixtamal, and the Dispersion of the Maya

For those familiar with my writing, up to now it had been unclear how the Maya and Olmec went from being concentrated in El Salvador for thousands of years, from 8200 BCE to 2400 BCE, to spread out over thousands of kilometers from the northwest coast of Mexico to the Yucatan to the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala by 1600 BCE. This dispersion happened in less than a thousand years. Such a dispersion is not natural, it takes an outside force like war, famine, or a life-changing invention. In Mesoamerica the dispersal force was disease: pellagra.

By Amedeo John Engel Terzi (Wellcome Library Catalogue) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

Pellagra - a Disease of the Monoculture of Corn

Pellagra is a non-hereditary disease caused from a deficiency of niacin in the diet. Corn, in its natural state, blocks tryptophan and niacin from being released. Before corn became large and tastier, the Maya would have had a more balanced diet, so sufficient niacin was consumed. High-niacin foods in Mesamerica would have included fish, peanuts, and avocado. Tryptophan would have been present in fish, peanuts, and squash seeds. But corn became more desirable around 2500 BCE. And perhaps a large part of the population was moving away from the traditional lake-side homes (Güija, Coatepeque, Olomega) and thus eating less fish.

Pellagra has a number of symptoms including red skin lesions, diarrhea, weakness, lack of coordination, nerve damage, paralysis, aggression, confusion, dementia, and death. It seems that the Maya learned early on that it was caused by corn. We see this in one of the names for corn, maix, which became maize in English. Maix means "bad movements" - bad runs and a clear reference to the diarrhea caused by pellagra.

Earlier I wrote about how parts of the Popol Vuh were written through the lens of having a diseased leadership due to pellagra. All Maya lineages suffered pellagra, including the Quiches who wrote down the Popol Vuh in the colonial era. The frequent use of the jaguar skin, matching the lesions of pellagra, are one example.

Maya Response: Banishment of the Diseased

The policy of the Maya elite, the leaders of the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage based at Igualtepeque, El Salvador, was to force any portion of a lineage with high incidence of pellagra to evacuate to outside of the traditional area of the Maya (El Salvador). Over the course of several hundred years, there were at least nine mass banishments involving most of the Maya population, resulting in only a small population of Maya left in the traditional homeland of El Salvador. The banished groups were sent north or west, usually by sea, either on the Atlantic or Pacific coast of Central America or Mexico.

Based on the meaning of their name, the Huasteca were the first group to be banished - Huasteca is was tech ka or "beginning of opening up from tortillas." The opening up refers to the lesions associated with pellagra. The reference to tortillas indicates that the Maya were aware quite early that pellagra was caused by corn. The Huasteca were probably from the Ch'orti' lineage and were banished north on foot to Copan where they took boats down the Copan River to the Motagua River to the Gulf of Honduras. Copan means "catch the current." From there they followed the coast of the Yucatan peninsula until they reached northeast Mexico. There they probably landed near Tuxpan or Naranjos and went inland.

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

Near Tuxpan is a lagoon called Tampamachoco or tam pa' mah choh ko(y) or "eating the corn with center with a bad reputation." This clear reference to non-treated corn, may have been the first landing place of the Huasteca.

The Quiche were probably the next banished group of Maya, leaving from Teopan and the Lago Coatepeque area. Before they left the leaders of the Quiche met with the leaders of the Ch'orti' at a place now called El Congo, to decide what to do. El Congo is kon k'o or "plan for the cliffs," referring to the cliffs surrounding Lago Coatepeque. The Quiche went the furthest north on the Pacific Coast side, indicating their early banishment. In contrast to the Ch'orti', nearly the entire Quiche community went together in spite that probably only a portion was suffering from pellagra. This would include the Quiche language groups Cakchiquel, Tzutuhil, Sipacapa, and Sacapultec. It likely also included language groups more distantly related to the Quiche, including Kekchi, Uspantec, and Pocomam. Some of these names reflect directly on the pellagra crisis. Kekchi is k'ek' ch'i' or "growing stronger," reflecting improvement following pellagra. Pocomam is pok ohom mam or "rinse dark spots in the ocean," referring to rinsing off the pellagra lesions in the ocean where the Quiche were banished to, which is the island of Teacapan in northwest Mexico. It appears that nearly the entire Quiche community left even those who were not suffering from pellagra.

The exception would be the ancestors of the people who now live in the town of Coatepeque, El Salvador. Their oral legend says that they were forced from living along the lakeshore of Lago Coatepeque but were allowed to take the name Coatepeque with them. Coatepeque means "bath in the hard, cracked cliff stones." Viewed from the inside, Coatepeque's stone cliffs look like a ringed serpent. It is easy to see how the phrase "Coate" became "coatl" in Nahuatl, a language that the Quiche helped to shape, meaning "serpent." The Quiche remained in Mexico for over 3,000 years, although some sub-lineages moved back to Central America much earlier, including the Kekchi, Uspantec, and Pocomam.

While the details are not quite as clear, another early banishment was the people who became the Purépecha in Michoacan state of Mexico. This is given by the meaning of Purépecha - pur lehp pech ch'a' or "orphans from the horizontal back and forth rubbing." "Horizontal back and forth rubbing" describes the motion of kneading the corn masa on a metate grinding stone. There are three clues why the Purépecha come from a banishment of the Olmec lineage. First, the Purépecha language is an isolate and the Olmec language became much more disintegrated than did the Maya languages. Second, the other two lineages in El Salvador - Chol-Ch'orti' and Quiche had early pellagra outbreaks - one would expect the Olmec to have had an early outbreak as well. The only other possible candidate for an early Olmec banishment would be the Totonacs. Third, the Purepecha have a somewhat elevated level of Mal'ta DNA that I associate with the Ainu, the Zuni, and the Xibalba. Mal'ta MA-1 is a 24,000 year old individual whose remains were found in south-central Siberia. According to the Popol Vuh, the Olmec lineage leader of the first generation to arrive in El Salvador, married a Xibalba woman. Thus, one would expect Olmec-related people to have a higher level of Mal'ta DNA than Maya-related people.

Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Purépecha oral history says that they moved from the Pacific Coast up to the Michoacan highlands. The most likely route inland would have been by boat up the Rio Balsas and then on foot. The names of the coastal communities near the mouth of the Balsas River tell the story of arrival of the Purépecha. Southeast of Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas, at the mouth of the Balsas River, is Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. This name in Ch'orti' is ix ta'p pa' si wa’ tan neh h’o, meaning "rows of desirable tassels being in interior, storing the runs corn." The key phrase here is "runs corn" or diarrhea corn, making it clear that this corn was growing before the nixtamal solution had been found and shared. It is possible that the Ixtapa name was given soon after arriving and Zihuatanejo added after nixtamal was learned.

One other name might be from the arrival time of the Purépecha from eastern El Salvador: Atoyac, about 200 kilometers southeast of the Balsas mouth. It is ah toy ak', meaning "the offering for the skin," referring to the lesions from pellagra.

The deities of the Purépecha are mostly translatable using Ch'orti' indicating the Purépecha spoke a language relatively close to Ch'orti' when they arrived to present-day Michoacan. The first deity is Kurikaweri and is the sky god, the god of war and the sun. It is k'ur ik' ha' [wer] ri and means "points in the air beside the water," referring to the triple star event of 8208 BCE on Isla Tigre. The second deity is Kwerawaperi and she is the creator and mother earth goddess. In Ch'orti' it is kah [wer] lah ha' ber ri and means "beginning of planting beside slack water," referring to first cultivation on Isla Tigre in about 8300 BCE. [Note: I'm not able to translate the syllable wer.] This makes it clear that the Purépecha share the Isla Tigre origin with all the other Mesoamerican people. A third deity, Xaratenga, is the offspring of the first two and represents the west. This indicates that it is specific to the Purépecha and was gained upon going west from El Salvador. Xaratenga is the goddess of the sea and the moon and is ch'a'r aht ten k'a in Ch'orti'. This means "happy flattening (clearing) at horizontal (calm) lake" and most likely refers to Lake Patzcuaro, an early Purépecha settlement.  

Totonac headdress By LMPA (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Totonacs were perhaps the fourth banishment from El Salvador. They could have roots in either the Olmec or Chol-Ch'orti lineages, but two Olmec banishments were sent along the Pacific while the other two early Chol-Ch'orti' banishments (Huasteca and Yucatec) were sent along the Atlantic coast, thereby favoring a Chol/Ch'orti' origin for the Totonac. The name Totonac speaks to their pellagra banishment origin: t'oht' on ak' or "previous skin from tapping," referring to formerly having bad skin due to corn - tapping tortillas.

They seem to have landed at present day Veracruz Heróica on Mexico's east Gulf coast. While most names were later Nahuatalized or replaced by Spanish names, a few original names remain like Laguna Tarimoya in the city of Veracruz. Tarimoya is tar ri moy ha' or "arrive beside the constricted water." Just south of Tarimoya is a neighborhood called Pochota or poch ot tah, which means "forest covering for shelter," likely describing their first few nights in Veracruz.

Just south of Veracruz is the Jamapa River, which is ha' ma pa' or "bad corn river," linking the area to the bad (non-nixtamalized) corn that the Totonacs brought with them. But the Totonacs learned a new diversified agriculture that included large squash or pumpkins. On the north side of Veracura is Colonia Chalchihuecan, a name that is unmistakably Ch'orti'. It is ch'a'ar ch'i' weh kan in Ch'orti' or "learn to grow the fleshy horizontal one (squash)."

The Totonac seem to have struck out on a new path compared to many of the other banishments. They seem not to have made a conscious attempt to maintain the Maya language as their language is considered a language isolate, while the Huasteca, who were further from Central America and left before the Totonac, still speak a language considered Maya. The Totonac also cultivated little corn - understandable given pellagra, but even after nixtamal corn remained only a minor part of the diet.

By Michael Doss from Santa Ana, CA, USA (Vanilla planifolia 160102) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Totonac were the discoverers of vanilla and this most likely took place at Papantla de Olarte - the vanilla orchid is also called the Papantla orchid. Papantal de Olarte would be pa' ban tal te' hor ahr te' in Ch'orti' or "time of arrival to crested plant, valuable food plant." [Note: A better view of the crested nature of the flower.] In colonial times the Ch'orti'-speaking Putun traders gave the name vainilla to the Spanish. The Ch'orti' name was binilha' or "companions' curing liquid."

Given their distance from El Salvador perhaps the next group to be banished were those that became the Yucatec. It is likely that, like the Huasteca and Totonac, they were part of the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage. Their departure may have been around 2000 BCE, given settlement patterns in northern Belize and the Peten. Yucatec is yuk' k'at tech' and means "trembling, crossing the expanse." One of the symptoms of pellagra is lack of balance and shaking. Crossing the expanse may refer to the walk from Guija to Copan, where they caught boats. Alternately, the expanse may refer to the boat ride on the Caribbean Sea from the Bay of Honduras to northern Belize. The Maya had likely already named the Yucatan and the soon-to-be Yucatec lineage picked a name that was similar to Yucatan. Yucatan peninsula is yuk k'at ahn or "crossing the joining of currents" or "joining the currents across."

Santa Rita By Elelicht (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The early site of Santa Rita, in northern Belize, settled as early as 2000 BCE, suggests that the Yukatec went by boat from Copan to Belize. The nearby town of Corozal is k'or lo tz'a' and means "transport on slack wetness," referring to the gentle waters inside Belize's barrier reef. West a few kilometers of Corozal is Patchakan. In Ch'orti' it is pa' ch'ak k'an or "clear for yellow corn." Chetumal, just across the border in Mexico, is che tum mal and means "handle the narrow sea" and most likely indicates the path in the barrier reef that the Yucatek took along the coast to reach Corozal/Chetumal.

Reasons for the Banishments

Before looking at the last four banishments, it is good to discuss why the Maya elite decided it was necessary to take this action. At first, it is likely that they did not understand the disease. They may have thought it was contagious or hereditary. That could explain the first, Huasteca, banishment. But they had a lot of intelligence in health and soon would have known that it was not contagious or hereditary.

It was probably the symptoms themselves at a mass scale that made pellagra a threat. A large number of people with aggression, confusion, and dementia could tear away at the seams of society, threatening the way of life of the Maya. This was probably the case of those who were banished. Of course life must have been hell for the first and second generation of people in the banished groups - the Huasteca, the Quiche, the Yucatec, and the others.

The Last Four Banishments: Olmec, Mam, Kanjobal, and Ulua

Another group banished from the Olomega region, in eastern El Salvador, was the Olmec. This story starts with an important oral history of the Lenca, a people from the same lineage as the Olmec. This story was recounted by Lenca Jaime Núñez.

Once upon a time, many years after one part of our kingdom slipped into the sea, the Manauele Lords wanted to send an expedition to search the sea and locate the 'lost part' of our land. They knew that the earth was a giant turtle. Ixo-Kelkele, his wife Ulul, and Chief Aranuka sailed out and never returned. Warriors, priests, servants, artisans, doctors, magicians, dancers, and navigators, and experts in reading the stars went with. They aided their direction by placing guiding lights inside bowls, floating on the water. Sailors believed the guiding bowls would float over the back of the sacred eels of the ocean (sea currents) & show them the way.

Las Tunas and Torola Beaches where Lenca legend says their kingdom split apart.

The Lenca interpret the slipping away of the kingdom as part of the land mass of southeast El Salvador sliding into the ocean. I interpret it as a large part of the humans in the kingdom sailing away - and eventually becoming the Olmec. The oral history seems to have Ixo-Kelkele and company sailing out to look for the departed portion of the kingdom when it is they themselves who are the departed portion of the kingdom. This is made even clearer by all the specialized people who left, including doctors, magicians and dancers - people who would not normally be on a search party.

Let's look at the names of the leaders. Ixo-Kelkele is ix tzo k'er kere means "separating the nest, motion to divide in two." Ulul is ul lul and means "explain the spots." Ulul is key in understanding that this dividing of the Olmec and leaving the Lenca was caused by pellagra, since spots are the first and most common symptom of pellagra. Finally, Aranuke is ahr la'an nuk ker, which means "the time of dividing due to fatigued necks." Fatigued necks come from the lack of coordination due to pellagra.

Several place names in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico fill in more of the story of the Olmec. First, it appears that their center of population in El Salvador was in the eastern part of San Miguel department. Uluazapa is ur was sahb pa' or "explain about patted masa tortillas." This name seems to have come when the Ch'orti' lineage came to visit to explain about pellagra. The neighboring village is Comacaran, which is k'om ak' ahr ahn in Ch'orti' or in English "time of running due to spliced skin." Spliced skin is one way of describing the skin lesions of pellagra. The big meeting between the Ch'orti' and the Olmec/Lenca seems to have taken place at Conchagua, 30 kilometers southeast of Comacaran and near the Gulf of Fonseca. Conchagua is kon cha' wa' and means "plan for two beings," referring to how the Olmec and Lenca would separate and become two peoples.

Vegetation-covered Quelepa mound in midground.

Twenty kilometers west of Uluazapa is Quelepa and this is where the remaining Olmec settled when the elite Olmec were forced to take to the seas. Eventually this Olmec remnant became known as the Lenca and Quelepa became their ceremonial center. They likely spoke proto-Lenca rather than Ch'orti' at the time but most were probably fluent in Ch'orti' and they used Ch'orti' as their naming/protocol language. Quelepa is ker leb pa' in Ch'orti' and means "divided by the patted masa." "Patted masa" means tortilla or corn. This clearly indicates the separation of the Olmec. Moncagua is a village five kilometers from Quelepa. It is mo on ka wa' and means "beginning of being restricted from the previous." The "previous" would mean the Olmec who were forced to leave, although this meaning might suggest that the two Olmec groups - those with pellagra and those without - were separated for some time before the sea departure.

The Olmec were sent by the Ch'orti' by boat west along the Pacific Coast, most likely departing near Las Tunas beach where the Lenca legend says their kingdom was ripped in two. By the time the Olmec were past the present-day border of El Salvador and Guatemala, it appears that small groups began to break off (or were forced) and went to shore. The Xinca may have been the first group. Xinca is chin kah or "shaking at the beginning" - a reference to pellagra. Lenca leader Leonel Chavez believes that the Xinca are related to the Lenca by language and lineage, supporting the idea that they were a break-off from the Olmec banishment.

The same - or a second - break-off group seems to have stopped at the shore near the site of Monte Alto in eastern Guatemala. The lack of inhibition due to pellagra may help explain some of the stone heads and potbellies made at Monte Alto starting in 1800 BCE (right). Many of the stones have magnetic properties.

The main group of Olmec immigrants probably settled at the Izapa site in southeast Mexico. Izapa has a meaning directly related to pellagra, ix sahb pa' or "movement from the patted masa." This indicates that Izapa was settled at the same time as Monte Alto, at the time of the Olmec banishment in about 1800 BCE. Izapa reached its peak in about 600 BCE. It has been debated whether it was a Maya or Olmec site. It was both and there was no difference in 1800 BCE.

Izapa. By Lorena Gutiérrez G (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About a kilometer from Izapa is the town of Tuxtla. It is tutz' tal ha' in Ch'orti' or "arriving by water and extending out." This name describes arriving by sea from El Salvador and then extending or spreading out once arriving at Izapa. The Olmec likely carried the Tuxtla name with them from Izapa to Veracruz and its famous Tuxtlas. The name Tuxtla also sees the collapsing of the tal sound to tl, something the Olmec may have contributed to the Nahuatl language later developed at Teotihuacan.

About ten kilometers east of Izapa in Guatemala is the town of Malacatan. In Ch'orti' it is mar lah k'at ahn or "crossing the sea from the fatigued current." The "fatigued current" is an expression for the Gulf of Fonseca. This expression was used repeatedly by the Chibcha when they left the Gulf several thousand years earlier. Technically, the Olmec may have left from the Pacific Ocean rather than the Gulf, but it would have been in the region of the Gulf of Fonseca. Malacatan helps to confirm the relationship between Olomega and Izapa and the relationship between the Olmec and the Lenca.

Pajón, 100 kilometers up the coast from Izapa, is another pre-Classic site. In Ch'orti' it is pa' on or "previous corn." The Olmec continued to grow corn that was untreated and continued to contribute to pellagra.

Two or three hundred years later, after nixtamal was invented, part of the Olmec community in the Izapa area moved to Veracruz, on the opposite side of Mexico, and became the famous Olmec civilization. If they walked northeast into Guatemala they would have reached small navigable rivers that drain into the Usumacinta River, thus minimizing time spent walking. Earlier I wrote about the links in place names between Veracruz and eastern El Salvador.

Ulua River, By Anjelkaido (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Olmec (and Purepacha) were not the only banishment from eastern El Salvador. Earlier I wrote about the Cacaopera, a group of Miskito-Matagalpa who came (back) to El Salvador to grow cacao along the Torola River. Part (or possibly all) of the Cacaopera community became infected with pellagra and they had to follow the instructions of the Ch'orti' too. The group that left went north to the Honduran Atlantic Coast and became the Ulua along the Ulua River. In Ch'orti', Ulua is ur lur and means "explain the spots." The spots are from pellagra. The Cacaopera-Ulua probably first settled at Ticamaya in the lower Ulua valley and not far from present-day Cholola. They also named their villages in Ch'orti', the language of protocol even beyond the Maya. Ticamaya is ti' ka ma yah and means "beginning of bad openings illness."

There was a third Olmeca/Lenca banishment, most likely a very small one just before nixtamal was invented. A group of Lenca with pellagra were sent from southeast El Salvador to northern Morazan, across the Torola River. The name Meanguera, a municipal seat just across the river is mah ahn k'er ha' in Ch'orti' and means "dividing those by the weak current water," a reference to the split in the Lenca who lived near the Gulf of Fonseca. Naming this place Meanguera (or Maanguera) was a bit of a faux pas, given that there is an island of the same name in the Gulf. This demonstrates that it was likely not an elite group that moved to Morazan.

Besides the Huasteca and Yucatec, there were two more internal Ch'orti' banishments from the "bad openings illness." It is hard to tell which came first or if they came before or after the Olmec. But since they landed on the coast slightly to the southeast of Izapa - closer to El Salvador - they likely came after the Olmec. These two Ch'orti' banishments became the Mam and the Panjobal people. From the place names it appears that these two banishments happened at about the same time and went to the same place - Takalik Abaj.

By Simon Burchell (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Takalik Abaj, in western Guatemala, is located 400 kilometers west-northwest of the mouth of the Lempa River. It is north of the regional center Retalhuleu. They likely came up the Samala River to the Ok River to Retalhuleu. Ok is "walk" or "walk from river" and the first two syllables of Retalhuleu mean "arrive with load." The two groups likely stopped first at Asintal, about a 16 kilometer walk from the Ok River. Asintal is ah sin tal and means "the series of arrivals." This name makes it clear that there was more than one migration but that the migrations happened at about the same time. The nearby river Ixchaya River, also close to Takalik Abaj, tells a similar story, it is ix cha' yah and means the "movement of two infected." This refers to two groups infected with pellagra and confirms that there were two migrations.

The names of the Mam and Kanjobal lineages and sub-lineages tell more about their starts during the pellagra crisis. Mam means "dark spots," a reference to the pellagra lesions. Of the sub-lineages of the Mam, Ixil and Tektitek appear to have initiated after the pellagra. The Awakatek, though, seem to speak of the move to Guatemala. It is ah wa' k'at tech and "the crossers while being open." The crossers refer to those who made the ocean passage from El Salvador to Guatemala. "Being open" refers to the pellagra lesions.

Kanjobal is kan ch'op par and means "learn of expulsion by boat." This makes it clear that the pellagra dispersion was not voluntary. The Güija lineage with pellagra, who would become the Kanjobal, were forced by the Güija lineage without pellagra, who would be the Chol-Ch'orti', to leave El Salvador. A sub-lineage is the Mocho, which is moch tzo or "fold up the nest" - leaving El Salvador. Another sub-lineage is the Tojolabal, which is toh hol ha' pal and means "offering on the boat on the head water." The "head water" likely means at the beginning of the trip on the head waters, such as at Lago Güija. The Chuj sub-lineage may be ch'uhch' which is "jerked" and would refer to being jerked away from their community in El Salvador. Even sub-languages that diverged much later from the Kanjobal appear to have acquired their name at the banishment time when they were already distinct family lineages. Similar to Awakatec, the Acatec is ah k'at tech and means "the opened crossers." The Jacaltec would be hak' ahr tech and would mean "diminishing of the opening up," referring to the time of getting better.

Not only were there banishment to the coasts of Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, there were further movements from these new population centers to the Gulf Coast and Pacific Coast of the present-day U.S. Several names of Native American nations indicate that they were founded out of the Maya pellagra crisis. Whether they were banished or left voluntarily is not clear. This will be covered in more detail in a separate post.

Discovering Lime and the Nixtamal Solution

It seems that soon after the last banishment, whether Mam or Kanjobal, the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage discovered the cure to pellagra. This discovery happened in present-day southern La Libertad department of El Salvador, with Huizucar and Jicalapa being key. Jicalapa was a long-time Maya community since about 7800 BCE, when the Güija flood refugees resettled there and Teotepeque. Much later, in about 1600 BCE, it seems that the Maya were gunpowder blasting at Huizucar, most likely improving the downflow of the Huizucar River. The Maya discovered gunpowder by 7600 BCE and used it mainly for public works projects. They must have blasted through limestone, creating a new substance which we call lime. Lime, or calcium oxide, does not occur naturally in nature. Limestone must be baked or blasted in order for lime to occur.

Lime or calcium oxide. By Chemicalinterest (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

They took the lime to Jicalapa to test it out. The name Huizucar has a double meaning. The first is wih suk kar and means "origin of lime while cutting." Cutting refers to the blasting work. The second meaning is wis uh kar and means "sacred lime protector." Tilapa, a village close to Huizucar is tihr lab pa' or "breaking down the patting masa (corn)", linking the discovery of lime to pellagra. Lime breaks down the corn so that niacin is released.

Corn that has been nixtamaled. By Glane23 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Several place names around Jicapala, 35 kilometers to the west of Huizucar, provide more details. Jicalapa itself is hix kal lab pa' or "lime to loosen patted masa (corn)." The river just east of Jicalapa is the Sensipa. This is xe'en sib pa', meaning "producing the swollen corn." Corn soaked in lime puffs out much more than corn that isn't.  Ten kilometers west of Jicalapa is Sihuapilapa, which is si wa' pi lab pa' or "number of companions are patting masa." Soaking the corn in lime and water is called nixtamal. This is ni ix tam al or "the time of no more moving inside." "Moving inside" is a reference to the runs caused by the untreated corn and is the same ix as in maix, which became maiz or maize.

Once the Chol-Ch'orti' Maya discovered the nixtamal solution to pellagra, it appears that they sent out emissaries to all the Mexico-Central American peoples, including the banished Maya. There are place names with many groups that reflect this time. One of the more obvious is El Baul, which became a pre-Classic Maya site of either the Mam or Kanjobal in coastal Guatemala. Baul is pa' ur or "explain the masa." While earlier it was necessary to explain the pellagra masa, now it was necessary to explain the nixtamal masa. One of the Kanjobal sub-lineages is the Jacaltec or hak' ahr tech, which means "diminishing of the opening up," explaining the impact as people began using the nixtamal process. And the river west of Takalik Abaj is the Nima which is ni mah or "no more badness," referring to nixtamal.

The process happened among the Olmec communities centered at Izapa. One other community where they likely settled was El Mesak, southeast several kilometers in Guatemala. Mesak is mes ak' and means "clean the skin." Mesak refers to skin being cleared up either because their diet became more diversified or the nixtamal process was shared with them. Even more obvious is the community of Petacalapa, about 10 km east of Izapa in Guatemala. Petacalapa is pet ha' kar la pa' and means "pour water with lime over patting masa (corn)."

The Chol-Ch'orti' also sent the nixtamal formula to the Purépecha, along the Guerrero/Michoacan coast. Petacalco, a town near the mouth of the Rio Balsas River, is very clear. It is: pet ha' kal k'o(y), which means "pour water over lime without vigor." The precise instructions let people know it wasn't necessary to shake or do much stirring. Sixty kilometers west, up the Pacific Coast, is Caleta de Campos, which is kal eht ha' k'am pos, or "in water tested the lime from useful black magic." The syllable pos or "black magic" is usually reserved for working with gunpowder. This town further links lime to the gunpowder usage at Huizucar, El Salvador. One gets a sense from Caleta de Campos, the re-telling of the story of how lime was discovered.

It appears that the Purépecha had already migrated partially inland at the time of nixtamal. Huetamo is a village about 120 kilometers inland from Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo. In Ch'orti it is weh tam h'o or "desirable pulp in the center," likely reference to nixtamaled corn. And about 80 kilometers west of Huetamo is Churumuco. While the name doesn't directly relate to pellagra or nixtamal, one gets the sense it may have been named at this time. In Ch'orti' it is ch'ur rum muk ho and means "good guardian spirit buried underground."

The Chol-Ch'orti' also sent people to the Ulua in northern Honduras and Belize. This is seen in the name Despoloncal in the lower Ulua River valley of Honduras. Despoloncal is tech bol on kal or "beads of lime open up the old corn." This name is interesting because it shows that there was an understanding that the corn was the same -the same "old" corn, but the process, the nixtamal, was different. In Belize, the village of Calcutta is near what may have been the original settlement of the Yucatek of Santa Rita. Calcutta is kal kut ha' or "patting with lime in the water." Thirty kilometers north is Bacalar, Mexico, which is pa' kal ahr, "time of the lime in corn."

Word of the nixtamal solution also reached the Totonac along the Veracruz coast. The clearest indication is the town of Calnali, in Hidalgo state, 140 kilometers west of Tuxpan. Calnali is kal nar ri in Ch'orti' and means "beside the lime for the corn," which seems to indicate that a source of limestone, and hence, lime was located near Calnali. The city of Xalapa might have been named after nixtamal. It is ha lahb pa' and means "water over rubbing masa (corn)." Colipa, about 120 kilometers north of Veracruz and 25 kilometers inland seems to be another location of limestone. Colipa is kor ri pa' and means "beside what frees the corn."

The Chol-Ch'orti's also explained to the Lenca in eastern El Salvador about the nixtamal process. The Lenca royal dynasties are called Taulepa, which is a Ch'orti' word t'a' ul lehp pa' and means "explain about flesh of patting corn." The Lenca date their royal lineage back to when the Ch'orti' explained the nixtamal process to them in about 1600 BCE.

Once the communities of the Chiapas-Guatemala coast learned the nixtamal process, they quickly became a center of cacao production which helped to fuel the pre-Classic development. The name Chiapas comes from this time period. It is ch'i' ap as or "practice growing the swinging (one)," referring to the cacao. To the northwest of Izapa along the coast is Pijijiapan or pi ch'i' ch'ih ap ban, which means "companions growing the good large swinging fruit (cacao)." Because the name uses the subject pi or "companions," it is clear that it was the Ch'orti' visiting the Chiapas coast who named this Olmec village.

Cacao also was grown along the Guatemala coast. Ujuxte is a pre-Classic site on the western coast of Guatemala. It is uh hux te' or "picking the sacred tree," referring to the cacao.  Takalik Abaj is a pre-Classic site and seems to have been near the first settlement of the Mam and Kanjobal. It is tak k'ar ik' ap pach' which means "dry in air, crush the swinging one, store." Again, the "swinging one" refers to the cacao. The name Takalik Abaj describes the processing of the cacao.

Questions and Conclusions

Two questions raised by the pellagra crisis related to the diet and to the long-term political relationships among the various Maya groups and states. Related to the diet, if the Maya knew that a diet heavy in corn was the cause of pellagra, why did they continue to eat a corn-heavy diet causing new pellagra outbreaks? Were they able to identify other sources of niacin like fish?

The second question is to what extent did the pellagra crisis cause long-term instability, resentments and aggression between the Chol-Ch'orti' and all the other Maya? Did it cause any role in the break-down of Maya unity during the Classic period when many city-states were warring with each other?

There are several conclusions about the pellagra crisis.

First, the pellagra crisis delayed the flowering of the Maya civilization by 500 to 1000 years. The delay was caused by energy devoted to the crisis rather than development from about 2400 BCE to 1700 BCE and by confusion, difficulty in maintaining cultural memory, and perhaps lack of succession due to the more serious effects of pellagra such as aggression, dementia, and death. 

On the other hand, the development delay was mitigated partially by the new-found independence of the various lineages as they were banished by the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage. The earliest Maya-Olmec structures near Monte Alto and Izapa are an expression of independence and perhaps rebellion from the control of the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage, in addition to being expressions of beauty and spirituality.

A third conclusion is that the pellagra crisis was the primary cause of the dispersion of the Maya, including the Huasteca in northeast Mexico, the Quiche in northwest Mexico before they returned to Guatemala, the Yucatec to Yucatan and Belice, the Olmec, first to the Chiapas-Guatemala coast and then Veracruz, and the Mam and Kanjobal to Guatemala, along with related lineages. At the same time it left few Maya in El Salvador. This is the reason that El Salvador is generally seen on the periphery of the Maya world (if even that), when it was the center of Maya development for more than 6,000 years, from 8200 BCE to 1800 BCE. It is likely that the Chol-Ch'orti' lineage that remained in El Salvador, i.e. at Chalchuapa, retained, at least among some, a senior status until at least 500 BCE.

Relatedly, the pellagra crisis explains why the Maya languages split into six major groups between 3500 and 4500 years ago (Huasteca, Quiche, Yucatec, Mam, Kanjobal, Chol-Ch'orti'). A more normal evolution of languages would suggest a tree structure of the languages rather than so many breaks within several hundred years.

Finally, through the pellagra crisis, the Maya learned the hard way about the dangers of mono-cropping and a mono-diet. Corn was being grown as the major crop of every community and was the major part of most families' diets. This caused the pellagra crisis. It is possible that once the Maya learned nixtamal they continued mono-cropping corn. However, it could be that the Maya responded to the crisis with a bigger emphasis on beans and squash and began the practice of the three sisters: corn, beans and squash, and more sustainable agricultural practices in general.

The Sky Lords: Mayan Bird-human at Eclipse Time

Cultures around the world have birdman images. The Maya are no exception, including multiple very-stylized images at Palenque, Mexico. This blog post will explore the meaning of the bird-human motif in Maya culture by re-translating inscriptions at Palenque and Quirigua, Guatemala, using Ch'orti', the language closest to that used in Classic era Maya writing. (I would argue that Ch'orti' is the language used in the Classic era.) The inscriptions associate the birdman with eclipses and use a practical style language more fitting for describing human history than mythology.

Palenque, Temple of the Cross (l), by tato grasso (Own work (personal work)) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via <br>Wikimedia Commons

The inscriptions at Palenque and Quirigua describe events that the Maya dated to between 3147 BCE and 2325 BCE. Because there has been scant record of the Maya prior to 2000 BCE it has been assumed that the events described are mythological. Now that this blog has established a much earlier record for the Maya - the ruins and corn fields of Teotipa, El Salvador, from 8200 to 7836 BCE, the Tiguilotada stone on Isla Tigre, Honduras, which corresponds to astronomical events of 8208 BCE, and the Mars retrograde long count calendar potentially dating back to 8680 BCE - the events described at Palenque and Quirigua and other sites must be reexamined as potentially historical descriptions.

Previously I have documented that the Mayan long-count calendar turned over on April 28, 3114 BCE, rather than August 11 or August 13, 3114. This is based on Mars retrograde long count dates mentioned in the Popol Vuh and confirmed by correlating planetary conjunctions with Classic era ruler accession dates. Therefore for dates prior to 1582 CE, I use a Julian-tzolk'in correlation number of 584178. I also documented that the (regular) Maya long-count calendar was created to track both the timing and the location of eclipses over time, using both the katun and baktun positions of the long-count calendar, as it interacts with the 260-day tzolk'in calendar. Eclipses occur only within three 33-day sections of the tzolk'in, each one corresponding, although not exclusively, to a different area of the globe. Thus, where an eclipse fell in the tzolk'in helped the Maya in determining where on the globe the eclipse occurred.

At about the same time as the Maya acquired the ability to track eclipses, confirmed by a solar eclipse in 3122 BCE and a lunar eclipse in 3121 BCE, according to Palenque inscriptions, they began to celebrate eclipses with the bird-human, possibly for the first time in 3113 BCE. Whether the bird-human celebration was done with a costume to commemorate a bird deity or was done with a flying suit where the Maya actually glided is difficult to show.

There is no known archeological evidence for gliding. The best evidence may be the text, the poetry, of the inscriptions themselves. The longest inscription is at Palenque, translated here, but there are shorter ones at Quirigua, as presented here, and at Tila and on the "vase of the seven gods" (Naranjo), which are not presented here.

Temple of the Cross, Palenque, by tato grasso (Own work (personal work)) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via <br>Wikimedia Commons

Palenque lies in the northern part of Chiapas state in Mexico. It is one of the westernmost Maya sites and, somewhat similar to Copan, is known for its fine architecture, art, and waterworks. In my study of Mayan ruler accession dates, Palenque stood out for having no Jupiter conjunctions at the time of its known accession dates. The Temple of the Cross may have more inscriptions regarding Maya history before 2000 BCE than any other Maya structure. Here's the translation, first, of the eclipses at about the time of the calendar turning over in 3114 BCE. This is from Understanding Maya Inscriptions, a Hieroglyph Handbook, 2nd Rev. Ed., John F Harris and Stephen K. Stearns.

Maya	English
8 Ahchuk (Ahaw) 18 Sek	12.19.13.4.0 (Aug 22, 3121 BCE)
Sihi He(rme)na(t') Sak	Search at the time of the distant white shadow
8.5.0 sihi	And the search 8.5.0 (2980 days) before
iwal u (?) 4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u	the cliff opening on 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE)
homi 13 bak'tuns	at the end of 13 baktuns

The Palenque inscriptions begin with a date of August 22, 3121 BCE (using correlation 584178), about six years and eight months before the calendar turned over in 3114 BCE. A search was made for a distant white shadow - an eclipse. The Maya had developed a methodology not only to time eclipses but to also predict their location.

The third and fourth lines go together. The third line says that there was another search 8.5.0 or 2980 days before the calendar turning over on 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE). This would be a Mayan date of 12.19.11.13.0 (previous cycle) or March 1, 3122 BCE, which would have been a new moon, according to the Solex astronomy program. An eclipse on this day would have been a solar eclipse.  There are 540 days between March 1, 3122 and August 22, 3121 BCE. This is two complete tzolk'in cycles plus 20 days. They both took place on Ahchuk (Ahaw) day. This helps explain how the Maya tracked eclipses at this time. (Most likely they alternated between 500 and 540 days. Three eclipse seasons are equal to about 520 days - two tzolk'ins.)

The two eclipses were in the same geographic tzolk'in zone, which basically are zones that cover 1/3 of the earth's longitude that each correspond to one of three specific zones of the tzolk'in. This introduction clearly places the remainder of the story in the context of searching for eclipses. And it may imply that the fourth sun calendar was turned over in 3114 BCE because it was at that time that the Maya figured out how to track eclipses.

Maya	English
(Since) 1.9.2	1.9.2 after 13.0.0.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE
halihi k'o b(a)	Weaving the body of the bird beak
k'a chan yax ux tun nal	happiness in the sky, first three stones in the distance
och ta(n) chan	entered the sky of the interior
in nal y(e) tzuk	first ? in the old distant place
13 Ik' 20 Mol	1.9.2.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE
hoy wakah chan nal	Beginning of being full of pleasure in a distant sky
waxik na tzuk	Eight vanishing old ones
uk'aba ch'ul	his happy hanging body / his sacred name
yotot xaman	North House

The above section of inscription represents a second introduction and links eclipse event to the bird weave - hanging events. After establishing the date of October 21, 3113 BCE, the passage directly speaks of weaving a bird body. Since the Maya believed that a falcon or falcon human rose in the sky to eat the sun or moon at the time of the eclipse, it is clear that they established a bird-human custom at eclipse time in 3113 BCE. Either they dressed up in the bird suit at eclipse time or they actually tried to glide in the bird suit.

The next line should clear things up - they were gliding - "happiness in the sky". Or this is a story about some deities who were gliding. However it has been my experience that the Maya do not speak of deities in this way. It is clear that the events mentioned took place in a distant location. A similar passage of this same event is recorded at Quirigua and gives clues about the location but it is not my purpose at this time to discuss the location. A later line is similar: "beginning of being full of pleasure in a distant sky." The sentiment here again leans toward an understanding that the Maya were gliding.

The phrase "first three stones in the distance" is referring to either the place mentioned above or to three stones used with the bird man suit: each hand grasping one and the third perhaps placed in the mouth.

The phrase "first ? in the old distant place" probably refers to an eclipse series - such as, first eclipse since the old cycle ended. There is a similar phrase later in the inscription, "eight vanishing old ones", where vanishing likely means an eclipse and 'old ones' appear to be a eclipse series that started in the old time, i.e. before 3114 BCE. A date is given of 1.9.2.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE using the 584178 correlation. This date was 37 days before a full moon lunar eclipse on November 27, 3113 BCE. It also was about 135 days after a prior eclipse season. The Nov. 27 lunar eclipse was in a different geographic tzolk'in zone from the ones mentioned earlier in 3122 and 3121 BCE. Those were in a visibility zone that most likely corresponds to the Americas, which would mean that the 3113 BCE eclipse was in the Africa-Middle East-South Asia visibility zone. It also could be that in 3113 BCE the Maya had not yet associated the bird-human ceremony with eclipses.

The Ch'orti' phrase uk'aba ch'ul is interesting because it has two meanings which any Mayan would have understood. In a more literal meaning it is "his happy hanging body" while a more spiritual meaning is "his sacred name". Given the earlier lines about happiness in the sky, the hanging body seems without a doubt to be referring to someone (person or deity) hang gliding. The story then skips 750 years ahead.

Maya	English
1.18.3.12.0 (since)	1.18.3.12.0 since the previous story
Petihi wak(a) chan ki(x)	(since) beginning to stack the ordered sky series
in nal ye tzuk	first of the old cycles
iwal hul mata wil	closed light, wrap wings
9 Ik' 15 Keh	On 1.18.5.3.2 (July 6, 2360 BCE)
u ? ka b(a) mata wil	they began to wrap their bodies in wings
u bah u ch'am (w)il sak	they themselves searched and gathered the wings
ox ya ch'ok le(b) na'(t)	sore feet beat, inexperienced knowledge (?)
2.1.7.11.2 sihi	2.1.7.11.2 since search
iwal k'al sak in	the place of the previous withheld white light
tu u bah sak? 9 Ik' 0 Sak	it was agreed upon to go searching for this light on 2.0.0.10.2 (May 23, 2325 BCE)

The next part of the story tells us that about 750 years have gone by, since they started to stack (track) the eclipse series in the sky. On the occasion of the first of the old eclipse ("closed light") series they wrapped themselves in wings. The break of 750 years makes me believe that the bird-human tradition was not continuous - there was a long break before it was reinitiated in 2360 BCE.

They (once again) began to wear the wing suits. They created the wing suits themselves, searching for the best wings, most likely falcon wings. (The falcon is the bird associated with eclipses.) Perhaps they even went to the Andes to gather the Andean falcon wings. The next line, the 8th in this series, is unclear, but ox yah is sore feet. I take this line to mean that their inexperience with how to glide and land led to hard landings and sore feet, beat by the hard earth during landings.

The last three lines move us about 800 years past the time of the first eclipse searches. First they say that it is 2.1.7.11.2 since the (first?) search in the place of the previous eclipse ("withheld white light"). A decision was made in 2325 BCE by the Maya - to search for an eclipse. This suggests that they didn't search for every eclipse - probably logistically impossible, even with multiple teams. Using the date of 2.0.0.10.2 and counting back 2.1.7.11.2 gives a date of September 28, 3147 BCE, 12 Ahchuk, for the first search, 33 years before the calendar turned over. Interestingly, this day is also an Ahchuk (Ahaw) day like the earlier dates in 3122 and 3121 BCE, confirming that they were using this day sign to track eclipses. The next part of the inscription takes us to a tragic event in July of 2360 BCE.

Maya	English
13 Chamer 19 Keh	1.18.5.3.6 (July 10, 2360 BCE)
ahyal sihi k'in ich tah wayib	The young hurler, sun secreting wilted pitch
k'in tan [? headless jaguar]	heat in the interior, death?
ti sak nah(t) sak ba ka nah(m)	distant search, beginning of the search for his vanished body
chan? ahtin k'ak'	the one clinging in the sky; fire (or heat)
k'a ? k'in ich ahchuk k'in	remember sun secreting, the one who observes the sun
1.18.5.3.6 petihi	1.18.5.3.6 since stacking (July 10, 2360 BCE)
wa ka chan ki(li)	Beginning of being the sky falcon
iwal hul mata wil	place of closed light, wrap the wings around himself
u bah u ch'am	that he had gathered himself
he(l) m(e)n al na(t) sak	the time of the similar shadow, the distant search
ch'ul ahchuk	sacred hanging observant lord
9.12.18.5.16 halihi k'ob	9.12.18.5.16 since weaving a bird beak body (April 7, 690 CE)
k'a chan yax ux tun na(t)	remembering in the sky first three stones in the distance
4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u	13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE)

This event takes place four days after the re-initiation of the bird-human tradition on July 6, 2360 BCE, recounted above. The story begins with ahyal or "the one who hurls", which easily could describe someone jumping off a ledge with a bird suit. It then describes the sun wilting (melting) the pitch (glue), causing it to secrete. The next line has an unknown glyph, a headless jaguar. Perhaps it describes a death, a death that took place in the heat of the interior. Then there is a search for his body in a distant place. The search for the one who had been clinging up in the sky in the heat.

The sixth line has two or three meanings (at least). On the one hand it is a warning to remember the hot sun which can melt, to be observant of the sun. A second meaning is to remember flower day, Ahchuk day. Flower day - Xochitl in Aztec - is the same as Ahchuk (Ahaw) day in the tzolk'in. Ahchuk was the day associated with tracking eclipses, at least in 3100 BCE. A third possible meaning is more pious "Remember flower sun, lord sun."

The inscription then begins a second poetic re-telling of the July 10, 2360 BCE event in an effort to honor the fallen one who died that day. First it links him to the beginning of the sky falcon tradition, the bird associated with eclipses. It locates the sky falcon at the place of closed light (an eclipse). It says that the sky falcon had wrapped wings around himself, wings that he himself had gathered.

Then it uses the phrase "similar shadow" to make it clear that they were tracking eclipses in different series, much like the modern Saros series. And it places the search for the eclipse in a distant place, i.e. not Central America. The next phrase ch'ul ahchuk has a double meaning which I included in the translation - it could mean "observe while hanging" or it could mean "sacred lord". I think both are meant.

The last three lines above (although the inscription continues) link the time current when the inscriptions were made - 690 CE - with the tradition of the three stones in the sky that began on or about 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE). Next we move to another temple at Palenque, which uses very similar language as the Temple of the Cross.

Temple of the Foliated Cross, Palenque

Maya	English
1 Ahchuk 13 Mak	1.18.5.4.0 (July 24, 2360 BCE)
u ux tal sihi	Their third arrival searching
tzuk chak ch'a(t) k'a wi(l) al winik	remembering the time of the previous two winged men at the red opening
ux ahal ch'ul	the third time for hanging
ch'ok k'a wi(l) al	remembering the first times of the wing

The opening lines of Palenque's Temple of the Foliated Cross are very revealing. It begins with a third date in July 2360 BCE and it tells us that it is their third time of arriving somewhere to search (for an eclipse). This tells us that the other two dates in July 2360 BCE (already mentioned) were stops or arrivals at places as they were tracing the path of the same eclipse. Based on the 3122 BCE eclipse date mentioned above, we know that there was a June 2 solar eclipse and a June 16 lunar eclipse in 2360 BCE so the Maya were likely searching for the path of one of those eclipses.

The Maya did not know exactly where the eclipses would take place but they got close and would travel by ocean, river, or land to trace its path, doing multiple ceremonies along the long path of eclipse. The bird-human ceremonies did not necessarily take place on the day of the eclipse but often in the months that followed.

The third line memorializes the two previous bird-humans (or bird-deities), at least one of whom died in the ceremony. The red opening is another way of saying eclipse, most likely referring to the solar eclipse, marked by its red tones. July 24, 2360 BCE was the third time in 2360 for the hanging (bird-human) ceremony. The Temple of the Foliated Cross then moves forward about 35 years to 2326 BCE.

Maya	English
iwal homi ka pih	place of light completed two bak'tuns (2.0.0.0.0)
2 Ahchuk 3 Wayeb	November 3, 2326 BCE
utzak ch'ul he(l) men al na(t) sak	He urged to go hang and search distantly at the time of the shadow.
ch'ul mata wil ahchuck	wrap around wings, hanging observer, sacred lord
u ti yax hal	his first clinging to the weaving
witz sak nik	shaking at the white mountain
yinal nat(e) k'an al	time of distant fondness

The next part of the inscription of the Temple of the Foliated Cross begins by establishing a date of 2.0.0.0.0 - November 3, 2326 BCE. This could be an exact date or meant to indicate an era. A date of 2 Ahchuk was in a tzolk'in eclipse zone at that time. I believe that 2.0.0.0.0 was an approximate date and that the date of 2.0.0.10.2 (May 23, 2325 BCE), mentioned above at the Temple of the Cross, is the more precise date for this event. The tradition of searching for eclipses and doing the bird-human ceremony began in 3113 BCE, possibly renewed in 2360 BCE, so this passage is not about a beginning event but about a special event.

As before it happened at a time of an eclipse and involved weaving a bird body and wrapping around wings. Then the key line in the passage: witz sak nik - shaking at the white mountain. On this occasion the bird-human ceremony and the bird-human gliding, if you are so inclined to believe that, happened at the summit of a white (snowy) mountain. It was so exhilarating that the bird-human was shaking. It was a time of enjoyment or fondness somewhere in the distance. In a later writing I will name and describe this distant place.

Palenque is not the only site that talks about the bird-human ceremony. Quirigua provides a good description of the bird man suit.

Stela C, Quirigua, by Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (Guatemala-0569) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Quirigua is a site in eastern Guatemala along the Motagua River. It is often thought of as a sister site to Copan, which it then defeated in 738 CE. It has the tallest stela anywhere in the Mayan world and is near the only source of jade in Mesoamerica. Stela C at Quirigua has the most descriptive language about the details of the bird-human weave. This passage goes back to 3114 BCE when the first bird-human ceremony took place in a distant place. Palenque inscriptions say the ceremony actually took place in 3113 BCE.

Maya	English
13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u	April 28, 3114 BCE
hala k'o ba	weaving the bird beak body
k'ala ux tun	hold onto three stones
u tz'a pa	his body over the wetness
tun (jaguar paddler, stingray paddler)	stones at the bow and stern
u tin(a) ho chan	he was clinging to the five in the sky
hix tz'am tun	movement over the moisture stone
u tz'a pa tun	his body over water and stone
ek' na(m) yax	disappearing down for the first time
uti ka b(ir) chan tz'am tun	the beginning of when they made a path in the sky over water and stone
iwal ut k'al tun	place of opening in the cliff, holding onto the stones
na(t) itzam hi(n)	distant place of dampness shed
nab tz'am ? tun	water and stone that have passed out of memory
uti k'a chan	where they were happy in the sky
yax ux tan na(t)	first time three stones in the distance
homi uxlahun pih	13 baktuns ended
u kahi wa k(a) chan ahchuk	it began: the beginning of being sky lords

The Quirigua stela is less precise in its dates for the first bird-human event, using the turn of the calendar on April 28, 3114 BCE as a general time frame, rather than the precise October 21, 3113 BCE date used at Palenque. Like Palenque, Stela C talks about weaving the bird beak body but then uses a different phrase k'ala ux tun when mentioning the three stones. It means "hold onto three stones." One can imagine the arms spread wide each grasping a stone acting as a hub for a section of wings. The third stone would have been at the chest or, less likely, placed in the mouth.

The bird-human glided over water - either a lake, a river, or a marsh. Next are glyphs with the word "stone(s)", then the jaguar paddler and the stingray paddler. The jaguar paddler is always at the front of the boat and the stingray paddler at the rear. So I take their meaning here to be bow and stern - one stone above the bird-human's head and another stone by his/her feet. The stone at the chest would have connected the two axis. The next line confirms this interpretation - the bird-human is clinging to the five stones - three across, one bow, one stern - up in the sky.

The next few lines are beautiful poetry when spoken in Ch'orti'. The English meaning of the seventh line from the top is somewhat obscure. Movement would be ix rather than hix. And moisture stone is unclear - it is most likely referring to a specific place name where this took place. The stela describes the dangers - being over water and stone, as (s)he descends for the first time. It was the beginning of making a sky path. This line could also be translated "wet stone held in the mouth in the sky", making the case for the center stone to be placed in the mouth. But this interpretation doesn't fit the poetry as well.

The following line goes back to before the gliding of the bird-human to a location at a cliff. The next lines tell us that it was a distant place which had passed out of memory by the time that the Quirigua inscriptions were made. They had forgotten the exact place where they were first happy in the sky but not that they had become sky lords (literally "sky observers") (soon after) 13 baktuns had ended in 3114 BCE.

A collaborating bit of evidence is the Mayan day sign Ahmok (Cib), which has a double meaning. On one hand it means "the sick one". On the other hand, as ahmo' it means "the bird one". This meaning is confirmed by the Aztec, where this day sign means vulture or falcon.

Finally, through place names I have located a place where the Maya appear to have practiced the bird-human. Matamaras is the name of a cave near San Fernando, Chalatenango, El Salvador. It is in a very mountainous area about 50 kilometers from Igualtepec, which is where the Ch'orti' were living in 3114 BCE. The cave is located near the old colonial village of Mataras. Mataras in Ch'orti' means "time of practicing the wrap around". Matamaras means "time of practicing the wrap around in the interior". There are many mountains and small cliffs in the San Fernando area.

Representation of the Aztec (Mexica) god Huitzilopochtli, from the recto of the folio 5 of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (16th century).

Conclusions and Implications

1. The Maya began tracking the eclipse cycles by 3147 BCE, if not earlier. They were tracking both the timing and the location of the eclipses. The eclipses of 3122 and 3121 BCE were critical in finalizing and confirming the eclipse cycle methodology, preparing the way for the new calendar to start in 3114 BCE. Importantly, the period from 3147 to 3114 BCE would be within the lifespan of one generation.
2. The Maya bird-human tradition began in 3113 BCE, soon after the turning over of the calendar, in a distant place, called Itzamna(t), that included a cliff, stones, and water. The bird-human ceremony would take place in the location of each eclipse (or each significant eclipse), in the weeks following the eclipse. (Most likely only solar eclipses.) The bird-human suit included wings gathered by the bird-human and five stones - one for each hand, one in the center, one at the crown of the head, and one at the feet.
3. Possibly the bird-human ceremony was discontinued from 3113 BCE to 2360 BCE. In any case, the bird-human ceremony gained new significance following an eclipse in 2360 BCE. The Maya made three stops in their search for the eclipse path. (The arc of an eclipse can span hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers.) The bird-humans seem inexperienced - they hurt their feet with their bad landings and one plummets to an unfortunate end when the pitch or glue used to attach the wings melts in the hot sun. By the third stop the bird-humans succeed, which may have renewed or re-invigorated the bird-human ceremony.
4. One other significant event is recorded with the bird-human ceremony, in November 2326 BCE, or possibly May 2325 BCE, in a distant place on a snowy mountain that caused the bird-human to shake.
5. Many of the so-called Mayan gods, such as Itzamna, Kawil, G1, G2, and G3, are simply descriptions of places or events. They are meant to be historical not mythological, if one can make that distinction. It is possible that other "gods" are not gods at all. They should be re-examined using Ch'orti' as the primary translating language.
6. Generally, some of the inscriptions at various Maya sites are likely mistranslated because they use a Mayan language other than Ch'orti'. Genealogies and accession events are straight forward but other Classic-era inscriptions should be re-translated using Ch'orti', the language of the ancients and the one used at the Classic-era sites.

For the moment we don't know of the overlap between this Mayan story and that of Icarus. There are some parallels. More on that at a later time.

It is impossible to know if the Maya actually glided. Are they describing a mythological person who glided or actual persons? The language used - of grabbing on to the stones, being happy in the sky, and of sore feet - is human, but they could be giving human qualities to a mythological person. Yet, the sophistication of the bird suit, with two axis and five stones (or hubs), seems to go beyond a suit that would be worn for ceremonial purposes only. At the least, traveling the world to track the path of eclipses over thousands of miles and for a time period of thousands of years and incorporating a bird-human ceremony, is a very impressive feat.

Tehuacan - The Learner. Origin of the Zapotecs

In this blog post I will establish the Zapotecs as one of the four Mayan heritages that had their beginnings at Isla Tigre, Honduras, and then on four islands in El Salvador. The Zapotec-ancestor island, at the mouth of the Lempa River (left), was called Teoahkan, which changed over time to Tehuacan among the Zapotec ancestors. Due to the rising ocean level the Zapotec ancestors moved to the area now called Puebla, Mexico, and brought the Tehuacan name along with corn seeds with them. It seems they found avocados in the Tehuacan valley and sent them back to El Salvador.

The four grandfathers of Mesoamerica are Akbar, Kinche (Quitze), Maix (Majukutaj), and Ik, the latter translated as Dark Jaguar by Tedlock. Another translation is Evening and refers to the shift that Ik took in leading the four rafts from South America to El Salvador. The Popol Vuh says that Ik had no sons:

"These three had sons, but Dark Jaguar had no son." (Tedlock, pg. 174)

But Ik is mentioned many times in the Popol Vuh, including the more than 500 years on Isla Tigre when the Mayan ancestors learned how to cultivate (tobacco) and first domesticated animals, starting with the macaw parrot. Clearly the original Ik had offspring and his lineage continued. For much of the time that the Popol Vuh speaks of the four Mayan founders it is speaking of their lineage not the person directly.

So what does the Popol Vuh mean when it says that Ik had no son? It is a reference to the Maya losing track of Ik's lineage when they left. Ik is the founder of the lineage which became the Zapotec and Mixtec people. The Kiowa and the Hopi also partly share this lineage. Depending on the inflection and context, Ik' can mean air, atmosphere, wind, dusk, or dark. From about 8200 BCE to 6800 BCE Ik's lineage lived on various islands at the mouth of the Rio Lempa in El Salvador, each or at least the first called Teoahkan - "island of the learner" in Ch'orti', a language very similar to what they spoke in 8200 BCE.

Symbolically it was important for the Ik' lineage to live at the mouth of the Lempa - the Ak'bar lineage lived at one of the sources of the Lempa, Lago Guija. To have people at each end of the great river of the land they lived in completed the symbolism. Even more it was important in a practical sense: the Ak'bar and Kinche lineages would cut logs far upstream for the construction of ocean-faring sail rafts. Someone had to be at the mouth of the river to intercept the logs and assemble them into rafts.

The lower Lempa River is a volatile, changing place, especially when the Ik' lineage moved there in about 8200 BCE. The ocean was quickly rising from climate change and glacial melt. No doubt the island that they first lived on was submerged after several hundred years, or even quicker. But they had to continue to live on islands to escape their arch-enemies, the Xibalbhans, who had earlier captured them and who were afraid of water.

The constant floods and the rising water are supported by the Ik's partner's name: Kaqixaja. Tedlock translates this Macaw House. It is:

Kah - start, beginning
Kiix - already, by now, by then
Aja - water

This could be translated "already water and beginning of the (rising) water" referring to living at the side of the ocean and then having the ocean continue to rise.

The Lempa itself often changes course during floods, cutting new channels, such as the Izcanal (left), and creating new islands. It is interesting that the name Iz canal is so similar to Ik', the lineage founder of the Zapotec. An example of the changing course of the Lempa is that it seems probable that the Lempa used to empty into the Bahia de Jiquilisco, seen on the right of the photo. And the Lempa, center of the photo, carries a large amount of silt downstream, depositing it at the mouth. This is seen in the name of the community Zamoran, about 14 kilometers from the current mouth on the east side of the river.

San - swelling (Ch'orti')
Mohr - pile, things brought together
Ahn - a running; race

Ahn could refer to a current, which would make it "swollen pile formed by a current" - an area silted over. Recently the ancient bones of a woman and a child were excavated at Zamoran.

And then there is the place called Nancuchiname, now a national forest on the east side of the river 15 to 20 kilometers north of the mouth.

Nak - side of (Ch'orti')
Kuchi - carry on back, transport
Nam - vanishing, disappearance

It was beside or across the bank from the place of transport that disappeared, either from a river flood or the rising ocean. Nancuchiname reminds us of the significance of the lower Lempa in the transportation system of the Mayan and Zapotec ancestors.

One more example of the volatility of the lower Lempa, and the reason why the Zapotec ancestors may have seen the need to migrate away, is the lagoon called Talquezal.

Tal - a coming, arrival
Ker - dividing in half
Tz'ah - wetness

"Coming of the wetness which divides in half." Perhaps this is referring to a Lempa flood where half of the river over-ran the banks and divided itself in two. When the flood was over the lagoon was left.

A long time after the Ik' lineage left for Mexico, the Maya built a structure in remembrance of them and called it Tehuacan - "island of the learner". It is built on the flank of the Chichontepec volcano. No doubt Tehuacan was important for the Nahuat (Pipil) people who migrated from Mexico in between 1000 and 1500 CE, some from the area of Tehuacan, Puebla. It was like coming home. In a way, it was coming home. The search was over.

The Popol Vuh refers to the Zapotec ancestors as the Saqik (Tedlock, 1996, pg 184). The translation in Ch'orti' is pertinent:

Sahk : a hunt, a search
Ik' : the wind, dusk

Wind-hunter or wind-chaser. One who travels, who eventually sought out the future in the direction of the dusk, the west. But there is a double meaning, Ik' was also the name of the lineage-bearer of the Zapotecs, who became separated from the Maya. So Saqik also means "to search for the lost Ik' lineage".

I think that when the Zapotec ancestors left for Mexico in about 6800 BCE, that the Maya seeded a new community in the lower Lempa, partly to continue to receive the logs for the ocean rafts floating down the Lempa, but also due to the very good soils in the floodplain. However, while they planted close to the river, the community was likely a day's half walk away at the higher elevation to avoid both the ocean which was continuing to rise due to climate change and the river which frequently floods. The ocean was much higher then in than now in relative terms because of the historical trend for the Central America coast to be rising, caused by the Caribbean sub-continental plate rising above the Cocos sub-plate. The location of the new Ch'orti' community was likely at the Tehuacan archeological site on the flanks of the Chichontepec volcano or the nearby Tehuacan Ecological Park. The Maya kept the name Tehuacan, due to their belief in the sacredness of names.

Later the Maya would build structures at the Tehuacan site. There are at least four structures visible under the planted corn and the double-coned volcano of Chichontepec, literally the "breast peaks".

When the Tehuacan Ecological Park was being built many old and very old pieces of ceramic and formed rock were found. Many of these are found in their viewing room - photos are in the gallery below. A swimming pool was excavated and when it was filled with water, it leaked out over several hours. The floor was examined, a hole was found. It was chipped away to create a hole big enough for persons to lower themselves in. They found a rock-lined tunnel - a tunnel going in the direction of the Tehuacan ruins, a tunnel that runs for who knows how many kilometers. They were not prepared to adequately and safely explore it so they sealed it up and re-filled the stream-fed swimming pool by diverting a stream that flows from a spring up the volcano.

Not all the pieces at the Ecological Park's viewing room are from the Classic or even pre-Classic period. Some are much earlier, like the carved rock at right. This likely dates to a period earlier than 2000 BCE. Perhaps it was created to remember the Zapotec ancestors who moved to Mexico.

To where did the Zapotec ancestors migrate about 6800 BCE from the lower Lempa River? They probably scouted out various places on many trips before moving. Puebla's Tehuacan valley must have been attractive for its cool climate and avocados. That was one location. But it appears that they moved around and one other location without a doubt was the Balsas River valley where corn dated to 6700 BCE was found, in an area near the border of Michoacan, Guerrero and Mexico state (map, below). This is within the current natural range of balsas teosinte. It was necessary to continue hybridizing the corn with teosinte to make it more resistant and a stronger plant. By 6800 BCE it is possible that the range of balsas teosinte had shifted definitively northwest from Central America to southwest Mexico. The Balsas valley is 350 to 400 kilometers west of Tehuacan.

Tehuacan also gave its name to Teotihuacan, as the Zapotecs were one of the primary components of the Teotihuacanos. In Tehuacan valley the Zapotecs may have stayed at a cave called Coxcatlan. They definitely used it as a rain shelter and food storage. Plant matter has been dated within the cave starting in 8000 to 7000 BCE until just before colonial times, including avocados. Coxcatlan is highly likely to be a derivation of Cuxcatlan, the name that the Zapotec ancestors gave to the central region of El Salvador. When they arrived in Mexico they named their first home after their homeland. While the Zapotec language was already moving away from Ch'orti' when they left it is possible to gain a good idea of the meaning of Cuxcatlan.

Kux - birth, sprouting, come to life
Kat - super natural being
K'at - cross, crossing of two objects
Katu' - moon
K'uxkatu' - lunar eclipse
Waran - light, shiny, radiant

There is no phrase lan in Ch'orti', but waran seems plausible. The 'r's and 'l's would have been interchangeable. So the difference is the wa at the beginning. There are three related possibilities: "birth of radiant super natural being", "birth of crossing of two radiant objects", or "radiant lunar eclipse". The first one seems like a more abstract use of language than I have seen at ~7000 BCE, so I discount it. The second could be describing a lunar eclipse, so the third one is my inclination. It could be referring to a powerful lunar eclipse or perhaps when they first began to predict the eclipses.

Cuxcatlan is a Mayan-Zapotec word that seems to be referring to a radiant sky event, most likely a lunar eclipse. In Mexico the Zapotecs then pronounced it Coxcatlan, but it is the same word as what became Cuscatlan in El Salvador.

The Otomi are from the same background as the Zapotec, both speaking an Oto-Manguean language. Otomi is a name that originates from the move from El Salvador. It is ot ohom mi or "shelter for cats from the foam." Cats refer to the Maya (and Zapotec/Otomi) people. Foam refers to the ocean and the fact that the Zapotec/Otomi were fleeing the rising ocean when they moved to Mexico.

The Zapotec ancestors moved to the Oaxaca valley, perhaps between 3000 and 2000 BCE. Others of their lineage stayed in the Tehuacan valley, while others moved to the Cholula or the central Mexico area.

The Zapotec ancestors found avocados in the Tehuacan valley, likely on their scouting trips before they moved there according to the archeological evidence. At some point they brought avocados back to the lower Lempa River. We know this because "West Indies" avocados, a lowland avocado, developed separately from the Mexican highland avocado. From the El Salvador-Guatemala coast the avocado was taken at a later point to the Guatemalan highlands, creating the Guatemala variety of avocado.

But there is more convincing evidence for the avocado being brought to the Lower Lempa and that is the name of the village of Pacun near the Lempa about 25 kilomters north of the current mouth. Pacun refers directly to avocado cultivation: (in Ch'orti')

Pak' - planting
Un - pear, avocado

This name could have been given by the Zapotec ancestors before they left for Mexico and their language was still very close to Ch'orti'. But more likely it was given by the Ch'orti', a portion of whom moved to the lower Lempa when the Zapotec ancestors left. In this scenario the lower Lempa Ch'orti' would have gone from their homes each day at the site of Tehuacan, San Vicente, high enough to be definitively safe from the rising ocean, and walked to the flat floodplain of Pacun to the cultivated avocados and various plants. It is likely that avocados were cultivated in the lower Lempa prior to or at the same time as avocados in the Tehuacan valley of Mexico - most likely between 6800 BCE and 6000 BCE. A later transference of the avocado from Mexico to El Salvador is doubtful since the Maya said in the Popul Vuh that they lost contact with the Zapotec ancestors. It is more likely that avocados were brought back to El Salvador by the same generation that migrated to Mexico. It is also possible that they were first found in the region of El Salvador and then taken by the Zapotec ancestors and cultivated in Mexico. This is doubtful given that some of the avocado remains in the Tehuacan valley have been dated prior to 7000 BCE. For more background on the beginnings of avocado use and cultivation: Amanda J. Landon or Galindo-Tovar, Arzate-Fernandez, Ogata-Aguilar, and Landero-Torres.

To finalize, I will look at three more names along the Lempa River: the Acahuapa River, which runs east through San Vicente to the Lempa, the Titihuapa River which forms the boundary between San Vicente and Cabañas departments, and Guayojo name of a village and forest north of Pacun. The huapa or "wapa" suffix is common to both of the rivers.

Acahuapa

Ahka - rumble
Wahp - continuous

Titihuapa

Tihti - shake
Wahp - continuous

So wahp or huapa was a suffix commonly used with rivers that had a continuous flow. What's interesting is that the same suffix was used to describe the creek next to the Monte Verde site in southern Chile that dates back to 12,500 BCE - the Chinchihuapi. This demonstrates the continuity in language from the moment of arriving in Chile from Asia until settlement in El Salvador in about 8200, at least with the branch of the American family that became the Ch'orti' Maya.

Finally, to conclude is Guajoyo, just upriver from the lower Lempa and the island of the learner.

Wa' - being, being in a place
Hoy - liking
Hoyi - make satisfactory, to please

Guajoyo is "being in a place of liking". Some photos from near the place of liking follow.

Photo Gallery

Mangroves on Montecristo Island at the mouth of the Lempa River. Montecristo may be the closest thing there is to a symbolic representation of the first Teoahkan, which is likely buried under many meters of silt.

 

Protecting serpents on a home in California, Usulutan, not far from the mouth of the Lempa River

The largest mound at the Tehuacan archeological site.

The top of the same mound at Tehuacan, planted with corn.

View to the west from main mound. Mounds visable at the end of the field in the mid-ground. Chichontepec left flank in the distance.

The view north, where structures are outlined under the corn, possibly including a ball field.

Finely cut stone at the Tehuacan site

Likely remains of a very old rock wall about a kilometer from the Tehuacan site could indicate settlement here 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Guanacaste trees at the entrance to the Tehuacan Ecological Park, administered by the municipality of Tecoluca, 2 kilometers from the Tehuacan site. It had been a plantation until the 1980-1992 conflict when the FMLN gained control and used it as a base throughout the conflict.

In addition to restaurant, cabins and gardens, the Ecological Park has a viewing room. One of the more interesting and perhaps one of the oldest was this carved rock sphere.

Piece from Tehuacan

These ceramic pieces were the "feet" for bowls

Perhaps this piece provides evidence that the Maya, in addition to the Olmecs, had contact with Africa.

A Mayan character

Part of the permaculture garden at the Tehuacan Ecological Park. Tehuacan means "the learner".

Tree decaying a wall with its roots.  The wall was part of the exploitative plantation here from colonial times until it was ousted by the FMLN in 1981 during the conflict. The plantation was built on a sacred Nahuat-Pipil site. The Nahuat-Pipil site was located at an earlier sacred Mayan site, evidenced by the archeological structures. The Mayan site was located in the area of the Zapotec ancestors, who lived here from about 8200 to 6800 BCE. The sign says, "What is metamorphosis?" and points in the direction of the butterfly house of the Ecological Park.

 

Veracruz Place Names Link Olmecs to Eastern El Salvador

The place names of eastern El Salvador help to place that region as the place of origin of the Olmecs, who likely left El Salvador for Mexico's Veracruz Gulf region sometime between 2000 and 1800 BCE, with a likely stop in between. Further confirming the Olmek link between eastern El Salvador and Veracruz are place names in Veracruz. Most place names in the region have a Nahuatl origin or finish. But there are some older place names that pre-date Nahuatl and are likely the original names given by the Olmecs, which appears to be a Mixe-Zoque language, a close relative of the Mayan languages according to Joseph Greenberg.

Here are some of the place names in Veracruz:

Cosoleacaque    Sayula         Tonala

Nanchital          Mezcalapa    Choapas

Hueyapan         Ostion          Sontecomapan

Cuichapa         Tecuanapa     Guazinapa (Rio)

Coxcoapan      Hiuhualtaja      Nanciyaga

Tepeyaga       Mecayapan     Tatahuicapan

Chacalapa       Macayal         Cahuapan

Nopalapa        El Azuzal         El Manati'

Cobata          Tapalapan       Totogal

All of these are place names that one would not be surprised to hear in eastern El Salvador, where you find names like: Jucuapa, Miracapa, and Uluazapa. Most of the Veracruz names above have a Ch'orti' Maya sound to them but only have a partial, at most, meaning in Ch'orti'. And they have a Lenca sound to them, the language of the people who have lived in eastern El Salvador for thousands of years. This is precisely what one would expect with the Olmec place names. But some names could beyond just sounding similar.

Chinameca is a town southwest of the coastal city of Coatzalcoalcos, Veracruz. Chinameca is also a town in the San Miguel department of El Salvador, likely the first Chinameca. This name still has meaning in Ch'orti', indicating that it was first named at an early date, before the Olmecs moved to Veracruz where their language began to quickly change. This means that the town, or at least the place name, of Chinameca, El Salvador, has existed since at least 2000 BCE. In Ch'orti':

Chinam - pueblo (people, town)
Meka - carry in one's arms (or Olomeka)

Meka likely refers not so much to Lake Olomeka but to the Olmecs themselves, so Chinameca means "town of the Olmecs." Its literal meaning is "town carry in one's arms".

Like the sister language of the Olmecs, the Lenca language began to change quickly once the Olmecs left for Mexico. This indicates that the cultural need to keep the language close to the Mayan no longer was so strong.

Catemaco is another place name with likely ties to El Salvador. I believe that Catemaco was the first settlement of the Olmces in Veracruz. Lago Catemaco undoubtedly reminded them of Lago Olomega. It is nearly the same size and mountains rise up around most of the lake, like Olomega. It is very near to the coast, less than 15 kilometer from the Laguna Sontecomapan.

Catemaco directly harkens back to Olomega:

Ka - to remember
Temaco - Teomeka

To add formality and importance to the name of their first settlement, the Olmecs used the old name - the original Mayan name - for Olomega (Teomeka): Remembering Teomeka. Each syllable changed: teo to te, me to ma, and ka to co. The Olmecs already lost memory of the precise name of Teomeka - and Olomega for that matter. This indicates that generations passed between the departure from El Salvador and the arrival in Veracruz. I think those generations were spent on the Honduran coast at a site called Travesia ("sailing"). From Travesia they would get to know the Atlantic Ocean with their sailing vessels after spending so many years along the Pacific. Those who stayed in Honduras became known as the Uluas.

The Olmecs soon developed their own culture in Veracruz, related but distinct from the Mayan culture they left behind in El Salvador. In their place names they provided clues about where they came from, in order to remember Teomeka.