The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Pre-Classic Maya: Meditation and Science

The pellagra crisis devastated the Maya community from 2400 to 1600 BCE, including nine banishments out of El Salvador, and one banishment within El Salvador. The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage remaining in El Salvador probably went into a long period of self-examination and renewal. This post describes what came out of this period of renewal - a time of meditation, movement, gymnastics, and science, including bird watching and shark study. (Click to enlarge map.)

The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage likely moved from Igualtepeque at Lago Güija to Chalchuapa soon after the discovery of the nixtamal process in 1600 or 1500 BCE. Chalchuapa is located 40 kilometers southwest of Igualtepeque and about 40 kilometers inland from the Pacific. Importantly, the Maya would have had access to the ocean from the nearby Rio Paz, about ten kilometers away. Chalchuapa is also 10 kilometers north of the Apaneca Range, with an altitude of 1800 to 2365 meters.

Chalchuapa was occupied for 2700 years by the Ch'orti', from 1500 BCE to 1200 CE, when the Ch'orti' probably moved to their current location in eastern Guatemala. Sometime between 1200 CE and the arrival of the Spanish, a Quiche-related Pokomam group moved into Chalchuapa and were present at Spanish contact. The Chol-Tzeltal lineages probably left the Chalchuapa area near the end of the pre-Classic period for the Chiapas-Palenque area, while some of the elite Ch'orti' went to Copan at the same time.

The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal built five ceremonial centers in Chalchuapa: Tazumal, Pampe, Trapiche, Casa Blanca, and Las Victorias. Unfortunately the Maya names of the latter two have been lost. The remaining names around Chalchuapa tell a story of meditation, yoga, and gymnastics, most likely beginning soon after they moved there in about 1500 BCE.

Tazumal at Chalchuapa

The first location that the Maya went to was probably Tazumal, later a pre-Classic and Classic site. Tazumal is tas uh mar in Ch'orti' or "sacred cutting of open space," referring to clearing the land when they first arrived. Not surprisingly, within a few hundred meters of Tazumal, is a park called Jardines de Eden. Eten means "challenge of flattening" and is a word the Maya had associated with clearing land before a new settlement since their arrival in El Salvador in about 8680 BCE.

Half a kilometer from Tazumal, in the opposite direction as Jardines de Eden, is a lagoon, Laguna Cuscachapa (right). In Ch'orti' it is k'ux kach ap ha' or "sore from tied swing over water." They likely tied a swing to the top of a tree in the lagoon and became sore from dropping at high distances into the lagoon.

Another pre-Classic site at Apaneca, 15 kilometers to the southwest, also speaks to gymnastics. Apaneca is ap bah neh k'ah and means "happy swinging of bodies with tails." "With tails" most likely refers to a rope system tied around the swinging bodies. Perhaps the Apaneca swinging bodies were similar to the flying dancers of the Totonac who still conduct a flying dance with ropes.

The name Chalchuapa speaks to both the gymnastics of the Maya as well as the meditation or yoga. In Ch'orti', Chalchuapa is ch'a'al ch'u ap bah or "hanging, swinging, and horizontal bodies." This was a center of movement and meditation. 

The gymnastics and meditation spread to Ch'orti' communities in the northern part of present-day San Vicente department, where there is a lagoon named Laguna Chalchuapa. To reinforce that it was named after the movement activities at Chalchuapa and not the name itself, a neighboring lagoon is named Apastepeque, or ap bah as te' (plus the generic suffix peque). Apastepeque means "practice bodies swinging in trees" and like Laguna Cuscachapa, the Maya used the lagoon water as a landing pad. One other interesting name here is the village of El Guayabo, way ahb ho', which means "likeable sleep swinging." This clearly refers to a hammock - in present-day Ch'orti' one of the meanings of ahb is "hammock." Either the hammock was invented here or simply used here.

Sketch of Maya Yogi relief carved above entrance to Temple of the Warrior, Chichen Itza. Source: Mayan Science & Religion; Bear & Co. Cited here.

Back in western El Salvador, one of the other ceremonial centers, two kilometers from Tazumal, is Pampe, which is bah am per or "drawn in spider bodies." While this could describe some gymnastic moves, it more likely is describing a yoga-like pose. (Note: the b and p sounds were identical at that time. Also the final r was often dropped in words ending in 'er'.) Pampe is also the name of a river that goes from near Chalchuapa to the Rio Paz. The Pampe River has an alternate name of Güeveapa or weh per ap bah, meaning "swinging bodies, drawn in flesh." This name speaks to both the gymnastics and the "drawn in spider" pose.

A village eight kilometers west of Chalchuapa is Izcaquilio or ix kah ki' li ho, meaning "beginning of likeable movement beside the heart." This seems to indicate that it was here that the yoga-like meditation was first done. It is interesting that it began away from Chalchuapa where the elite would have lived. It was someone of more common descent, who lived outside the main center, who invented this meditation. This type of meditation having its origin point in this area is reinforced by the nearby town of Turin, or tur in, which means "first condition."

About eight kilometers from Izcaquilio in the opposite direction of Chalchuapa is a village called Cuyanausul. In Ch'orti' it is k'u(ar) yana us ul or "explain useful changes to the founders (leaders)." The useful changes refer to the spiritual-emotional changes caused by the yoga meditation. This also shows that the meditation practice spread to several villages before they explained it to the leadership of Chalchuapa. Izcaquilio, Turin, and Cuyanausul are all in the modern-day department of Ahuachapan and the name Ahuachapan supports the idea that yoga-like meditation began there. It is ah wa' ch'a' ban in Ch'orti' and means "the one being in a good horizontal (position)" or "the good horizontal being."

Another clear indication of Maya yoga-like meditation is the written symbol for the tzolk'in day sign Ch'i' (Manik in Yucatec) - it is a mudra. Ch'i' means "growth," linking the meditation pose to growth as human beings. Curiously, this mudra is called Chinmaya in Buddhism. Chinmaya would mean "Maya vibration" in Ch'orti'.

The Ch'orti' taught the neighboring Lenca in eastern El Salvador to do yoga. The name Arambala is ahr am bah lah and means "the time of fatigued spider bodies." The spider body mention matches that of the Pampe River near Chalchuapa. Arambala is located north of the Torola River in Morazan department.

Maya Feathered Serpent doing a finger mutra. Source: Mayan Science & Religion; Bear & Co. Cited here.

There is evidence that the Maya yoga-like meditation, begun near Chalchuapa, continued through the Classic period to the Maya post-Classic. Meditation images are seen at Chichen Itza, a post-Classic site in the northern Yucatan. These images are associated there with Kukulcan, the feathered serpent. In the Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal family of languages, Kukulcan is Kukulchon. In Ch'orti', Kukulchon is kuk k'ur chon or "exchange of rolled up one and one with points (feathers)." Kukulkan is the combination of serpent (a rolled up yoga-meditative body) and the feathered one (a gymnast swinging from the trees).

The concept of the feathered serpent seems to have originated in El Salvador during the time of meditation and gymnastics in the pre-Classic. This is seen in the name Chanmico, found in at least three locations in El Salvador.  The most prominent Chanmico is a lagoon and nearby town in present-day La Libertad department about ten kilometers east of the pre-Classic and Classic era site of San Andres and even closer to the Joya de Ceren site. Chanmico is chan mi k'o and means "cat's bird serpent." The bird serpent seems equivalent to the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan.

A second example of Chanmico is a place name (cantón) in current-day San Salvador within two kilometers of the Zacamil place name mentioned later. A third example of Chanmico is a village in current-day San Vicente department not far from the Lempa River and about ten kilometers east of Apastepeque, mentioned earlier. While it is impossible to prove the date of the use of the name Chanmico, all three examples of Chanmico lie within areas of pre-Classic Maya activity including meditation and gymnastics.

There are links between the Ch'orti' language and Toltec yoga-like meditation. This demonstrates that the Ch'orti' Maya were the likely originators of the Mesoamerican yoga-like meditation. The name of this meditation in Toltec is Kinam. This name comes from kin am in Ch'orti' and means "spider limbs" - a direct link to the name Pampe ("drawn-in spider body") at Chalchuapa.

Among the four steps of the meditation process among the Toltec, the third and fourth steps still retain meaning in Ch'orti'. The third step, which means divinization in Toltec, is teochiwa. In Ch'orti' this is teo ch'i' wa' and means "growth of the divine being." The fourth step means transparency in Toltec and is chipawa. In Ch'orti' it is ch'i' bah wa' and means "growth of the body being" or body-spirit being.

Embedded in the first syllable of Kukulcan/Kukulchon is K'uhk', the Ch'orti' word for the Siguanaba, described by the Wisdom, University of Chicago, Ch'orti' dictionary as an "ugly female apparition who is protectress of stream and fish and who frightens immoral people on lonely trail at night." Some people in Central America still believe in La Siguanaba who is seen as half hero - half mysterious, feared ghost. The root of La Siguanaba takes us back to meditation and gymnastics. Siguanaba in Ch'ort'i is si wa'an ahb pah or "series of rising, swinging bodies." La Siguanaba are those who protect the forest and streams, swinging from the trees.

The Maya day sign Ahmok speaks to meditation as well. It is am mo' ok and means "walking bird spider." The walking bird probably came first to honor the flying bird men who were gliding in 2400 BCE and possibly earlier, according to Palenque inscriptions. At that time Ahmok would have translated as "the bird one". The spider refers to yoga practice. Ahmok may have been the very first Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan incarnation, but beginning as a feathered spider rather than a feathered serpent. Very soon, with Kukulchon, it became a feathered serpent.

Whether from the gymnastics or the yoga-like moves, the Maya had to deal with pain and soreness. A kilometer from Tazumal is a neighborhood called Cuje. This is k'ux che' and means "handle soreness." One way that they dealt with soreness is explained by the name of one of the five ceremonial centers, Trapiche (right). In Ch'orti' it is t'a' lahb pi che' and means "handle rubbing companion's flesh." The Maya were practicing massage.

Another way that the Maya practiced healing arts was through the sweat lodge. There are clues that this practice may have begun during the pre-Classic period in El Salvador as well. The sweat lodge is called temazcal or temazcalli in Nahuat and it is easy to see the Ch'orti' origin of this word. In Ch'orti' it is te' max cal li or "next to cavity of wood and lime." Temazcal is "cavity of wood and lime" and describes the oven to bake limestone into lime that was then used to soak corn in the nixtamal process. The Maya found the smoke of the baking limestone to be especially healthful.

While Temazcal is the oven, Temazcalli is the sweat lodge next to the oven. This also shows the derivation of the Nahuat word calli from Ch'orti'. Calli means house or structure in Nahuat and its first meaning must have been from sweat lodge or Temazcalli. Calli would mean "beside the lime" in Ch'orti'. Calli is one of the 20 day signs in the Aztec 260-day calendar. This same day sign in the Ch'orti' calendar is Ak'bar, the founder of the Ch'orti' lineage upon arrival in El Salvador in 8680 BCE. This is a clear indicator that it was the Ch'orti' lineage which originated calli, the house beside the lime.

Maya Science and Education

During the pre-Classic period at Chalchuapa, the Maya developed a knowledge base of birds and sharks. These are probably only the beginning of their science knowledge. This also may be when they developed an education system for their children.

The Maya knowledge of birds was so extensive that they were able to differentiate local birds and non-native (migratory) birds. Before one can identify a migratory bird one must identify most or all local birds. The primary areas of bird watching were the area around Chalchuapa as well as much of the current-day departments of Ahuachapán, Sonsonate, and to a lesser extent, La Libertad. Another cluster of bird-based place names occurs in Cabañas, about 120 kilometers northeast of Chalchuapa, indicating that it was another center of Maya population during the pre-Classic era.

The pre-Classic Maya often used the noun k'o' or "bird-beak" to denote bird. I translate it as bird beak even though the meaning in most cases is bird.

Turquoise-browed Motmot or Torogoz in El Salvador (national bird). By JoAnn Miller from Mexico City, Mexico (DSC00631 Uploaded by Snowmanradio) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Ahuachapán bird-based place names:

• Atiquizaya: at ti' ki' tz'a' yah - swollen bright-breasted bathing at opening. Atiquizaya was probably named before the meditation practice began since it is nearly at the midpoint of the three places with meditation-related names, yet does not have a meditation-related name itself.
• Los Huatales: wat ahr ehtz - time of observing the return (of migratory birds)
• Suntecumar: sun te' k'um aht - non-native washing itself in bath by trees
• Rio Sunza (Guatemala border): sun tz'a - shiny non-native
• Ataco: aht tak k'o - bird-beak dry (dust) bathing
• El Arco (near Ataco): ahr k'o - the time of the bird-beaks

Coastal Ahuachapán-Sonsonate bird-based place names:

Osprey. "Mike" Michael L. Baird [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Rio Sunzacuapa: sun sak wahp bah - regularly returning white-bodied non-native (osprey?)
• El Zarzal: tz'a' sal - boastful one in the wetlands
• El Salamo: sal h'a mo' - boastful parrot by the river
• Guaymango: way man k'o - sleep-trader bird beak (nocturnal)

Sonsonate-area bird-based place names:

• Sonsonate: sun tzo naht te’ - distant non-native nesting (resting) in tree

Red-lored Amazon Parrot, today a rare visitor to El Salvador. By Carlsonbl (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Rio Sensunapan: tzen sun ap pan - laughing non-native fruit parakeet (parakeets or parrots are generally not migratory so this may refer to one on the edge of their range, like the Red-lored Amazon Parrot)
• Sonzacate: sun sak kat' te' - white non-native crossing the trees (Swainson's hawk or osprey?)
• Caluco: k'ar uk' k'o - retaining the mournful bird-beak (dove or pigeon?)
• Izalco: - ix sa'r k'o - moving boastful bird
• Talcomunca: tal k'o mun k'a - arrival of excess of satisfactory bird-beaks
• Salcoatitan: sa'r k'o aht ti' tan - boastful bird-beak dust-bathing its heart (breast)

La Libertad bird-based place names: 

• Chiltiupan: chir ti' up pan - hear mouth of parakeet on rope
• Quetzaltepeque: quetzal te' - quetzal in a tree
• Tacachico: tah kach ch'ih k'o - large bird-beak in a net in the forest OR large satisfactory bird-beak in the forest

Another cluster of names are in the present-day San Salvador area, demonstrating a Chol-Ch'orti' presence there in the pre-Classic era:

American White Pelican. By Vkulikov (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Panchimalco: ban ch'ih mar k'o - large beautiful sea-bird-beak
• Soyapango: soy yah ban k'o - beautiful arched swollen bird-beak (pelican?)
• Ilopango: ir lo' ban k'o - view beautiful long bird-beak

Elegant Trogon. By dominic sherony [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Another Chol-Ch'orti' population was based in the present-day department of Cabañas, based on the number of bird-based names there.

* Ilobasco: ir lo' bas k'o - view long-wrapped bird-beak
* Guacotecti: wa' k'o tech ti' - bird-beak is opening mouth
* Sensuntepeque: tzen sun te' pek ker - laughing non-native in tree on the hill

Jiquilisco in coastal Usulután also appears to be a bird-based name: ji' ki' il li ix k'o or "observe the moving breasted bird next to sandbar." This is only a portion of the bird-based place names in El Salvador. This should demonstrate the extensive practice of bird-watching, most likely taking place in the pre-Classic time period, mostly in western El Salvador, but also in pockets around present-day San Salvador and Cabañas. The identification of non-native birds - eight examples cited above - show that the Maya had an extensive mental or written list of native birds: a scientific method.

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

Not only did the Maya observe birds, but also iguanas. There are several place names in El Salvador with iguana names:

• Juayua: juh yuh ha' - necklace iguana in the water
• Jujutla: juh hut lah - tired-faced iguana
• Jutiapa: juh ti' ap pa' - food swinging in mouth of iguana

"Companion Shark"

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Maya's scientific inquiry had to do with sharks. This took place at the site known as Cara Sucia in far western El Salvador. There are at least two shark-based place names in other parts of El Salvador. The first is the municipal seat of Jucuarán, located in the east, in Usulután department. Jucuarán is about 13 kilometers from the ocean, but the municipal territory extends to the ocean, including Playa El Espino. Jucuarán is huhk' wa'ar ahn in Ch'orti', meaning "sharp-edged jaguar in the current." It seems they used the image of a jaguar to describe the shark. This was likely an attack or death due to the shark. It is likely that the name El Espino - "the spine" - also originated from this same incident.

Shortfin mako shark. By Patrick Doll (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

To the west, the beach and beach-side town of Majahual in La Libertad, is in the midst of the international surfing zone, also refers to a shark, and likely a shark attack. Majahual is mah h'a wa'ar, meaning "bad water jaguar." This reference is clearly referring to a shark rather than a jaguar, calling it a "water jaguar." Additionally, Majahual is situated right on the beach.

This takes us to the lagoon next to the pre-Classic and Classic site of Cara Sucia. Cara Sucia had two stages of development. During the pre-Classic period it had development starting from 1200 BCE through the late pre-Classic. Most of the structures were built during the late Classic from 650 CE to 950 CE. The site is unique along the Pacific Coast being so close to the ocean - about ten kilometers. During the pre-Classic period it would have been even closer to the ocean, given the rising western Central American continental shelf.

(Click to enlarge.) Less than three kilometers from the pre-Classic site is a lagoon called either Gamboa or Bijagual, depending on the map. Gamboa has a rather generic meaning, k'am po' ha' or "useful hole of water," although it does suggest it has a specific purpose. Bijagual has an unequivocal meaning, pi ha' wa'ar or "companion water jaguar." Given the previous evidence that "water jaguar" refers to the shark, the meaning of the lagoon is "companion shark." This most likely refers to either befriending the sharks or studying the sharks. 

The lagoon is located 200 meters from a small river that flows into an estuary and then the ocean. The Maya would have needed to reverse the flow on this river to bring salt water into the lagoon, capture sharks with nets and guide them up the river into the lagoon, and then close off the lagoon. Their experience with public works, using gunpowder blasting, would have given them the engineering capability to carry out this task.

Several names around Laguna Bijagual support the idea of a shark enclosure there. Cara Sucia itself appears to be a Hispanicization of a Ch'orti' name, since it makes little sense in Spanish ("Dirty Face"). In Ch'orti', Cara Sucia is k'ar rah sus si ha', meaning "number of cutters in the retained slack water." "Cutters" is a reference to sharks. "Slack water" gives the impression that the river may have been an estuary up as far as the lagoon at that time, making river flow-reversal irrelevant.

On the other side of the lagoon about three kilometers is the village of El Gulsnay. It appears the name was sounded out when written in Spanish, but in Ch'orti' it would have been k'ul sin neh and means "series of flaps and tails." "Flaps" seem to be a reference to shark dorsal fins. Just west of El Gulsnay is the Rio Quequeishque. This curious name makes a little more sense knowing the Ch'orti' often dropped the 'r' on the syllable ker, which would then be ker ker ix ker, which would mean the slightly redundant "dividing, slashing movements that cut." It seems that the Rio Quequeishque is also referring to sharks. The seasonal Palma River and Quequeishque River meet southwest of the lagoon and may retain the name Quequeishque to the estuary.

Three other local names support the idea of a shark enclosure. A few kilometers upstream from the river that is next to Laguna Bijagual is a place called Irayol, or ir ha' yol. This means "see (them) put in water," which seems to indicate the sharks being placed in the lagoon. About eight kilometers east of the lagoon is a place called Faya, which would be bah yah and means "infected body." This probably refers to someone bit by the sharks. Finally, the Salvadoran border village with Guatemala is Hachadura. It is hach aht tur ha' and means "raised water condition of the bath (lagoon)," and seems to refer to filling the lagoon with ocean water. The Bijagual Lagoon impacted names up to 15 kilometers away.

It seems that the only purpose for the mid-pre-Classic settlement of Cara Sucia in 1200 BCE was to support the engineering of the lagoon and then the maintenance and learning of the sharks in the lagoon. This suggests that the shark enclosure was begun in 1200 BCE or soon thereafter, since that is when Cara Sucia was first settled. The Maya attempted either to befriend or learn from the shark (or both), possibly for several hundred years. The shortfin mako shark is the most common shark around El Salvador and may have been the one enclosed.

Education

There are a couple clues that the pre-Classic Maya around Chalchuapa may have developed a semi-formal education system for their children. One clue is the neighborhood of Amulunga about two kilometers from the Tazumal site. Amulunga is am ul un k'a or "explain desired spider to children." Someone was explaining the usefulness of spiders or the difference between unwanted spiders and desirable spiders.

The second clue is even more direct - about five kilometer southwest of Tazumal into the woods is a village called Zacamil. In Ch'orti' this is sahk k'am mi' il or "kittens useful searching and examining." The syllable mi can describe either cats or kittens but I think kittens is more appropriate here since the name seems to refer to children in an educational setting. Zacamil describes at least part of the Maya educational method: setting up searches for designated items and then examining. It is consistent with the scientific method.

There is evidence that Maya "schools" were set up in many areas. One sees the name Zacamil in several places in El Salvador. There are also Zacamil names in Candelaria, Tepecoyo, San Salvador, and Guazapa. The Zacamil by Candelaria is only 15 kilometers from Chalchuapa, so it is part of the same settlement area. The Zacamil by Tepecoyo is in the balsam range and is not a surprise - the Maya probably maintained a presence there since their first use of balsam sap and wood in about 7800 BCE. The San Salvador Zacamil, a famous insurgent neighborhood in the recent civil war, is further evidence, along with the previously mentioned bird-based names, of a Ch'orti' presence there in the pre-Classic era.

The pre-Classic Maya made major advancement in many fields in the pre-Classic era, as evidenced by the place names in and near Chalchuapa, the main home of the Chol-Ch'orti' elite during the era. These fields include:

• gymnastics
• meditative movement
• massage
• zoology, including birds, iguanas, and sharks
• education

Given Chalchuapa's role as the base for the Chol-Ch'orti' elite throughout most or all of the pre-Classic period, it and the surrounding area are one of the most important pre-Classic sites throughout Mesoamerica. And Cara Sucia hosted the only known shark retention area, likely for study, of the pre-modern world.

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.

Teopan - Ancestral Home of the Quiches

When the Mayan ancestors left Isla Tigre following the advent of the 3rd sun, marked by a triple star event in 8207 BCE, each of the four lineages went to an island, in order to be safe from their fierce enemy the Xibalbhans at Corinto cave who were afraid of water. [Click to enlarge map.] Two lineages remained to the east - the Lenca/Olmeca lineage at Lago Olomega (Teomeka) and the Zapotec lineage at the mouth of the Lempa River (Teoakan). The Quiche lineage and the Ch'orti' lineage went to the west of El Salvador - the Quiches to Lago Coatepeque (Teopan) and the Ch'orti's to Lago Güija (Teotipa).

All of the four destination regions are beautiful, but Lago Coatepeque and Teopan are spectacular. Today Teopan is a private playground of some of El Salvador's wealthiest families. In the photo Teopan can be seen just to the right of center. Coatepeque is a crater lake and the serpentine nature of the hills surrounding the lake is especially clear, although a similar phenomena is found at Olomega and Güija. The hills became seen as a ringed serpent that protected the islanders. This led to another name of Coatepeque: Tamakchan, which means "deep inside the rainbow", where rainbow (makchan) means "serpent that stops up" (the rain). It is easy to see where the rainbow serpent originated. The name Tamoanchan is associated with western El Salvador (Arocha, 1990) and is found in Huasteca songs. It is possible that Tamakchan changed to Tamoanchan over the years among the Huasteca Maya.

The name Teopan means "island of sprouting", as in a plant breaking the soil. Teopan today is ringed with private yards and expensive homes. Only the eastern part has relatively few homes, as well as the top half of the island. One needs the permission of one of the island's residents to access the ferry (below) onto the island. Modern day Quiches would have to work at one of the homes in order to access their ancestral home.

While it is possible that Coatepeque is a Nahua (Pipil) overlay on the original name of the lake, meaning "serpent hill", Coatepeque does have a possible meaning in Ch'orti'. (The Quiche ancestors would have spoken proto-Chorti until they left for Mexico in about 2300 BCE. The two languages did not begin separating before that date.)

Ka- - our (prefix)
Wet - companion, fellow neighbor

Or "our neighbor", from the perspective of the Ch'orti's. The later Pipils would have changed this to something meaningful in their language, adding the "tepeque" and changing vowels somewhat to go from Kawet to Coat.

Teopan and the Coatepeque lake shore have an abundance of ceramics and stones that date from the Classic or post-Classic all the way back to the pre-Classic or earlier. More are demonstrated in the photo gallery at the end. Some of the oldest ones include rocks that are carved in a way that enhances natural features, such as the one at right above found near the ceremonial mounds on Teopan. The mounds, below left, were scheduled to be excavated starting December 2012. I believe that these mounds will be dated, at their earliest level, earlier than any pre-Classic Mayan site. Most of the carved stones and ceramic pieces on Teopan and Coatepeque have found their way into private homes, including the wealthy homes on Teopan.

The Quiche ancestors lived on Teopan from about 8200 BCE until about 2300 BCE - 5,900 years. At the latter end of that span they no doubt spilled over to the lakeshores of Coatepeque as the population increased. The Quiche are referred to as Cauec or Kawik in the Popol Vuh, a reference back to Hakawitz, the origin of tobacco. The Quiche probably were the first to cultivate tobacco.

Further evidence of the link with tobacco comes from the name of the wife of Quitze, the founder of the Quiche lineage. Her name is Kaqa Paluma:

Kah - start, beginning
K'ah - happiness

Pahr - shaping, fashioning
Lum - earth

The name means "start of happiness" and "shaping the earth". Start of happiness is a clear reference to Hakawitz, near the present-day Salvadoran town of Alegria, and the finding of tobacco. We also see that the Quiche seem to be the first mound and pyramid builders, done in homage to Hakawitz.

I have previously written that the elite Quiche leaders were the first to suffer from pellagra - or a lack of niacin, which resulted from a diet too heavy in untreated corn. Pellagra causes skin lesions, dementia, and death, as well as other symptoms. As a result of the symptoms of pellagra, with cause still unknown, the Quiche ancestors were sent into exile to the northwest coast of Mexico in about 2300 BCE to an island called Teacapan, which means "remembering Teopan." Later the Quiches were a primary formative group at Teotihuacan and tried to return to El Salvador before settling in western Guatemala.

When the Quiche ancestors left Coatepeque it seems likely that the Ch'orti' ancestors sent some families of their lineage at Güija to Coatepeque. These families became the Huasteca lineage and the same thing happened to them as the Quiche - they ate too much untreated corn and also began to suffer from pellagra. I believe that they were sent into exile along the northeast coast of Mexico, to their present-day home isolated from the rest of the Maya. Soon the Ch'orti' Maya discovered ash or lime as a way to treat corn and prevent pellagra; this process is called nixtamalization. Perhaps they first learned of these substances as fixing agents with natural plant dyes.

It appears that a remnant population of the Maya remained along the lake. These people are the ancesors of the present-day community of Coatepeque: one version of their oral history says that they lived along the lakeshore, then moved about ten kilometers from the lake and carried the name Coatepeque with them.

Two other local places have interesting histories. Congo means "Joint Tooth" in Ch'orti': K'om - "joint, splice"; K'o - "tooth, molar, beak". I believe that this is the place called Split Tooth in the Popol Vuh.

The second place is Siete Príncipes (Seven Princes). The name sounds like it comes from Classic Mayan days but the oral history suggests it was given by a foreigner who lived in the area in the 1950s and 1960s and wanted to highlight the seven cultural mounds grouped together so that he gave the place the name Siete Príncipes. The local people say that there are seven mounds - my colleagues and I were able to locate five of the seven on a visit in August 2012.

The mounds are obviously cultural and likely date to a period immediately after the Huastecas' departure in about 2000 BCE. The Siete Príncipes mounds would have represented the departure from Isla Teopan and more generally the expansion out from the four islands in El Salvador to the Pacific coast, ranging from Chiapas to El Salvador, as well as to the Atlantic Coast in Belize.

What may be most interesting about Siete Príncipes is that it lies close to the midpoint of a line connecting Tazumal (Chalchuapa) and San Andres Mayan sites. This suggests that Siete Príncipes was the first step away from Lago Coatepeque and Lago Guija and that Tazumal and San Andres were the next step before major expansion along the Pacific Coast to Chiapas once the nixtamalization process was discovered.

From Coatepeque the Quiche ancestors could walk north-northeast to the Lempa River. Going downstream they would arrive at the meeting place called Arcatao, where they would gather regularly with the other four lineages. Further downstream at the mouth of the Lempa was Tehucan, the home of the Zapotec ancestors and later a Mayan community. Going upstream by canoe they could arrive at Lago Guija and the Ch'orti's - although they probably more commonly walked or ran there. The fascinating mysteries of Guija are the next thing I will explore in this blog.

Photo Gallery

Carved stone from Lago Coatepeque, using natural features of the stone:

Another carved stone, possibly dating to before the pre-Classic:

The next carved stone probably dates from the early pre-Classic and one can see how the sophistication grew:

Here's a carved stone from the Classic era. This one is doing a yoga pose which serves as a based for the carving.

Other pre-Classic or Classic carved stones were found by the private landowners on Teopan and now serve as trophy pieces.

Another Classic-era carved stone on Teopan:

There are other vestiges of the Mayan presence at Teopan, including this mound:

Close to the mound were these rocks which appear to be the corner of an ancient rock wall.

The steps going to the top of Teopan appeared to be of the pre-Hispanic era:

At the very top of Teopan was this etched stone which appeared to have an astronomical formation on it:

Like the carved stones, the ceramics from Lago Coatepeque appear to span from pre-pre-Classic (on the left, below) to pre-Classic (on the right, below) to Classic to post-Classic. One also sees a range of East Asian faces to perhaps European faces on the ceramics.

 

The left and middle appear potentially pre-pre-Classic while on the right is likely pre-Classic.

More ceramics from either pre-pre-Classic to early pre-Classic.

This is a fascinating assymetrical ceramic face that may date to the time of the Quiche or Huasteca pellagra outbreak. Pellagra can cause insomnia, mental confusion, and dementia.

This pre-Classic or Classic-era ceramic figure is also doing a yoga pose.

The ceramic face on the right is a clear transition from the earlier pre-pre-Classic or early pre-Classic ceramics to the Classic-era ceramics.

The piece on the left may date from the post-Classic, with its Mexican influences.

Here is one more of the seven mounds of Seven Princes, just outside of the Lago Coatepeque crater.

The above mound is on the property of this señora, who spoke of the mound with great reverance.

The Settlement of Copan from Southeastern El Salvador

Copan is one of the most important Classic Maya sites, the center of a kingdom from the 5th century CE (AD) until the 9th century CE. Archeologists have determined that Copan's elite were Ch'orti' Maya, but it was a multi-cultural site with many ethnic enclaves. One of those enclaves was the Poton Lenca, with their most important base at Quelepa, El Salvador.

According to Poton tradition, when Copan collapsed soon after 822 CE, the Poton royalty at Copan returned to El Salvador and settled at Sesori, currently in northern San Miguel department. From Sesori they created a Lenca federation with at least 60 affiliated villages. The modern Poton royalty trace their lineage directly from the Sesori leadership.

Before Copan was a Maya kingdom, it was a river valley with at least 1800 years of human settlement. Archeologists have determined, mainly by examining ceramics, that this early settlement of Copan was not Maya but Lenca. See, for example, Cameron L. McNeil, "The Environmental Record of Human Populations and Migrations in the Copan Valley, Honduras," in The Ch'orti' Maya Area Past and Present (Metz, McNeil, and Hull).

The two most likely dates for the settlement of the Copan valley are 2300 BCE (Before Common Era) or 1400 BCE, according to McNeil. Pollen grain has been dated to 2300 BCE that is either corn or teosinte grass. If it is teosinte it could have been either naturally ocurring or cultivated, since teosinte was cultivated by early Mesoamerican cultures to hybridize with corn. Of the ceramic shards found in the valley, the oldest possible date is 1400 BCE. The encountered ceramics that have been dated at between 1400 BCE to 100 CE indicate a non-Maya presence with the closest affinity to the El Salvador Pacific Coast (Lenca) or Olmec (consistent with a Lenca presence).

The 2300 BCE date seems more likely - the encountered seeds could be wild teosinte but it seems like quite a coincidence. The 2300 BCE date is about 300 years before the time of the major expansion for both the Maya and the Lenca out of their homelands in El Salvador to northern Honduras, Belize, northern Guatemala, and the Chiapas/western Guatemala Pacific coast. At the time of 2300 BCE, the Lenca were primarily centered in southeastern El Salvador, at Lago Olomeka (now Olomega) and nearby villages like Tihuilotal. If Copan was settled in 2300 BCE it would have been by the Lenca from the Lago Olomeka area of southeastern El Salvador.

If, instead, Copan was settled in 1400 BCE or soon thereafter, it would have been equally clear a Lenca settlement, given the type of ceramic that has been found there. By 1400 BCE the Lenca had an Atlantic coast settlement near the mouth of the Ulua River at Travesia. They might have had settlements in the Comayagua Valley and around Lago Yojoa as well. But even if some of the settlement push to Copan came from one of these Honduran sites, the major cultural and political push would have been from southeastern El Salvador, either from Quelepa or Lago Olomeka, since this area remained at this time the center of the Lenca people. Given the ceramic record at Copan, it seems that there was contact between Copan and southeastern El Salvador throughout the pre-Classic period.

The Maya arrived in about 100 CE to Copan. While it is more commonly thought that this first presence was Ch'olan from nearby, my belief is that it was a Kanjobal migration directly from Teotihuacan. This would help explain the bat symbolism common at Copan. Bat is the totem of the Kanjobal, who came out of the bat room of the cave with the Quiche, unlike the Ch'olan and Lenca ancestors who came out of the jaguar room. Then with the Ilopango eruption in about 420 CE causing all of western El Salvador to be uninhabitable for at least 100 years, a large migration of Ch'olan people arrived at Copan. Most likely both to assist his Ch'olan cousins but also seeing the opportunity to extend Tikal's influence, K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' led a migration from Tikal to Copan. Under his direction the first dated monument was built in 427 CE, marking the beginning of the Copan high civilization. It is likely that at this time or soon thereafter, the Lenca were welcomed back to Copan since the Ch'olan migrants from western El Salvador were very friendly with the Lenca.

When the Maya created the tremendous Copan kingdom there was a Lenca enclave at Copan. This enclave would have maintained contact with all the Lenca centers in Honduras and El Salvador, including Quelepa. Thus from 2300 BCE or 1400 BCE until the time of Copan's collapse in about 830 CE - that is, for over 2,200 years - the Lenca people travelled between southeastern El Salvador and Copan, with only a small break from about 100 CE to 430 CE.

What route did the Lenca follow? It is possible that they used the length of the Lempa River to travel by canoe at least half the distance of the journey. This might have happened on the downstream journey from Copan to Olomeka, but given the Lempa's current it is unlikely a river journey was used going upstream. Most of the time they likely traveled by foot. The map details what I think is a likely route. The route avoids major rivers, for example, by staying east and north of the Lempa. The route also passes through some villages later well known as Lenca centers, such as Sesori and Arcatao.

In fact, the Quelepa - Copan trail is the best explanation for the concentration of Lenca villages in eastern Chalatenango, far from the main concentrations of Lenca villages in far eastern El Salvador. Six of the 60 named Lenca villages from 900 CE are in Chalatenango, with only a handful between those and the eastern ones beginning with Sesori.

By beginning to explore the possible routes between major trade centers we gain clues to the origin of many places along the way.

Twin Sites: Chalchuapa and San Andres

As of yet, El Salvador has three important archeological sites: Cihuatán, for being a large multi-cultural city in the same end-of-Classic time frame as Chichen Itza; Joyas de Cerén, for its mid-Classic farming village locked in time by the covering of lava; and Chalchuapa, for being one of the most important Pacific Coast sites during the pre-Classic period. Of course, there still remains much research to be done at the four islands - Teopán, Teotipa, Olomega, and Monte Cristo - occupied by the Mesoamerican peoples for thousands of years before the beginning of the Mayan pre-Classic period.

While the archeological record so far gives an initial date of between 1500 and 1200 BC for Chalchuapa and an initial data of about 900 BC for San Andrés, I believe that the start date should be closer to 1800 BC and that they were built at the same time. The main argument for the date is that given the close proximity of development of the Ch'orti Maya with the other Mesoamerican peoples - the Lenca/Olmecs and the Zapotecs - prior to 1800 BC, it would be strange for the latter to begin monument building at Pacific coast sites further northwest 300 to 600 years prior to the Ch'orti. In addition it would be logical that the Ch'ortis would have started these sites soon after establishing their Atlantic base at Santa Rita, Belize.

The placement of Chalchuapa and San Andrés seems to indicate that they were built at the same time. The sites are 34.6 kilometers apart. The midpoint of the line connecting the two sites (see map; click to enlarge) is precisely at the lip of Lago Coatepeque. The builders of the two sites would have been living either on Teopán island, along the lakeshore, or near the accessible northern lip of the crater lake (at Siete Principes or Konko/El Congo), since that was the center of Ch'orti' development once the Quiche were forced to vacate the site.

Building the two sites equidistant from the northern lip of the lake would have given the sites symbolic importance. In addition, the line between Chalchuapa and San Andrés is 36 degrees south of a straight east-west line. This is almost exactly the angle of the sun in the sky on the winter solstice (Dec. 21) at this latitude (35 degrees south or 55 degrees above the southern horizon at noon).

Most of the archeological research at San Andrés has been limited to the building that took place during the Classic period. Very little is known what the site looked like during the pre-Classic period. Evidence has been found of habitation by 900 BC but given the limited research, it is quite possible that evidence for an earlier date could appear.

Like all sites in western or central El Salvador, San Andrés was abandoned for at least 200 years following the Ilopango eruption of 200 to 250 AD. When it was reestablished, it was a regional center that included the new better-known site of Joyas de Cerén. At lease seven structures were built including two main pyramids and a palace. The Salvadoran Cultural Ministry maintains a museum at the San Andrés site.

Chalchuapa consists of five main plazas spread over six square kilometers. At times the site is called by one or more of the plaza names: Tazumal, Casa Blanca, Pampe, El Trapiche, and Las Victorias. There are at least 58 large earthen mounds surrounding these five plazas. El Trapiche plaza includes several large Olmec-style carvings. Stela at this plaza indicate that writing was practiced here during the late pre-Classic period. Tazumal Plaza appears to have been developed during the mid-to-late Classic Period. The site was likely Ch'orti Maya throughout the pre-Classic and Classic periods, but then Pokoman Maya settled here before the arrival of the Spanish.

Even though it was not as large as El Mirador or Kaminaljuyu, better known pre-Classic Mayan sites, there are a number of indications that Chalchuapa was the most important site during the pre-Classic period. One is that its abandonment after the Ilopango eruption coincides with the collapse of the Pacific Coast predominance during the pre-Classic period. Two is that it seems to have maintained the closest relationship with the Olmec area of Mexico - this is not surprising given the cultures former close geographic relationship in El Salvador. Third is that many of the pre-classic pottery advances seem to have take place in Chalchuapa. The polychrome pottery which appears to have been a lead-in to the Classic period is found extensively at Chalchuapa.

I believe that Chalchuapa played two more very important roles. Not only did it play a role in coordinating Maya relationships with the Olmecs, it did the same thing with the Chavin and Paracas civilizations in Peru, as well as peoples in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Columbia. These trade relations were extremely important for the Mayas.

I would also maintain that throughout the pre-Classic period, unlike the Classic period, there was one recognized, maximum spiritual leader or council among the Ch'orti, and that leader or council was consistently located at Chalchuapa. Even the great center of El Mirador relied on Chalchuapa for its spiritual direction. But after the unpredicted and unexplained Ilopango eruption of 200-250 AD, the spiritual leaders of Chalchuapa, and El Mirador with it, lost their legitimacy. The Classic period, on the other hand, would be marked by many competing claims for spiritual and political legitimacy.

The Maya and Lenca Establish Atlantic Bases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tracing the Mesoamericans’ Travel through Names and Spirituality

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

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

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

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

Early Mayan – Mesoamerican Spirituality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Banishment of the Quiche from Coatepeque to Mexico

The first 3,000 years of the civilizing people of Mesoamerica were full of dramatic events: the escape from the ruthless rulers of the cave of Xibalba (Xibahkha in Ch’orti’); surviving the ravages of the wild with the help of three critical gifts from nature; the formation of a religion while on Isla Tigre in the Golfo de Fonseca; the dramatic death of One Hunahpu which led to their later liberation from Xibahkha; and the flood of 6400 BC which swept away one of the four island garden-villages.

But the second most important geo-political event of the last 5,000 years in Mesoamerica – second only to the arrival of the Spanish – was the banishment of the Quiche Maya in about 2200 BC. The Quiche Maya were always considered the lead among the four first civilizing nations. This is shown by their founder being called Manix, or worker of the earth – the first to embrace the vision of an agricultural way of life. In addition, the Quiches lived in the most beautiful of the four island homes – Coatepeque, or what they called Tammakchan.

By 2500 BC corn was getting much closer to it current size, from its start of just a few kernels. The leader of the Quiche was the most reliant on corn in his diet. Now we know that reliance on untreated corn can lead to pellagra and this is exactly what happened. Pellegra causes lesions on the skin, gauntness, mental illness, and death. But the other Mayan and Mesoamerican leaders didn’t know about pellagra.

Instead they remembered a story from their past, from their creation story, the Popol Vuh, that the famous Quiche leader, One Hunahpu, married an outsider, a Xibahkha woman. Her name was Xib’akiyalo. Surely it was this mixing of blood – the blood of the Xibahkhans, represented by the tapir, and the blood of the Quiches, represented by the serpent, that caused the disease – the lesions, the bleeding, the mental illness and the death.

Because they were considered a people of mixed race, which led to disease, the others decided that the Quiches must be sent away before any more inter-marrying happened. And the message of not inter-marrying must go out to all neighboring peoples. The Quiches were sent on balsa rafts as far as they could make it with their provisions of food and water. The Ch'ortis quickly moved into their Lago Coatepeque home and assumed role among the civilizing peoples.

The Quiches made it as far as an island along the coast of present-day Sinaloa, Mexico. [Click to enlarge map.] They named the island, Teocapan (now called Teacapan) for the island home they left, Teopan. The ka in the middle of Teacapan means 'to remember'. Thus, Teocapan means “remembering Teopan”. The made a spectacular home on this island and its memory survived in the stories of the Toltecs and the Aztecs.

The Quiches named the region after their totem, Maza (Deer), which is also the name of many early Quiche leaders. The present-day city of Mazatlán gets its name for the Quiche name of this region.

The Quiches were in Sinoloa before they split into lineage groups, so all those with Quiche lineage - the Kekchis, Uspantecs, Pokomams, Sacapultecs, Sipacapas, Tzutuhils, and Cakchiquels - share the Mexican experience.

The Quiche continued to hybridize corn at their new island home of Teocapan. They found a new location for Balsas teosinte grass in the mountains about 50 miles south. They named the place Teosinte and also named a place just off the coast Teosinte, so that they and the locals would remember how to get up to the highland teosinte.

They often visited a place to the south, Matanchén, where they harvested mollusks. They quickly became great sailors, living along the coast. They formed new villages to south near Tecomán, in present day Colima, at a site called El Opeño, in Michoacán, and up high on the plateau in the Valley of Mexico at a site now called Tlatilco. At some of these sites they reunited with their old cousins, the Olmec/Lencas, and the Tehuacanos/Zapotecs. The Olmecs introduced them to their allies from West Africa who had joined them on the Gulf Coast. Some of them joined the Quiches to live at Tlatilco. The Tehuacanos taught the Quiche how to sail to Ecuador and Perú.

By about 1500 BC, one portion of the Quiche community moved back toward their homeland. They settled at present day Guatemala City at the site known as Kaminaljuyu. This probably became the Uspantec – Pokomam lineage. The arrival to Kaminaljuyu from Mexico likely gave rise to the name for the present country of Guatemala:

Wate - to come back, to return home
Ma - [negative prefix]
Lah - fatigue

Guatemala likely means "to come back home, not tired". I'm not convinced about the meaning of "mala" but "Guate" is clear - to return home.

Remembering the bad blood between them, the Ch’orti’s at Lago Güija, Lago Coatepeque, Chalchuapa, and San Andrés were threatened by the Quiche presence so close by. To outflank the Quiches, they moved a significant portion of their elite and population to the north to northern Belice and to northern Petén and began to build the site of El Mirador.

The competition and the tension between the Ch’orti’ and the Quiche was only just beginning and hundreds of years later became outright warfare. All this happened because of a lack of understand about mental illness and a misunderstanding over the cause of that mental illness. And the message of needing to maintain pure blood was also based on false information and therefore a false message.

What are the clues that early Mayan leaders suffered from pellagra, that the Quiche suffered the first and most, and that the Quiche were banished to northwest Mexico?

• The Quiches have an oral tradition of having spent at least several hundred years in Mexico and of all the Mayan languages Quiche has the most Nahuat influences. The Toltec and Aztec traditions also speak of having come from an island city on the northwest coast of Mexico.

• As I have already discussed, the first chapter of the Popol Vuh appears to have been written in order to explain how so many people, including the leaders suffered from disease: it was the fault of the gods. The gods failed when creating humans three times, creating humans that were gaunt (stick figures), spoke to animals, or were mentally ill. This is an attempt to change the theology to account for widespread disease and mental illness. This chapter explains that it is the fault of the gods that people became ill, sick, and died. The gods goofed up three times in their creation of humans; it is not the fault of your grandmother and your grandfather that they were mentally ill.

• The Quiche seem to have become confused over key points and names in their history. This may be a result of leaders who suffered from mental illness due to pellagra and became confused in the retelling of the Popol Vuh. Another possibility is that the Quiche leaders had forgotten and when they asked the Ch’ol / Ch’orti’ Maya for clarification, they were deliberately misled. The best example of this is the name of the Quiche leader among the first four civilizing leaders. The Popol Vuh says that his name is Majukutaj, which means ‘Not Right Now’ in Quiche. This is an unusual name given that the other three are Night Jaguar, Ik Jaguar, and Kitze Jaguar.
  
  If it were a different name, the tzolkin day-sign calendar offers us a clue what it might have been. The day sign Manik in Yucatec has a symbol of a grasping hand or a working hand. In Ch’orti’, this would be Manix or worker of the earth. The fact that it refers to the Quiche is shown by the Aztec name for this day sign, which is Mazatl or Deer. Many early Quiche leaders were called Deer and it appears to be their totem animal, most likely since very early they followed the deer and tried out various plants to see if they were useful or edible. Thus this sign might have been Masa Manix or Deer Worker-of-the-Earth. Somehow, in their confusion, this morphed into Majukutaj for the Quiche. Another clue that this happened comes from the Ch’orti’ where maix means ‘not right now’. This would suggest that the first step in the confusion was to change the name from Manix to Maix, retaining the meaning of maix.

• One of the more curious anomalies in the tzolkin, the 260-day calendar of 20 13-day weeks, is that the Quiche version has a different starting day than the more commonly used Yucatec version. The Yucatec version begins with the day Imix (Imox in Quiche) and ends with day Ahaw, also spelled Ahau (Junajpu in Quiche). The end day is all important since it is the last day of the year that gives its name to that year. The Quiche version starts six days later with Kej (Manik’ in Yucatec and Manix in Ch’orti’) and ends with Kame (Kimi in Yucatec and Cimin in Ch’orti’). I believe that this is also a legacy from the banishment of the Quiches. Manix was the first Quiche leader while Ahaw (chief) was the title used by the Ch’orti’ leader after the Quiches left.

• Another change in the day sign appears with the sign known as Hunahpu in Quiche and Ahau in Yucatec. Both of these mean ‘lord’. The original name for this day sign was probably Sutz’ or ‘bat’ since the Quiche lord came out of the bat room of the cave. The other three leaders came out of the jaguar room and there is a sign associated with jaguars. When the Quiches were banished from their homeland, the Ch’ol’-Ch’orti’ changed this day sign to Ahau or Ahaw. The best clue that this happened comes from the Aztez name for this day sign, Xochitl. From their base in northwest Mexico, the Quiche provided many root words or sounds for the Nahuat language. In this case Sutz’ (bat) morphed into Xochitl (flower). In addition the Mayan glyph for this day sign appears to the be face of a bat.

• The Popol Vuh discusses how the Mayan leaders of the previous age, One Monkey and One Artisan are overturned and the new leaders, Hunahpu and Ixbalamque take over. While some interpret this as a transition from a non-Mayan time with non-Mayan leaders to the Mayan age, I believe that it really is one set of Mayan leaders overturning another set. In this case One Monkey and One Artisan represent the Quiches who were overturned and Hunahpu and Ixbalamque represent the Ch’ortis who took over leadership. One Monkey and One Artisan appear to become mentally ill: they are called monkeys, they run around naked, and roam the woods. Even their grandmother cannot keep from laughing at them.

• As I already described in a previous post, the meaning of ix seems to have changed from ‘Mother Earth’ to ‘the disease’ with the advent of pellagra. Likewise, after this, imix described untreated – diseased – corn, while a new word for corn – nar – described the good, treated, corn that did not have the disease. The curing of corn is called nixtamalization – ridding the corn of ix.

• Finally, we have the clue of the names along the northwest coast of Mexico, as already discussed above, including Teacapán, Mazatlán, and Matanchén. There are also only two occurrences of the place name ‘Teosinte’, or some variants of that, in Mexico, and both are close to their Teacapán home.

Entering the Underworld Hell - a Look at the Cave Beginnings of Xibalba

It is not by accident that I reached the point in my series on El Salvador indigenous history and got stuck at 600 AD, with the description of Joya de Cerén, the Pompeii-like Mayan classical site which was frozen in time following a volcanic eruption which covered the farming village. The next topics to cover - the spectacular building of Cihuatán in the mid 8th century, its violent destruction about 100 years later, and then the arrival of the Pipiles from Mexico - did not make sense. The Pipiles, for example, told early Spanish chroniclers that they resettled in El Salvador as a form of retribution against all the Olmecas for causing them so much suffering. How does that fit? The Olmecs were from the Gulf of Mexico coast of Veracruz and Tabasco. And who would have attacked Cihuatán in such a fashion? The Pipiles did not have that military capacity.

That is why I have needed to take a big step back and look at the history of corn and the world of the cave dwellers. The history of corn has included an examination of the distribution of teosinte as a place name which was found to be centered in the Guatemala-Honduras-El Salvador triangle area (i.e. Chorti Maya area). Then by determining that teo means 'island' in Chorti' Maya, it was possible to see that teosinte, in fact, means 'plants in a row on an island'. The two islands of Lago Coatepeque ('serpent hill lake') and Lago Güija ('navel' or 'source' lake), both in western El Salvador, were used to continually hybridize corn with teosinte from a variety of local sites. Corn had undergone significant hybridization by 1500 BC, therefore these two islands are extremely early Mayan agricultural sites, i.e. pre-Pre-Classic.

And now the cave. The Popol Vuh offers a very detailed view of Xibalba, the underworld, the cave that the Mayans came out of. Dennis Tedlock, in his very good translation of the Popol Vuh into English, states that the first part of Xibalba means 'fright'. That's an important clue. Xibalba is an evil place, as described in the Popol Vuh, perhaps similar to Hades. Tedlock translates the leaders' names as One Death and Seven Death. Other leaders are called Demon of Pus, Blood Gatherer, Demon of Jaundice, Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, and so on. You get the picture. And this is men describing Xibalba - you can only imagine what life was like for the women.

The Xibalbans did not just stay in the cave. The Popol Vuh discusses the road(s) to Xibalba as crossing various rivers, but especially mentions Pus River and Blood River, and says that they were traps put there by the Xibalbans. Given the leader names of Demon of Pus and Blood Gatherer, it is clear that the Xibalbans used rivers to ambush people and keep control of the roads, as is typical in "pre-civilized" societies. They controlled the countryside.

In Chorti' Maya, which is the oldest and purest Mayan language and the language of the inscriptions at Tikal and most Classic-era sites, xib is a plural male pronoun, as in 'those men of' or 'those men who'. It is pronounced similar to 'she' in English, with a 'b' at the end. But xib also correlates with the syllable xi. To show the impact of xi in the Mayan psyche or culture, it is helpful to see how it shows up in various words, with meanings in English:

• baxi        'pull out'
• haxi        'roll into a twist'
• ha'xi       'snare with a rope'
• hixi         'pull off with the fingers'
• huxi        'pluck'
• k'uxi       'gnaw on'
• muxi       'grind on the metate'
• see quxi  'lay an egg'

Following Tedlock's lead, in Chorti' the middle syllable is ba'k' which means 'fear' or 'fright'. The 'a' at the end could be ah, as in 'one who does'. But that is only used as a prefix in Chorti', not a suffix. The closest suffix sound is ha, which means 'water'. So Xi-ba'k'-ha means 'men who make water afraid' or more likely 'men who are afraid of water'. This is a derogatory name, something seen over and over again in the names of one's enemies in the Popol Vuh.

But more importantly, putting it together with the fact that some of the earliest Mayan settlements were built on islands, a very clear picture comes about. The earliest Mayans escaped from Xibalba, were pursued, and were only safe after entering water and swimming to safety to islands, because xibakha, the men were afraid of water. The islands were the only place that the Mayans were safe from the xibakha reign of terror. This is made even clearer by the Chorti' verb 'to swim', which is luhxih, giving a directional reference point, i.e. away from xih.

I write this as tears fall down my face. One can only understand the meaning of Xibalba if one understands El Mozote massacre, the Rio Sumpul massacre, the matanza of indigenous of 1932, the nearly 200,000 Guatemalan indigenous killed in the 1980s, the suffering caused by the US government in Central America, the repression of anti-coup leaders in Honduras, and the current murders against Salvadoran anti-mining activists. And then learn to swim.

I recently wrote about various caves in the Mesoamerica region, including La Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave in eastern El Salvador. The Popol Vuh also offers clues regarding the location of Xibalba. The Popol Vuh describes two early Mayan leaders being killed at Xibalba and buried nearby at 'Place of Ball Game Sacrifice'. The Popol Vuh was written in Quiche. Some of the words and syllables have changed from the original, which would have been Chorti' or very close to Chorti'. In Quiche, the 'Place of Ball Game Sacrifice' is Pusb'al cha'j. But let's look at it in Chorti'.

In Chorti', just as in English, there is a connection between the words used for hunted animals and a ball game. In Chorti' korom is hunted animals and kor is ball or pellet. Perhaps the subjects of the Xibalban lords were actually forced to "play" each other, as wild animals, to the death. This may have been both a form of entertainment and a means of population control. The naming of one of the rooms or houses in Xibalba as 'jaguar room' gives this connotation. This interpretation also would be consistent with the evolution of the later ball game fields at Mayan Pre-Classic and Classic sites.

In addition to kor, 'place' is irah, and 'sacrifice' is toy. So the full name would be kor-irah-toy. Two kilometers from La Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave is the town of Corinto. Further confirmation of this connection is the word for 'game place' in Chorti', koromtar.

This placement of Xibalba is consistent with the Popol Vuh. The early Mayans in the Popol Vuh always traveled east from their homes to Xibalba when summoned by the lords there. The Xibalba cave is in northeast El Salvador and one of the roads to Xibalba went from Isla Teopán and Isla Teotipa in west and northwest El Salvador. But the Popol Vuh makes it clear that there were four Mayan clans that escaped from Xibalba. And it turns out that they each went to a different island to escape the men afraid of water.

How Corn Was Hybridized by the Early Maya in Central America

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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