The Indigenous History of El Salvador

Teosinte - This is no Fantasy Island

Lago Coatepeque in El Salvador is a very special place, where one seems suspended from time and space. And when studying indigenous history, any place called Serpent Hill is a subject of interest, given that the Chorti are the serpent people. The name was obviously nahuatalized by the Pipiles, but it is likely that the original meaning in Chorti was also Serpent Hill, or something similar. It is clearly in Chorti country, being so close to both Chalchuapa and San Andres. And this was one of the very first centers of Mayan civilization.

So glancing at the lake’s entry on wikipedia, something caught my eye – 'Isla Teopan' - on the map it said Isla del Cerro. The prefix ‘teo’ is extremely rare in El Salvador – there is the municipality of Teotepeque in La Libertad, but this was the only other example I had seen, other than ‘Teosinte’.

Let’s see – lakes … Lago Güija, 25 kilometers north, on the border with Guatemala. It also has an island – Isla Tipa. A little internet searching and this confirmed it! The key to so many riddles. Isla Tipa was also known as Isla Teotipa. Güija, like Coatapeque is in the mera-mera Chorti country, this was no nahuatalization like Teotepeque might be.

Teo means ‘island’ in Chorti' Maya. There it is. It wasn't in the Chorti' dictionary because there are no islands in the highland region where the Chorti's now live. So, Teotihuacán, means 'Island of Tihuacán' and was founded by people who spoke, or at least knew, some Chorti’ Maya. Wow!

Before getting too far ahead, let’s back up to Teosinte. Si’in means ‘many; extended in a series or row’ in Chorti'. The ending of teosinte was always the easiest – te is the generic word for plant in Chorti. So teosinte means “plants in rows on an island" or “island of cultivated plants”. Was this word describing an experimental biological station where the Chorti’s could perfect their hybridization of corn, beans, squash, tobacco, cacao, etc., in isolation from wild animals that would want to eat the plants? Also in isolation of pollens of other plant varieties, if they were aware of that.

That would mean that one of these islands in Lago Coatepeque or Lago Güija may have been the very center, the very first location of Mayan civilization. Or perhaps both. Isla Teopan means “Sprouting Island” or “Breaking Open Island” and that definitely fits the description. There are also an old Mayan temple and monolith on the island. The first Mayan temple and monolith?

But a case can be made for Isla Teotipa in Lago Güija as well. Ti is a conjunction meaning 'on' or 'within'. Today pa is usually the word for tortilla but originally was a generic term for 'food'. So Teotipa is “Food Island.” That couldn’t be any clearer. And then there are the other two islands on Lago Güija: Iguatepec and Cerro Tule. Perhaps teosinte means 'plants on islands in a row' and 'tule' does sound an awful lot like ... well, that will have to wait for another day. For now, I can say that all the 'teosinte' place names that I found were markers for the sources of wild teosinte that was used continuously to rehybridize with the emergent corn on one of more islands in western El Salvador.

Corn itself, we know, originated in Mexico from Balsas teosinte, so there will be a need to revisit corn in 6700 BC or before. Then we can move on to Teotihuacán. But before that will be a stop on the northwest coast of Mexico.

Indigenous Highways

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Popol Vuh, Theology in a Time of Disease

[Este mismo cuento en español.]

I have discussed how the early Chorti Mayans of coastal El Salvador and Guatemala discovered or highlighted the discovery of soaking corn in ash in about 1500 BC, and their promotion of this discovery led to one of the fastest civilization expansions in the history of the pre-modern world.

However, this expansion was only possible with an ideology or theology attached to it. By about 1700 BC, the Chortis were rapidly advancing due to improved agriculture from constantly improving corn and bean production through selective hybridization. In addition, their efficiency at fishing and ocean harvesting was greatly enhanced by their discovery of the 13 to 14 day tidal cycle, which led to the creation of the Tzol'kin calendar.

Finally, their correlation of eclipses with 52-day periods of slack tides and very poor fishing, allowed them to begin long trade journeys to central Mexico, the Veracruz coast, the Peten, and the Yucatan without missing out much on the best fishing. On these trade trips, the Chortis, the master agriculturalists, were always pushing the latest corn hybrid and encouraging more corn production. Corn seed from the most recent harvest was likely one of their major trade products on these trips.

Yet, by 1500 BC or just before then, they faced a major crisis in the legitimacy of their leadership. That was because the very same Chorti elite, those who consumed the most corn, were becoming diseased. They became weak and they became lesioned, with bloody sores all over their bodies. Not only that, but the people in their communities and the people who they convinced to give up hunting and gathering and produce more corn were also becoming diseased. They didn't know yet about pellegra (also called pellagra), the disease caused by niacin deficiency common among those who rely on corn as a staple in the diet.

But due to this disease, throughout Mesoamerica people were rejecting Mayan leadership, rejecting corn and the agricultural lifestyle, and reverting to hunting and gathering. Neighboring peoples who relied on hunting were defeating the weakened Mayan and mocking their diseased leaders. No doubt, civilization was delayed by hundreds of years by pellegra. The Chortis had discovered what seemed to be a cure, but many did not believe them. That is, they did not believe until the Mayans developed a story, a narrative, that explained meaning and truth, despite the scourge of pellegra. This narrative is best described by the Popol Vuh, the sacred text relayed by the Quiche after the arrival of the Spanish.

The early chapters of the Popol Vuh read like a description of the symptoms of pellegra and in each case the conclusion is that the creator beings failed. That is, it wasn't the fault of the people who became diseased nor was it the fault of the Mayan leaders who promoted a new lifestyle. One chapter describes humans who were dry, with no sweat and no blood. Dry is also a word meaning extreme skinniness in Mesoamerica and weight loss and weakness is one symptom of pellegra. Another chapter describes the rain washing away the substance of the skin and organs of the humans - a symptom of pellegra is the wasting away of the skin.

Yet another chapter goes into horrid detail of symptoms of dementia, with the animals speaking back to the humans, even the corn grinding stones - the metates and manos - speaking back and saying that they would grind up those who usually did the grinding. Dementia is one of the advanced symptoms of pellegra.

The Popol Vuh explains that all of these attempts to create human beings failed. A new attempt to create humans was made and it was successful. In this way, the Mayan creation story is parallel to the Poton Lenca creation story of central and eastern El Salvador that I have already described. Ixbalanque, one of the hero twins (the other is Hunahpú) in the Popol Vuh, represents the diseased leader who had lesions all over his body.

By associating this hero, Ixbalanque, with the jaguar, the most powerful animal in the Mesoamerican ecosystems, but also an animal with spots (similar to lesions), the Mayans were legitimizing their diseased leadership. The jaguar people are the powerful people with the lesioned leadership. Many people had to die before the gods revealed the secret of corn soaking, thus the concept of sacrifice was incorporated into the cosmology.

Most importantly, the Popol Vuh reassures people that it is not the fault of the people in the first agricultural villages that they were hearing voices, that they were lesioned, that they were weak and dying. Nor is it the fault of the corn or the agricultural way of life. Rather, it was the fault of the creator beings. Now they had finally succeeded with a new being, a being made of corn dough, corn that has been cured of the disease by soaking it in ash. The narrative of the Popol Vuh helped to convince both the Chorti Maya villagers and neighboring peoples to trust the diseased Chorti leadership and to accept the strange new practice, sent by the gods, of soaking corn in ashes.

[PostScript, Jan. 27, 2010. To remember those who died in this epidemic and to give thanks for the one true answer to overcoming it, the Mayans put a touch of ash on their foreheads.]

From the Maya, the Beginnings of the Olmecs and Zapotecs

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

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

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

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

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

Put the Lime in the Coco

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The First Milpa - Jared Diamond, Corn, and Mexico

Jared Diamond identifies at least five locations around the world as independently domesticating plants - including Southwest Asia, China, Mesoamerica, Andes upland and Amazon foothills, and the latest chronologically, the Eastern United States. The first four became sites of early advanced civilizations. The first of these was Southwest Asia, about 8500 BC, followed by China, in 7500 BC.

In Mesoamerica, it is the story of corn. Corn, or maize, and the corn field, milpa, are sacred in Mexico and Central America. The holy book, Popol Vuh, talks about the flesh of the first father and first mother being made from corn mush. For decades historians and scientists have debated the origin of corn. Now, thanks to advances in molecular biology and genetics, we are much closer to the answer: teosinte grass from Mexico.

There are two big surprises to the news announced in March 2009 - first, it was not just any teosinte, but Balsas teosinte, or Zea mays parviglumis. Surprisingly it was found in southwest Mexico in mid-level elevations, along the Balsas River which borders Guerrero, Michoacan, and Jalisco. Teosinte is a wild grass that has edible grains - a small, hard grain that must be smashed open with a rock. Guatemalan teosinte, or Zea luxurians, with optimal conditions in the highlands of Guatemala, northern El Salvador, and southern Honduras. But Balsas teosinte has optimal growing conditions in western Mexico.

The second surprise was the date - the site shows that corn was domesticated by at least 6700 BC, along with squash. The practice of cultivating corn spread quickly south - by 5500 BC to Panama and soon thereafter to Columbia and Ecuador. It made the move to the north, out of the sub-tropics, much more slowly, arriving in the southwestern US by 0 BC and to the Mississippi Valley by 1000 AD. By at least 3000 BC, beans (cooking beans) were also domesticated, and together with corn create a complete protein.

While squash and corn, and later beans, made their way south, at least three domesticated plants from South America made their way north: yuca (manioc), peanuts, and cacao.

It is at least worth mentioning that temperatures were slowing rising at 6700 BC, entering the warm period called the Holocene Climate Optimum. Temperatures rose much more dramatically in northern latitudes, but there was likely mild warming in the sub-tropics. The previous ice age had ended by at least 9000 BC, but it seems likely that from 9000 to 6700 BC, the range of Balsas teosinte was slowly drifting northwest from Central America toward the Guerrero-Jalisco coast. Since scientists did not find corn and teosinte together at the 6700 BC site, it is possible that corn actually was hybridized even earlier and that this hybridization could have happened further south along the Guatemala or El Salvador coast. There are hints that this might be true, but I save that for a later post.

Jared Diamond says that corn was very hard to domesticate from teosinte, leading to a 5,000 year head start for Southwest Asian cultures. He did not have the benefit of the 2009 announcement mentioned above, which proved a much earlier date. In fact, Mesoamericans were less than 2,000 years behind in plant domestication. It is true that it likely took several thousand years of hybridization to grow corn that produced thumb size cobs to corn that produced finger size cobs. Yet, there was another, more serious problem with corn that kept it from being the generator of advanced culture. When the Mayans of the Guatemalan/Salvadoran Pacific Coast solved this problem in about 1500 BC, civilization took off like wild fire in Mesoamerica. Any guesses? Next time...

[Post Script: I now believe that the hybridization process may have begun as early as 8300 BC and took place in El Salvador at the close of the last Ice Age. Feb. 25, 2010]

Pacific Coast: First Signs of Civilization

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eclipse - Time for a Trade Mission to #Honduras, #Guatemala, and #Mexico

The tides are slackening again along the Central American Pacific Coast and the Mayans of 3000 years ago would have known, in similar conditions, that a lunar eclipse would occur on the next 10 day, 10 Ocelot (December 31), and that the normally high tides on a 10-day would be extremely slack. They would have known that the next two 10-days, 10 Deer (Jan. 13) and 10 Flower (Jan. 26), normally high tide days, would also have slack tides. In fact, they would have known, through hundreds of years of observing the ocean, that the next good day for ocean fishing, crabbing, and other shoreline harvesting, would not happen until 10 Reed (February 8, 2010), 51 days from now.

As the early Mayan civilization began to specialize 3000 years ago, people learned to take advantage of the slack tide eclipse periods by concentrating on agriculture, hunting, and long-distance trade. This is the dry season when agriculture slows down in Mesoamerica, which means that the coastal Mayans would have used this eclipse period for long-distance trade trips to Copán, Honduras; Tikal, Guatemala; Yucatan; Monte Alban in the Oaxaca valley; the Olmec coast of Mexico; and Teotihuacán in central Mexico.

It is time to pack up and prepare for a trip - by canoe and later balsa raft along the coast or overland on foot into the highlands of Guatemala and Honduras! The Chorti Mayas would have been trading cacao, salt from the Usulután coast, quetzal feathers from the Ahuachapán forests, obsidian from nearby Ixtepeque and Quelepa, and dried ocean fish.

We might think of the Mayan calendar as a New Age phenomena, but for the early Mayans it had not only spiritual meaning but also was a guide to know the ocean, moon, and stars, so that ocean fishing and salt production could be maximized - a guide to civilization itself.

Today is 11 Wind, 11th Day in the Week 1-Tooth / 1 Grass (this 13 day week never has an eclipse but every other year precedes an eclipse)
11 Ik (Maya) - Wind, breath, or life. Glyph might be the tree of life
11 Ehecatl (Nahuat) - Wind god
Direction: North

Acajutla High Tides: 4:14 AM and 4:47 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.60 meters average and decreasing. (Difference in High/Low Tides)

Keywords: Pack up and take a long trip. Remember to take something to trade.

A summary of Mayan civilization eras

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

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

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

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

El Salvador in 400 BC to 200 AD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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