The Indigenous History of El Salvador

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.

Surfer Dudes of 1000 BC

El Salvador is a surfing haven, but, OK, actually there is no evidence that the Mayans were surfing along El Salvador’s coast in 1000 BC. However, they were out in the surf everyday fishing from the early Mayan city of Cozumel (Chalchuapa), as well as along the Guatemalan coast. When you are out in the ocean every day you notice things like the tides coming in 50 minutes later each day and which days have the highest tides.

There are many things which affect the tides, including local geography, ocean depth, the position of the moon, and the distance between the moon and earth, since its orbit is not completely circular. In terms of time of day, the high tide repeats in just over 14 days in all oceans. Surely the Mayans figured this out early as did all early coastal peoples. Perhaps that is why we have a 7-day week. But the Mayans figured out something more important to their development.

Here in the San Francisco Bay region the tides are quite irregular. But one thing can be counted on: the highest tides always happen in the morning or early afternoon. The high and low tides which occur during late afternoon to just after midnight tend to be almost equal – very little difference between the high point and the low point.

On the other hand, the tides along El Salvador’s coast are very regular, with morning and evening high tides at about the same height. But the Mayans noticed something else, every 13 days the tide reached its highest point, during high tide, and its lowest point, during low tide. Six or seven days later there would be very little difference between the height of the high and low tides. This actually is very important to know among people who fish and gather crabs and other creatures along the shore. And to be able to predict this not just a few days, but many days, in advance allowed the Mayans to organize themselves into work parties in other activities when the fishing or crabbing would not be so good. This led to … civilization.

Why the tides have a 13 day cycle is rather complicated. But it basically follows the 26 day cycle of the moon crossing the 0 degree latitude point of the plane formed by the orbit of earth around the sun. The moon varies from 5 degrees north to 5 degrees south of that plane. Every 26 days it completes a cycle and every 13 days it crosses the 0 latitude point. Of course, when there is a full or new moon and the sun, moon, and earth are lined up, there is a stronger tide. But it turns out that along the Central American Pacific Coast that the “vertical” alignment of the sun and moon, that is being in the same 2-dimensional plane of the ecliptic, is more important than the one-dimensional horizontal alignment that occurs at the full and new moon.

Today, December 5, 2009, the difference between the high tide and low tide, the semi-diurnal tide range, is at its greatest, in El Salvador. This is the 10th day (10 Lamat) of their 13 day week (Cauac). Thirteen days ago, on Nov. 22, it was 10 Men and the high tide was at its highest. In 13 days, on Dec. 18, it will be 10 Imix and the high tide will again be at its highest. The Mayans began figuring this out about 3,800 years ago.

Then, when the Mayans figured out that there was a relationship between the tides and lunar and solar eclipses, they realized that there was something very powerful and almost magical between the interaction of sun, moon, and earth.

First posted, Dec. 5, 2009 on BlogBox

PostScript, added Jan. 23, 2010: The knowledge of the regularity of the tides does not seem to be the determining factor in the development of the 13-day calendar. The tides repeat closer to every 14 days rather than 13 days. There is evidence that the Mayans were tracking Mars much earlier than previously expected and the number 13 shows up in some of the Mars cyclical (synodic) periods. However, the relationship between 13 and the tides probably did give the number 13 special meaning among the early Mayans by about 4000 BC.