The Indigenous History of El Salvador

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.

Indigenous Highways

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From 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.

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]

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.

Ingredients of Civilization: Water, Mountains, Salt

Let’s take a step back and ask, ‘Why El Salvador’? Why was it one of the birth places of Mayan civilization? To answer this, one needs to look at the geography and natural resources: access to water for food and for trade routes, access to mountains to provide varied agricultural zones that allow for hybridization of potential crops, and access to salt that makes a varied diet (not just meat and fish) more acceptable.

El Salvador’s access to the Pacific Ocean allowed very early peoples to have access to fish and other ocean products. The Lempa River is the largest river system along the Central American Pacific coast and allowed easy access inland via canoes.

In the western half of the country, El Salvador’s coast rises quickly from the ocean to the coastal volcanic range. This allowed the early Mayans to live off of the ocean at the same time that they were experimenting with various agricultural products like corn, beans, and squash, which grow better at higher elevations. There are only a few other places in Mesoamerica with the close proximity of mountains to coast, one of which is the Olmec area along the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The Tuxtla range rises quickly from the Gulf Coast near the Olmec site of Tres Zapotes.

Another key to early development was access to salt and clay. Salt was necessary as the diet transitioned from primarily meat to primarily grains. Salt was one of the most valued early trade products. Clay was necessary to begin to form pots and other food-related products, as the diet was diversifying. Both of these were available in large quantities in Usulután in east-central El Salvador.

One of the advantages to Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and northern Central America) over many other areas is access to two oceans. The two places with the narrowest trans-ocean journey in Mesoamerica are the Tehuantepec Isthmus in southern Mexico and the line from western El Salvador north to the Guatemala-Honduras border along the Atlantic. Is it a coincidence that the Olmec civilization lies at the Atlantic terminal of the Tehuantepec Isthmus and that the earliest Mayan civilization lies at the Pacific terminal of the Lempa to Motagua route?

From the Lempa River, a canoe could get one to the area of Ocotepeque in southeast Honduras. From there it is about 40 miles overland to the Copán River which flows into the Motagua River, giving access to the Atlantic Ocean. Anthropologists have determined that the first settlers of the present site of Copán arrived in 2000 BC, most likely from the Pacific Coast. This would indicate that by that date, the early Mayans of El Salvador had discovered the important Lempa-Copán-Motagua route from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

First posted, Dec. 6 on BlogBox