Recent Research at San Isidro, El Salvador, in the Context of Southeastern Mesoamerican Archaeology
Abstract
Archaeology of the extreme southeast of Mesoamerica, despite receiving a fair amount of scholarly attention, still remains a relatively poorly developed field. In this article I identify main factors that hamper our understanding of the ancient past of this region, including population density, volcanism, multiple historical reasons, and exceptionally uneven distribution of data from different periods. The second half of the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC - AD 250) seems to be the most understudied, and likely the most crucial time for the southeastern boundary of Mesoamerica from the perspective of reconstructing processes of cultural dynamics and emergence of identities. I offer a probable, if only partial solution to the problem by presenting recent advances, and future directions of my ongoing research at a large Preclassic site of San Isidro, Sonsonate, El Salvador. I argue that even at the early stage of investigation San Isidro shows great potential for providing the missing data.
Metrics
References
Amador, Fabio (editor) 2009 "Atlas Arqueológico de la Región de Oriente de El Salvador." Report on file at Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. Accessed June 11, 2019. http://www.famsi.org/reports/07070es/07070esAmador01
Amaroli, Paul 1983 "Reconocimiento y evaluación del sitio arqueológico Isla El Cajete." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 19, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/amaroli_elcajete.pdf
Amaroli, Paul 1986 "En la búsqueda de Cuscatlán: un proyecto etnohistórico y arqueológico." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 18, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/buscacuscatlan.pdf
Amaroli, Paul 1987a "Informe preliminar de las excavaciones arqueológicas en Cara Sucia, departamento de Ahuachapán, El Salvador." Unpublished report on file at the Dirección del Patrimonio Cultural, San Salvador.
Amaroli, Paul 1987b "Un sitio Preclásico Medio en la ciudad de Antiguo Cuscatlán, depto. de La Libertad, El Salvador, Centroamérica." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 21, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/antiguo_preclasico.pdf
Amaroli, Paul 2000 "La urgencia de comprar el sitio arqueológico Las Marías." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 14, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/lasmariasurgencia.pdf
Amaroli, Paul 2012 "Informe de actividades en Cihuatán, 2011-2012." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 13, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/2012fundar.pdf
Amaroli, Paul 2015 Arqueología de El Salvador. San Salvador: FUNDAR.
Amaroli, Paul and Karen Bruhns 2002 "El rescate de efigies de Tláloc en Las Marías." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 13, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/tlalocreport.pdf
Andrews, Edward Wyllys 1976 The Archaeology of Quelepa, El Salvador, Middle American Research Institute Publication 42. New Orleans: Tulane University.
Ashmore, Wendy 2014 "Practices of spatial discourse at Quelepa.” In The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors, edited by G. Braswell, 25-55. London and New York: Routledge.
Beaudry, Marilyn P. 1982 "Preliminary Classification and Analisis; Ceramic Collection, Asanyamba." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 14, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/beaudry_asanyamba.pdf
Beaudry, Marilyn P. 1983. The Ceramics of the Zapotitán Valley, in P. Sheets (ed.) Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitán Valley of El Salvador: 161-190. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Black, Kevin 1983 "The Zapotitán Valley Archaeological Survey." In Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitán Valley in El Salvador, edited by P. Sheets, 62-97. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Boggs, Stanley 1943. "Notas sobre las excavaciones en la Hacienda "San Andrés, Departamento de La Libertad." Tzunpame 3 (2): 104-126.
Boggs, Stanley 1981 Continuing Archaeological Work in El Salvador. Mexicon 3(4): 61.
Bruhns, Karen 1980 Cihuatan: An Early Postclassic Town of El Salvador. The 1977-1978 excavations, University of Missouri Monographs in Anthropology 5. Columbia: University of Missouri.
Bruhns, Karen 1996. "El Salvador and the Southeastern Frontier of Mesoamerica." In Paths to Central American Prehistory, edited by F. Lange, 285-296. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Bruhns, Karen, and P. Amaroli 2009 "An Early Postclassic Round Structure At Cihuatán, El Salvador." Arqueología Iberoamericana 2: 35-45.
Campbell, Lyle 1997 American Indian Languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, Lyle 2015 "Do Languages and Genes Correlate? Some Methodological Issues." Language Dynamics and Change 5: 202-226.
Campbell, Lyle 2016. "Comparative Linguistics of Mesoamerican Languages Today." Veleia 33: 113-134.
Carr, Michael J., and Nancy K. Pontier 1981 "Evolution of a Young Parasitic Cone Towards a Mature Central Vent: Izalco and Santa Ana Volcanoes in El Salvador, Central America,” Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 11: 277-292.
Chinchilla, Oswaldo 2012 Cotzumalguapa, la ciudad arqueológica: El Baúl-Bilbao-El Castillo. Guatemala: FyG Editores.
Coe, Michael, S. Houston 2015. The Maya. 9th edition. London and New York: Thames&Hudson.
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo 1991. Las lenguas del área intermedia: introducción a su estudio areal. San José: Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica.
Creamer, Winifred 1987. "Mesoamerica as a Concept: An Archaeological View from Central America." Latin American Research Review 22 (1): 35-62.
Daneels, Annick 2001 "La relación entre la costa del Golfo de México y la Costa del Pacífico de Centroamérica, vista desde Veracruz." In XIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2000, edited by J. Laporte, A. Suasnávar, and B. Arroyo, 1013-1029. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Demarest, Arthur 1986 The Archaeology of Santa Leticia and the Rise of Maya Civilization, Middle American Research Institute Publication 52. New Orleans: Tulane University Press.
Demarest, Arthur, Paul Amaroli, and Barbara Arroyo 1989 "Informe final, proyecto El Carmen, El Salvador." Unpublished report on file at FUNDAR. Accessed June 9, 2019. http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/carmen.pdf
Dixon, Boyd 1989 "A Preliminary Settlement Pattern Study of a Prehistoric Cultural Corridor: The Comayagua Valley, Honduras." Journal of Field Archaeology 16 (3): 257-271.
Dixon, Boyd, L. Joesink-Mandeville, N. Hasebe, M. Mucio, W. Vincent, D. James, and K. Petersen 1994 "Formative-Period Architecture at the Site of Yarumela, Central Honduras." Latin American Antiquity 5 (1): 70-87.
Díaz, Hugo, O. Camacho, K. García, J. Guerra, K. López, D. Messana, S. Shibata, and M. Yoshidome 2013 "Proyecto Arqueológico San Andrés, temporada 2011, El Salvador." In XXVI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2012, edited by B. Arroyo, and L. Méndez Salinas, 343-351. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Dull, Robert A., John Southon, and Payson Sheets. 2001. "Volcanism, ecology, and culture: A reassessment of the Volcán Ilopango TBJ eruption in the southern Mayan realm." Latin American Antiquity 12 (1): 25-44.
Dull, Robert, J. Southon, S. Kutterolf, A. Freundt, D. Wahland, and P. Sheets 2010 "Did the TBJ Ilopango Eruption Cause the AD536 event?" American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, poster and abstract.
Dull, Robert, J. Southon, S. Kutterolf, K. Anchukaitis, A. Freundt, D. Wahl, P. Sheets, P. Amaroli, W. Hernandez, M. Wiemann, and C. Oppenheimer 2019 Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal mystery eruption of 539/40 CE. Quaternary Science Review 222.
Escalante, P., (editor) 2000 Pedro de Alvarado, Diego García Palacio, Antonio de Ciudad Real: Cartas de Relación y otros documentos. Biblioteca de Historia Salvadoreña vol. 1, 2nd edition, San Salvador: Dirección de Publicaciones e Impresos, CONCULTURA.
Escamilla, Marlon, and Shione Shibata 2005 "Rescate arqueológico en El Chiquirín, golfo de Fonseca, La Unión, El Salvador." In XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004, edited by J. Laporte, B. Arroyo, and H. Mejía, 535-539. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Fash, William 1983 "Reconocimiento y excavaciones en el valle." In Introducción a la arqueología de Copán, edited by C. Baudez, 229-470. Tegucigalpa: Secretaría del Estado en el Despacho de Cultura y Turismo.
Feinman, Gary 2019 "The Prehispanic Mesoamerican World. Framing Interactions." In Interregional Interactions in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by J. Englehardt and M. Carrasco, 34-50. Louisville: University of Colorado Press.
Fisher, Christopher, J. Fernández-Diaz, A. Cohen, O. Cruz, A. Gonzáles, S. Leisz, F. Pezzutti, R. Shrestha, and W. Carter2016 "Identifying Ancient Settlement Patterns through LiDAR in the Mosquitia Region of Honduras." PLoS ONE 11 (8): 1-37.
Fowler, William 2019 "The Pipil Migrations in Mesoamerica: History, Identity, and Politics.” In Migrations in Late Mesoamerica, edited by Ch. Beekman, 285-326. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Fowler, William and Howard Earnest 1985 "Settlement Patterns and Prehistory of the Paraíso Basin of El Salvador." Journal of Field Archaeology 12 (1): 19-32.
Freidel David 2019 "The World as They Knew It: The Interaction Sphere Concept in Current Mesoamerican Archaeology.” In Interregional Interactions in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by J. Englehardt and M. Carrasco, 365-382. Louisville: University of Colorado Press.
Garnica, Frances Paola and Rosa María Ramírez Menjívar 2009 "Historia de Estudios Arqueológicos en Oriente." In Atlas Arqueológico de la Región de Oriente de El Salvador, edited by F. Amador, 5-19. Report on file at the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. Accessed June 11, 2019. http://www.famsi.org/reports/07070es/07070esAmador01.pdf
Genovez, Vicente 2013 "El Preclásico en los registros arqueológicos del valle de Ciguateguacán." La Universidad 22/23: 55-68.
Glass, John 1966 "Archaeological Survey of Western Honduras." In Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 4: Archaeological Frontiers and External Connections, edited by G. Ekholm, and G. Willey, 157-179. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Gómez Esteban 2010. "Archaeology of the Colonial Period Gulf of Fonseca, Eastern El Salvador." Ph.D diss., University of California, Berkeley. Accessed June 17, 2019. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h6908bz#main
Gove, Harry E 2000. "Some Comments on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry." Radiocarbon 42 (1): 127-135.
Haberland, Wolfgang
Gove, Harry E 1960. "Ceramic Sequences in El Salvador." American Antiquity 26 (1): 21-29.
Hoopes, John and Oscar M. Fonseca 2003 "Goldwork and Chibchan Identity: Endogenous Change and Diffuse Unity in the Isthmo-Colombian Area." In Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica,Panama, and Colombia, edited by J. Quilter, and J. Hoopes, 49-89. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Ichikawa, Akira 2016 "Cuándo y Cómo Fue la Erupción del Volcán Ilopango, El Salvador: Síntesis desde la Óptica Arqueológica." Journal of the School of Letters 12: 23-43.
Ichikawa, Akira 2017 "Secuencia Constructiva de La Campana (Estructura-5), San Andrés, El Salvador." Journal of the School of Letters 13: 45-55.
Ichikawa, Akira, S. Shibata, and M. Murano 2009 "El Preclásico Tardío en Chalchuapa: Resultados de las investigaciones de la Estructura 5 en el Parque Arqueológico Casa Blanca." In XXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2008, edited by J. Laporte, B. Arroyo, and H. Mejía, 502-515. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Ito, Nobuyuki, and Shione Shibata 2013 "Informe Preliminar del Proyecto 'Investigación Arqueológica a Través de Sondeo Geofísico en las Áreas de El Trapiche y Casa Blanca', Primera y Segunda Temporada 2012-2013." Unpublished report on file at the Dirección de Arqueología, Ministerio de Cultura de El Salvador.
Ito, Nobuyuki, Shione Shibata and Hiroshi Minami 2002 "Resultados de las investigaciones arqueológicas en la Trinchera 4N del área de Casa Blanca, Chalchuapa, durante las Temporadas III y IV (2001-2002)." In XVI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2002, edited by J. Laporte, B. Arroyo, H. Escobedo, and H. Mejía, 904-909. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Kaplan, Jonathan, and Federico Paredes-Umaña 2018 Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Kelley, Jane 1988 Cihuatán, EI Salvador: A Study in Intrasite Variability. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology 35. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Kirchhoff, Paul 1943 "Mesoamérica, sus límites geográficos, composición étnica y caracteres culturales." Acta Americana 1: 92-107.
Lardé, Jorge 1926 "Lenguas indianas de El Salvador: su distribución geográfica." Revista de Etnología, Arqueología y Lingüística 1: 281-286.
Longyear, John and Stanley Boggs 1944 Archaeological Investigations in El Salvador. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 9, No. 2. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Longyear, John 1966 "Archaeological Survey of El Salvador." In Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 4: Archaeological Frontiers and External Connections, edited by G. Ekholm, and G. Willey, 132-156. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Love, Michael 2011 "Critical Issues in the Southern Maya Region and the Late Preclassic Period." In The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic: The Rise and Fall of an Early Mesoamerican Civilization. edited by M. Love and J. Kaplan, 3-23. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Love, Michael, and Jonathan Kaplan (eds.) 2011. The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic: The Rise and Fall of an Early Mesoamerican Civilization. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Manahan, T. Kam, and Marcel Canuto 2009 "Bracketing The Copan Dynasty: Late Preclassic And Early Postclassic Settlements At Copan, Honduras."Latin American Antiquity 20 (4): 553-580.
Miles, Susanne 1957 "The 16th-century Pokom-Maya: a documentary analysis of social structure and archaeological settings." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 47 (4): 734-781.
Moraga, R., E. Mencos, P. Costa, and S. Perrot-Minnot 2010 "La Relación entre Cara Sucia (El Salvador) y la zona de Cotzumalguapa (Guatemala): La perspectiva desde un análisis cerámico." In XXIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2009, edited by B. Arroyo, A. Linares, and L. Paiz, 1180-1192. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Paredes-Umaña, Federico 2013 "Nuevas investigaciones en la Cordillera de Apaneca: una revisión de la tesis del despoblamiento PosIlopango." Identidades 6: 112-130.
Picardo, Oscar 1998 "Vestigios del Pre-Clasico en San Isidro: Investigación de rastreo en campo." Theorethikos 5. Accessed June 21, 2019. http://www.ufg.edu.sv/ufg/theorethikos/Septiembre98/Picardo.html
Rogers, Chris 2016. The Use and Development of the Xinkan Languages. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sampeck, Kathryn 2007 Late Postclassic to Colonial Landscapes and Political Economy of the Izalcos Region, El Salvador. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Tulane University.
Sampeck, Kathryn 2014 "Ancient Quelepa, Colonial San Miguel: Shifting cultural frontiers and rogue colonialism in eastern El Salvador." In The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors: Settlement Patterns, Architecture, Hieroglyphic Texts, and Ceramics, edited by G. Braswell, 56-82. London and New York: Routledge.
Schortman, Edward M., and Patricia A. Urban 1995 "Late Classic Society in the Rio Ulua Drainage, Honduras." Journal of Field Archaeology 22 (4): 439-457.
Schortman, Edward M., and Patricia A. Urban 2011 "Power, Memory, and Prehistory: Constructing and Erasing Political Landscapes in the Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras." American Anthropologist 113 (1): 5-21.
Schortman, Edward M., and Patricia A. Urban 2014 "Materializing Power Through Practice In The Late Postclassic Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras." Latin American Antiquity 25 (3): 344-368.
Schortman, Edward, P. Urban, W. Ashmore, and J. Benyo 1986 "Interregional Interaction in the SE Maya Periphery: The Santa Barbara Archaeological Project 1983-1984 Seasons." Journal of Field Archaeology 13 (3): 259-272.
Schortman, Edward, P. Urban, and M. Ausec 2001 "Politics with style - Identity Formation in Prehispanic Southeastern Mesoamerica." American Anthropologist 103 (2): 312-330.
Sharer, Robert, ed. 1978. The Prehistory of Chalchuapa, El Salvador vol. 1. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sharer, Robert, and James C. Gifford 1970 "Preclassic Ceramics from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, and Their Relationships with the Maya Lowlands." American Antiquity 35 (4): 441-462.
Sharer Robert, and Loa Traxler 2006 The Ancient Maya. Redwood City: Stanford University Press.
Sheets, Payson 1975 Report of the 1975 Research of the Ilopango Volcano and the Maya Protoclassic Project in El Salvador, report published online, https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/sites/default/files/attached-files/ilopango_volcano_and_the_maya_protoclassic.pdf. Accessed October 29, 2020.
Sheets, Payson 1983 Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitán Valley in El Salvador. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sheets, Payson 2013 Joya de Cerén: Patrimonio cultural de la Humanidad, 1993-2013. San Salvador: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de El Salvador.
Sheets, Payson, (editor) 2002 Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Sheets, Payson, Ch. Dixon, D. Lentz, and R. Egan 2015 "The Sociopolitical Economy of an Ancient Maya Village: Cerén and its Sacbe." Latin American Antiquity 26 (3): 341-361.
Shibata, Shione, N. Ito, K. Tanaka, and Y. Tanaka 2014 "Resultados del Sondeo Geofísico en las áreas de El Trapiche y Casa Blanca, Chalchuapa, El Salvador." In XXVII Simposio de Investigaciones Aqueológicas en Guatemala 2014, edited by B. Arroyo, L. Méndez, and A. Rojas, 461-472. Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología.
Szymański, Jan, M. Méndez, M. Toledo, J. Avalos, R. Cabrera, R. Cea 2018 "San Isidro, El Salvador: A large Preclassic site at the eastern edge of the Maya world." Mexicon 40: 100-104.
Valdivieso, Fabricio, (editor) 2006 El Golfo de Fonseca: Colección de estudios culturales. San Salvador: Casa de las Academias.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright by PTSL © 2021. With all rights reserved unless otherwise noted. The Journal supports Open Access principles and practices in which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers. Creative Commons open access licenses are applied wherever possible. Creative Commons licensing is mandatory for future submissions.
