Salvadoran Archaeological Site Provides Window into Pre-Columbian Life



SAN SALVADOR – Nuevo Lourdes, an archaeological site in central El Salvador, provides insights into daily life in pre-Columbian times in this country and Mesoamerica, experts digging there said.

The site is related to everyday life and it was not a ceremonial location like other Mesoamerican areas, Shione Shibata, archaeological director at the Culture Secretariat’s Cultural Heritage Directorate, told Efe.

Construction workers found the Nuevo Lourdes site while preparing to build a housing project near Lourdes, located in La Libertad province, in 2013.

The initial findings two years ago included a wide farm field, an individual’s burial site and oblations, at least six cooking pots and assorted fragments from clay, obsidian and stone objects, experts said at the time.

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Earlier article:

Ancient burial site unearthed in El Salvador


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Ancient burial site unearthed in El Salvador * Historic pieces found by Salvadorian experts at the archaelogical site.[/font]

11:03 PM 3 July 2013

A recent archaeological finding in El Salvador, which included six complete pots from the late Classic period and human remains next to two vessels placed as a ritualistic offering and apparently at least 1,200-years-old, has thrown light on ancient Mayan settlements in the region.

In an interview, the director of Archaeology at the Salvadoran National Cultural Heritage Office, Shione Shibata, said that the discovery in western Nuevo Lourdes, in Colon, about 20km from San Salvador, was historically important because the distribution of the remains indicated they formed part of a village.

The finding was first reported by workers at a residential compound construction site who were digging a ditch to lay down water piping and came across pieces of broken pottery and obsidian shards. They halted work immediately: they knew they had found an archaeological site and had to call in the experts.

Shibata, who is Japanese but has acquired permanent residency in El Salvador, said that archaeologists who went to Nuevo Lourdes immediately noted that the area had been affected by the eruption of the El Boqueron or Quezaltepeque volcano.

“There was a layer (of volcanic ash) 1m thick covering what was later exposed,” he explained. Work began in late May to remove the earth and study the archaeological remains.

Archaeologists also found evidence of a sugarcane field located below the first section that was excavated and uncovered. The field, measuring about 500sq m, is apparently at a depth of between 2 or 3m.

They found that under the first layer of ash there was yet another layer of ash that resulted from the eruption of another volcano, the Ilopango, now a lake. The Quezaltepeque and the Ilopango volcanoes are both on the rim surrounding the valley where the capital San Salvador lies.

Makes one really question why we haven't heard or seen more about these amazing places any time since long ago.

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