(Courtesy Payson D. Sheets, University of Colorado at Boulder)
Around A.D. 630, in western El
Salvador, the volcano Loma
Caldera erupted, burying the
buildings, roads, and fields of a
Maya farming community in up
to 20 feet of ash. As with other
cities and villages that have
suffered this fate, this town,
today affectionately known as
Joya de Cerén ("the jewel of
Cerén") is incredibly well
preserved. Though the site is in a
tropical environment—a setting
not conducive to the
preservation of organic
materials—archaeologists have
discovered individual corn
kernels, food residue in pots,
two species of ants, and
thatched roofs with the remains
of mice in them, alongside
buildings and massive amounts
of pottery. The only thing
missing from the site are the
bodies—the fates of the residents
of Joya de Cerén remain a mystery.
Discovered in the mid-1970s, the
site has been excavated exclusively
by Payson D. Sheets of the
University of Colorado at Boulder.
According to Sheets, when tourists
ask Salvadorans what the biggest
tourist attraction in the country is,
they jokingly reply, "Guatemala."
Sheets hopes that sites such as
Joya de Cerén, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site since 1993, will take
their place alongside the Maya
hotspots of Mexico, Guatemala,
and Honduras.
The site
Joya de Cerén dates to the Maya
Classic Period (A.D. 300-900) and
differs from most well-known Maya
sites because it is predominantly a
nonelite site—a place where about
200 ordinary Maya lived, worked,
and prayed. According to Sheets,
the Maya of Joya de Cerén lived
surprisingly well. So far, 11 buildings
have been found, including living
quarters, storehouses, workshops,
kitchens, religious buildings, and
a community sauna. A quarter
of the pottery found there is of
a multicolored variety imported
from the Copán Valley. Casts of
crops and fully stocked shelves
entombed by ash have been found,
confirming that people there grew
corn and manioc as staples. A big
surprise came this summer when
Sheets and his team discovered
a sacbe, a formal road that heads
south from the town's religious
complex. The site is easy for visitors
to navigate. There are walkways
and well-trained guides, as well
as a restaurant/café, modern
bathrooms, a gift shop, and an airconditioned
museum.
While you're there
Joya de Cerén is just a 45-minute
taxi ride from the capital of San
Salvador, and your driver will be
happy to wait for you while you
tour the site. Three miles south is
the Maya site of San Andres, the
primary elite center in the Classic
period, with pyramids, an elevated
sacred plaza, and a modern visitor's
center. Back in San Salvador, the
David J. Guzman National Museum
of Anthropology is a must-see. And
for adventurous types, the surfing in
this part of El Salvador is considered
among the best in the world.
