Joya de Cerén
Joya de Cerén ( sp . : Jewel of Cerén ) is an archaeological excavation site in the La Libertad department in El Salvador and was a pre-Columbian Maya village that has been remarkably well preserved under layers of volcanic ash.
The site belongs since 1993 to UNESCO - World Heritage Site and is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Central America . Since, in contrast to other Mayan ruins, it shows the life of the common people, Joya de Cerén is often referred to as the "American Pompeii ".
location
The Joya de Cerén site is about 4.5 kilometers south of the town of San Juan Opico, about 35 kilometers (driving distance) northwest of San Salvador at an altitude of about 490 meters above sea level. d. M.
history
Probably in the year 535 AD, the last major eruption of the volcano Ilopango, about 40 kilometers southeast, buried the village under 14 layers of ash and pumice , protecting it from weathering. In 2010, the Ilopango in El Salvador was suggested as the cause of the 535/536 weather anomaly .
It is believed that residents had sufficient time to escape as no body remains were found. During their hasty escape, however, they left their belongings (ceramics, furniture, tools, etc.) and even leftovers behind.
The site was only rediscovered in 1976 by Payton Sheets, a professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado , and has been excavated since then.
Urban structure
So far, the remains of around 70 adobe buildings or wooden huts have been found; These could be assigned five functions: sleeping quarters, kitchens (knives, grinding stones, clay vessels with leftovers - beans , cocoa , chilli - and clay plates were found here), storehouses, workshops and sweat houses ( temazcals ). The houses had front gardens and, in some cases, walls made of wooden poles that were knotted together. The outer walls of some adobe buildings are adorned with geometric ornaments (diamonds) - possibly for disaster-preventing ( apotropaic ) reasons.
Finds
But more important than the buildings are the archaeobotanical artifacts. The low temperature of the wet ash of the Loma Caldera and its high rate of precipitation enabled the conservation of plant material. The discovery of cassava fields is important in this context, as this was the first time cassava was found in an archaeological dig in the New World. Although the cassava had long since decayed, scientists at the University of Colorado managed to make plaster casts of the resulting voids. The farmers had planted the cassava just hours before the volcanic eruption.
museum
Parts of the excavation site have been covered with a metal roof. In the immediate vicinity of the excavation site there is a museum with artefacts, photographs and (reconstruction) drawings. The museum was founded on June 19, 1993, the current building was inaugurated on December 12, 2003.
Individual evidence
- ^ R. Dull, J. Southon, S. Kutterolf, A. Freundt, D. Wahl, P. Sheets: Did the TBJ Ilopango eruption cause the AD 536 event? in: AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, December 13-17. 2010, bibcode : 2010AGUFM.V13C2370D , updated in Canadian daily newspaper (accessed September 17, 2014)
literature
- Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America . University of Texas Press, 2002. ISBN 9780292777613
See also
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Joya de Ceren, tourism site - photo, short video and information (Spanish)
- Joya de Ceren - report in the New York Times (English)
- Website museum
Coordinates: 13 ° 49 ′ 19 ″ N , 89 ° 21 ′ 32 ″ W.