Monte Alto culture
The Monte Alto culture , named after the main place where it was found, Finca Monte Alto , is one of the earliest cultures in Mesoamerica . Some researchers consider it a temporal, but not a direct cultural precursor of the Mayas ; other researchers even consider the site to be pre-Olmec .
location
The Finca Monte Alto is located about 2 km east of the town of La Democracia (Escuintla) , Guatemala . Other archaeological sites that can be assigned to the culture appear to be Bálsamo and Cerritos Sur , which are only about 10 km to the west and east, respectively. All of these sites are only about 20 km as the crow flies from the Pacific coast, where no archaeological finds have been made so far.
Dating
According to the current state of research, the first traces of settlement in Monte Alto date from around 1500 BC. Chr .; the artistically most significant finds are classified in the pre-classical era (approx. 400 BC to 200 AD). Some small finds (death mask, yoke stones ) could come from a later period.
Finds
architecture
The architectural remains of around 45 buildings are only of interest to specialists. A temple pyramid probably reached a height of around 10 to 20 m, which was enormous for the early days. A ball playground has not yet been identified.
sculpture
The large sculptures found on the grounds of Finca Monte Alto are very unusual and can be classified into two groups: stone heads and 'barrel sculptures' ( barrigones ) - the latter are large full-body figures with limbs placed in relief on the barrel-like body. The common characteristic are the closed eyelids, which give the figures a meditative, trance-like appearance, which could have been brought about by the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms; several mushroom stones were also found. Most of the monumental sculptures from the grounds of Finca Monte Alto are now on display in the Parque Central of La Democracia.
A 6 m high figure with a sharp face and a protruding nose (photo see web link) differed significantly from the other, more round and flat-nosed figures; they had a certain resemblance to the Polynesian moais . The figure was destroyed in an attempt to cut it into pieces and then sell it in the 1940s.
There are also a large number of small sculptures ( jade death mask , U-shaped yoke stones ( yugos ), mushroom-shaped stones, etc.) that are exhibited in the neighboring museum ( Museo Regional de Arqueología de la Democracia ). Above all, the death mask and the yoke stones could already have been created by Mayan artists and thus belong to a later era or a new cultural sphere. The valuable death mask made of white jade stone was stolen from the museum in 2002 and has not yet been found again.
See also
Another - largely independent - culture of the Pacific coast of Guatemala is the so-called Cotzumalhuapa culture with the main sites of El Baúl and Bilbao .
