Joya de Cerén Archaeological Site

The village was occupied roughly between AD 200 and AD 600, with a population estimated at around 200 people. Around AD 600 an eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano, also known as the San Salvador volcano, buried it. In total the ash deposit reached about 10 metres of pyroclastic debris, and a layer of some 4 to 8 metres fell within a few hours. Because the ash was fine and fell quickly, it sealed buildings, tools and food stores in remarkable condition.

Archaeologists have used plaster casts, a technique also associated with Pompeii, to record the shapes of plants, stored beans and mature maize left in the ash. These clues suggest the eruption happened in August or September. Scholars believe a modest earthquake came beforehand and gave residents time to leave, and evidence such as lit hearths, stored farm tools and unrolled sleeping mats suggests the evacuation took place in the early evening. According to Wikipedia, no human remains have been found at the site.

The site was found in 1976 by a bulldozer operator clearing land for a government agricultural project. The first structures uncovered were those now numbered 10 and 12. Payson Sheets, an anthropology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, led excavations in 1978 and 1980, and digging resumed in 1988 and has continued since. Excavations have revealed about 70 buildings in total, though only a smaller number of structures have been fully excavated, including storehouses, kitchens, living quarters, workshops, a religious building and a communal sauna known as a temascal.

Structure 10 is a multi-room building with many corridors whose features suggest it was used for community festivals; decorated vessels and a painted deer headdress found there are linked to fertility and harvest rituals. Nearby Structure 12 has a doorway and lattice windows that controlled movement, and its contents of ceramic figurines, shells, beans and antlers suggest a diviner worked there. Household 1, centred on Structure 1, has been fully excavated, and its kitchen may have produced masa for ceremonies held in the neighbouring buildings.

The fields around the houses are as informative as the buildings. Crops identified include guava, agave, cacao and manioc, and the manioc field is described by Wikipedia as the earliest known evidence of manioc cultivation at an archaeological site in the New World. Residents made agave fibre, grinding stones and pottery, while obsidian and chert for cutting tools, jade from the Sierra de las Minas and fine pottery from Copán arrived through trade.

Joya de Cerén was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993 under criteria iii and iv, with reference number 675. Its importance lies in the detail of its commoner architecture, the organisation of its household compounds and the way it shows how farming families, craftspeople and ritual specialists lived side by side. Most Maya archaeology concentrates on temples and palaces, so a village of this kind is a valuable counterpoint.

For visitors, a private guided visit is a good way to understand what the covered walkways and protected structures represent. A guide can explain how to read the layers of ash, why the buildings are roofed and how Joya de Cerén fits into the wider Maya world of western El Salvador, which also includes sites such as Tazumal and San Andrés.