Archeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitán Valley of El Salvador (Texas Pan American Series)

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Description

Scientists have long speculated at the affect of extreme natural catastrophes on human societies. Archeology and Volcanism in Central The usa provides dramatic evidence of the effects of several volcanic disasters on a major civilization of the Western Hemisphere, that of the Maya.

During the past 2,000 years, four volcanic eruptions have taken place in the Zapotitán Valley of southern El Salvador. One, the devastating eruption of Ilopango around A.D. 300, forced a major migration, pushing the Mayan people north to the Yucatán Peninsula. Even if later eruptions did not have long-range implications for cultural change, probably the most subsequent eruptions preserved the Cerén website online—a Mesoamerican Pompeii where the bodies of the villagers, the palm-thatched roofs of their houses, the pots of food in their pantries, even the corn plants in their fields were preserved with remarkable fidelity.

Throughout 1978, a multidisciplinary team of anthropologists, archeologists, geologists, biologists, and others sponsored by the University of Colorado’s Protoclassic Project researched and excavated the result of volcanism in the Zapotitan Valley—a key Mesoamerican website online that recent political strife has since rendered inaccessible.

The result is a phenomenal contribution to our understanding of the affect of volcanic eruptions on early Mayan civilization. These investigations clearly demonstrate that the Maya inhabited this volcanically hazardous valley as a way to reap the short-term benefits that the volcanic ash produced—fertile soil, fine clays, and obsidian deposits.

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