<< Other Photo Pages >> Joya de Ceren - Ancient Village or Settlement in El Salvador

Submitted by bat400 on Friday, 10 September 2021  Page Views: 13434

Pre-ColumbianSite Name: Joya de Ceren Alternative Name: Jewel of Ceren, Cerén
Country: El Salvador
NOTE: This site is 22.036 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: San Salvador  Nearest Village: Cerén
Latitude: 13.827610N  Longitude: 89.3561W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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Joya de Ceren
Joya de Ceren submitted by dodomad : Site in El Salvador The Temazcal replica. It is located in the public access area of the archaeological park, so people can enter it and experience the acoustic phenomena. Photo credit: Payson Sheets (Vote or comment on this photo)
Sometimes called, "America's Pompeii," this Classic Mayan village was suddenly covered by volcanic ash in 595 AD. The village lay less than a kilometre from Loma Caldera volcano. Excavations have found several homes made from adobe brick with thatched roofs, complete with simple interior benches, pots, tools and the remains of food. Top photo: The Temazcal replica. It is located in the public access area of the archaeological park, so people can enter it and experience the acoustic phenomena.

Outside the homes are garden patches and orchards of fruit trees. The villagers seem to have had a very short warning - enough to leave the village, but not enough to take their belongings with them.

Unfortunately when the site was first unearthed in the late 1970's, the adobe bricks of the homes looked so perfect and undamaged that they were declared to be no long than a 100 years old, and most of the site was destroyed. It was only over time that the true age of the finds was recognized.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Note: An study of the acoustics of the replica temazcal (sweatbath) at the village site of Cerén in El Salvador, more in the comments on our page.
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Joya de Ceren
Joya de Ceren submitted by dodomad : Site in El Salvador The Temazcal at Cerén. The earthen architecture with the dome was protected by a thatch roof. Two lava bombs penetrated the roof and dome, damaging them, but allowing tephra to support other portions of the dome. Photo credit: Payson Sheets (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Joya de Ceren" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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The Soundscape In The Replica Of The Cerén Temazcal by Andy B on Friday, 10 September 2021
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The Soundscape In The Replica Of The Cerén Temazcal - Payson Sheets and Robert Mahoney
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

Archaeologists have relied almost exclusively upon sight among the five human senses to investigate architecture, features, and artifacts. In recent decades researchers have explored how ancient people may have experienced sound, because it was an essential component of lived experiences in ancient societies. Natural and culturally constructed spaces had acoustical properties that enhanced social, political,economic, and ritual events. This article investigates through the lens of archaeoacoustics the large domed earthen temazcal that residents constructed at Joya de Cerén during the seventh century AD. Its uniqueness at this Classic-period Maya village in El Salvador has attracted considerable interest due to its exceptional preservation and distinct shape. Fortunately, in 2012, architects were able to construct a precise replica for public access. Through the years, visitors entering the replica have noted how significantly their voices were altered, once inside. To evaluate scientifically these observations, two recordings of sound were made and analyzed acoustically. The earthen dome morphology causes “preferred frequencies” to be sustained for a long time, while non-favored frequencies diminish quickly.

The predominant resonance is at 64 hertz, a tone so low that basso profundo singers can barely achieve it. The internal morphology greatly accentuates voices of mature males, but not those with higher pitches, such as mature females or children. The acoustical environment may have been utilized by men for divination, education, curing, rites of passage, and other functions, some of which have not been previously considered. The nature of the lived experience in a socially charged performance space is explored here with new insights regarding how the sweat bath was vital to all in the community.

https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/sites/default/files/attached-files/the-soundscape-in-the-replica-of-the-ceren-temazcal.pdf
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    Re: The Soundscape In The Replica Of The Cerén Temazcal by Andy B on Friday, 10 September 2021
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    See also from 2021:
    Sheets and Mahoney present results of an acoustic study of the temazcal (sweatbath) replica at the village site of Cerén in El Salvador. They provide a brief review of sweatbath studies in the Maya world, along with some key archaeoacoustic studies (though, amazingly managed to avoid using the word “phenomenology” at any point). Following their study, they conclude(?) that the unique domed ceiling and highly reflective surfaces of the temazcal were likely intentional constructions related to the alteration/enhancement of voices, in particular those of “mature males.” From this they suggest discussions of temazcals should expand from solely focusing on the connection of such location with women/females (primarily linked to birthing), to consider the role of males/men.

    The Sounds in the Dark of the Temazcal at Ceren, El Salvador. In Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Nancy Gonlin and David University Press of Colorado, Louisville. PDF
    https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/node/1583/attachment

    More from Payson Sheets here
    https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/payson-sheets

    [ Reply to This ]

UC Research on Maya Village Uncovers ‘Invisible’ Crops, Unexpected Agriculture by bat400 on Saturday, 18 May 2013
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UC faculty have been involved in multiple research projects concerning ancient Maya culture for more than a decade. This latest Maya study from Lentz focuses on Cerén, a farming village that was smothered under several meters of volcanic ash in the late sixth century.

Cerén, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Joya de Cerén, was discovered in El Salvador in the late 1970s when a governmental construction project unearthed what turned out to be ancient ceramic pottery and other clay structures. The initial archaeological excavation was directed by Payson Sheets, a faculty member at the University of Colorado. . Cerén is sometimes called “the Pompeii of Central America,” and much like that doomed ancient Roman city, the wreckage of Cerén was remarkably well preserved by its volcanic burial shroud. So that bad news for the Cerén villagers became good news for archaeologists centuries later.
“What this meant for me, is this site had all these plant remains lying on the ground,” Lentz says. “Not only do we find these plant remains well preserved, but we find them where the people left them more than a thousand years ago, and that is really extraordinary.”

Lentz specializes in paleoethnobotany and oftentimes in his work he’s left to interpret complex meaning from splinters of charred wood and hard nut fragments. The Mayas’ tropical environment, which isn’t conducive to preserving plant remains, doesn’t make things any easier.

But the situation was different at Cerén. The village’s sudden and complete ruin sealed it under layers of preservative ash. So Lentz’s research there is still challenging but in an unfamiliar way. “It was tricky because we kept encountering things we’d never encountered before at a Maya site,” Lentz says. “They were just invisible because of the lack of preservation.”

A few examples of what Lentz and his team have discovered at Cerén:
- They found tremendous quantities of a root crop (malanga, a relative of taro) that previously had not been associated with Maya agriculture. They found another “invisible” crop of manioc alongside the more anticipated fields of maize, and they found grasses no longer in existence on the modern-day El Salvador landscape.
- They made what is thought to be the first discovery of a Maya kitchen, complete with intensively planted household garden. “We could tell what was planted around the houses,” Lentz says. “This is fabulous because people have long debated how the Maya did all this. Now we have a real example.”
- They found a household with more than 70 ceramic pots, many used to store beans, peppers and other plant matter. Having that many vessels in one home was an unusual discovery for what is thought to be a small, farming village. Lentz likened it to having four or five sets of China in a typical American home.
- They found large plots of neatly rowed land, evidence of ridge and furrow agriculture. Lentz also posits that the people of Cerén surrounded their homes with orchard trees. These discoveries seemingly debunk the common theory that the Maya employed a slash-and-burn agriculture method.

From these new discoveries come many lessons, a lot of them ecological. Lentz has studied how the Mayas effectively implemented systems of agriculture and arboriculture. He is intrigued by what made these methods successful, considering the Maya population was much denser than what exists on the modern landscape.

His findings at Cerén give him new pieces to plug into the Maya puzzle. Furthermore, they help us understand how humankind affects the natural world. “Cerén is regarded internationally as one of the treasures of the world,” Lentz says. “What’s been found there gives you a real idea of what things were like in the past and ... I think what we’re learning there is revolutionizing our concept of the ancient past in Mesoamerica.”

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, including photos, see Read the rest of this post...
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Re: CU-Boulder study shows Maya intensively cultivated manioc 1,400 years ago by Anonymous on Monday, 28 June 2010
I can confirm all the 'Nearby Images from Flickr' are actual photos of the Joya de Ceren site in El Salvador; I took them there personally in 2006.

YoungRobV
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CU-Boulder study shows Maya intensively cultivated manioc 1,400 years ago by coldrum on Thursday, 18 June 2009
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Evidence found at ancient village of Ceren in El Salvador buried by volcanic ash about 600 A.D.

A University of Colorado at Boulder team has uncovered an ancient and previously unknown Maya agricultural system -- a large manioc field intensively cultivated as a staple crop that was buried and exquisitely preserved under a blanket of ash by a volcanic eruption in present-day El Salvador 1,400 years ago.

Evidence shows the manioc field -- at least one-third the size of a football field -- was harvested just days before the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano near San Salvador in roughly A.D. 600, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Payson Sheets, who is directing excavations at the ancient village of Ceren. The cultivated field of manioc was discovered adjacent to Ceren, which was buried under 17 feet of ash and is considered the best preserved ancient farming village in all of Latin America.

The ancient planting beds of the carbohydrate-rich tuber are the first and only evidence of an intensive manioc cultivation system at any New World archaeology site, said Sheets. While two isolated portions of the manioc field were discovered in 2007 following radar work and limited excavation, 18 large test pits dug in spring 2009 -- each measuring about 10 feet by 10 feet -- allowed the archaeologists to estimate the size of the field and assess the related agricultural activity that went on there.

Sheets said manioc pollen has been found at archaeological sites in Belize, Mexico and Panama, but it is not known whether it was cultivated as a major crop or was just remnants of a few garden plants. "This is the first time we have been able to see how ancient Maya grew and harvested manioc," said Sheets, who discovered Ceren in 1978.

Ash hollows in the manioc planting beds at Ceren left by decomposed plant material were cast in dental plaster by the team to preserve their shape and size, said Sheets. Evidence showed the field was harvested and then replanted with manioc stalk cuttings just a few days before the eruption of the volcano.

A few anthropologists have suspected that manioc tubers -- which can be more than three feet long and as thick as a man's arm -- were a dietary salvation for ancient, indigenous societies living in large cities in tropical Latin America. Corn, beans and squash have long been known to be staples of the ancient Maya, but they are sensitive to drought and require fertile soils, said Sheets.

"As 'high anxiety' crops, they received a lot of attention, including major roles in religious and cosmological activities of the Maya," said Sheets. "But manioc, which grows well in poor soils and is highly drought resistant did not. I like to think of manioc like an old Chevy gathering dust in the garage that doesn't get much attention, but it starts right up every time when the need arises."

Calculations by Sheets indicate the Ceren planting fields would have produced roughly 10 metric tons of manioc annually for the 100 to 200 villagers believed to have lived there. "The question now is what these people in the village were doing with all that manioc that was harvested all at once," he said. "Even if they were gorging themselves, they could not have consumed that much."

The CU-Boulder team also found the shapes and sizes of individual manioc planting ridges and walkways varied widely. "This indicates the individual farmers at Ceren had control over their families' fields and cultivated them they way they wanted, without an external higher authority telling them what to do and how to do it," he said.

The team also found that the manioc fields and adjacent cornfields at Ceren were oriented 30 degrees east of magnetic north -- the same orientation as the village buildings and the public town center, said Sheets. "The villagers laid out the agricultural fields and the town structures with the same orientation as the nearby river, showing the importance and reverence th

Read the rest of this post...
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Mayan Manioc Preserved at America's Pompeii by bat400 on Saturday, 25 August 2007
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A volcanic eruption that buried a Mayan village 1,400 years ago preserved a manioc field -- the first evidence that the nutritious crop was cultivated by the ancient people, researchers said on Monday.

"We have long wondered what else the prehistoric Mayan people were growing and eating besides corn and beans, so finding this field was a jackpot of sorts for us," anthropologist Payson Sheets, who led the expedition, said in a statement. It is the first evidence for cultivation of the calorie-rich tuber in the New World.

The manioc field lay under 10 feet of ash at the ancient village of Ceren, 15 miles west of San Salvador, Sheets said. Ceren's buildings, artifacts and landscape were preserved by the sudden eruption of the nearby Loma Caldera volcano about 600 A.D.

The team, which uses ground-penetrating radar to help direct excavations, has found 12 buildings at Ceren, including homes, storehouses, workshops, kitchens, religious buildings and a community sauna.

Fore more, see this link.
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