Eight miles southwest of Durango, Colorado, was the scene of one of the most gruesome massacres in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans. It is estimated that the massacre occurred between 803 CE and 810 CE. By 810 CE the buildings and trees of the site, called Sacred Ridge, had been burned. The site was occupied from about 700 CE to the time of the massacre. Archeologists have found the bones of dozens of people cut into small pieces - 425 pieces per person according to the sample. The conclusion of the archeological study: Two of the... Continue reading

To tell the story of pre-Hispanic Nicaragua is to tell of two ancient stories and two relatively modern stories. The first ancient story is that of various peoples running away from the beginning of the first-born sacrifice regime in the Gulf of Fonseca from about 8300 BCE to 8200. Many ethnicities and several generations ran, but two ran for Nicaragua, including the Miskito who had been early Kiche people and the Chibchab people who had been early Olmeca people. Some of the Chibchab remained in Nicaragua, including the Poto and Rama, while others migrated further south. The second ancient story... Continue reading

The area around Acambaro and Queretaro, Mexico, became a center for the Purepecha and Otomi in the Pre-Classic era. The settlement of this area northwest of the central valley of Mexico may have started shortly after the Kiche arrived to the west coast of Mexico in 2300 BCE (+/- 200) from El Salvador. The motivation for the Purepecha and Otomi to form a culture there would have been to provide shelter and safety to Kiche women escaping the sacrifice practice of the Kiche. The descendants of these women became known as the Mazahua. These three ethnicities, Purepecha, Otomi, and Mazahua,... Continue reading

After the Itza settled in the balsam forest near the coast of present-day La Libertad, most likely at Teotepeque and then Tamanique, they continued the practice of first born sacrifice. Just as with the Cho before them, Itza women, pregnant with their first child, began to flee. Because the Itza lineage started with just two people, the rest dying in the Guija flood, it took several generations for the Itza to have a population which allowed them to begin to guard against the women running away. Perhaps 120 to 160 years passed following the Lago Guija flood, about 7700 to... Continue reading

Between 8300 and 8200 BCE, the Cho and Kiche increased their repression on Isla Tigre, forcing all people there to comply with the first-born child sacrifice practice. This precipitated a move to the mainland of El Salvador, splitting into the four lineage communities, each by water. The leaders of the communities - Olomega, Tehuacan, Güija, and Coatepeque - decided to meet together in a central location perhaps once a year. They chose a spot that is roughly halfway (by water) between the mouth of the Lempa, the Cuscatlan base, and Lago Güija, where the Chorti/Chol/Itza were located. This was essentially... Continue reading

Part 1 Cause of the Tsunami and First Impacts in El Salvador Part 2 The Zapotec and Itza Float to Mexico Part 3 The Battle for the Heart and Soul of the Otomi Part 4 Long Distance Floaters - Tunica to Mississippi Sand Burrowed in the Skin The tsunami of 7200 BCE brought the pain of death and separation for many. Later some felt the joy of reunion like the Tunica. But the tsunami also had a lasting physical effect for some: severe physical pain to those who lived near the sandy coasts of present-day El Salvador’s San Vicente, Usulutan,... Continue reading

7200BCE Tsunami Part 1 Tsunami Part 2 Tsunami Part 3 The Poto women (Otomi and Purepecha) floating from Pacific Nicaragua to Mexico were not the only groups of people from the region of Nicaragua to float and paddle a very long distance in the aftermath of the tsunami. The same occurred to the Miskito living on the northeast Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua. Place names on the northeastern coast of Nicaragua indicate the tsunami: Nina Yari – ni in ha’ yar ri – “hill beside the first ones hurled into the water” (double meaning of “forgotten”) Krukira – k’ar uk’... Continue reading

Part 3 in a 5-part series on the tsunami of 7200 BCE in Mesoamerica. Part 1 Part 2 The Tlapaneca The Kiche’ had extended beyond Lago Coatepeque over the years since their 8200 BCE beginning at the lake, including south toward the ocean and had sailing communities on the Sonsonate coast. Like communities elsewhere on the coast of El Salvador, some were swept out to sea in the tsunami of 7200 BCE and survived. The names on the southwest coast of Sonsonate indicate that there were Kiche’ communities there that also were swept out to sea. Cauta drops the ‘b’... Continue reading

Paddling on Branches in the Ocean under the Stars The most important event in the ancient history of Mesoamerica was the tsunami which occurred in about 7220 BCE, caused by the bursting of a massive post ice age lake in Canada. There were at least six groups that were washed out to sea and then floated and paddled from El Salvador to Mexico, following the water currents, after the tsunami: the Huave, the Zapoteca, the Triqui, Choluteca/Itza, Tlapanec, and Otomi (one part), and two groups that survived from Nicaragua to Mexico, the Otomi (other part) and Purepecha (one part). The... Continue reading

First of three blog entries on the tsunami of ~7280 BCE Just as the Maya suffered through a terrible tsunami at Lago Güija in about 7835 BCE, all the Maya lineages, especially the Ik’ lineage, suffered tremendously due to an ocean tsunami more than 500 years later, in about 7280 BCE. But they weren’t the only ones to suffer – place names on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts throughout the Americas indicate being hit by a terrible tsunami too.[1] The Maya determined the cause of the tsunami, which is revealed by the name of the mythological figure Sihuehuet: the... Continue reading

Far southeastern Siberia, along the Pacific Coast (Sea of Okhotsk), holds the names which reveal the group, the “remnant” in their terminology, which broke away and was the principal founding group of the Americas, initially settling in southern California and the south of Chile. This story centers on the Torom and Chumikan region, which is located 450 kilometers west of the tip of Sakhalin Island, which lies just north of Japan. Torom and Chumikan also are about 4,500 kilometers from Taiwan, whose fate they are tied to by this story. Chumikan is roughly on the same latitude as Moscow, but... Continue reading

Given these four great discoveries in a short period of time – the tzolk'in, the Mars long-count calendar, taming animals, and cultivation – at least two of the Maya-ancestor elites became full of arrogance and hubris. This is known because the Popol Vuh says these events took place at Silisib, which translates as "rise up and puff up." Because of that hubris, they continued the practice of heart sacrifice (human sacrifice) which they had first initiated as a price for tobacco from the Xibalba. The Popol Vuh (pg 165) describes the next events to take place as the "abduction of... Continue reading

Most Native peoples derive from the group that left Asia in rafts and went along the coast until reaching the area of Monte Verde, Chile (Puerto Montt). There were at least four major migrations away from southern Chile, including two to North America: to southern California and to South Dakota along the Missouri River. The group in South Dakota lived in the Black Hills before spreading out to the east as the ice sheets melted at the end of the Ice Age. It was likely while they lived in the Black Hills that they began to send exploratory parties out... Continue reading

Most early Native peoples in North America arrived there as a result of migrations from South America or Central America. This is because the primary migration group from Asia arrived by rafts and went directly to southern Chile. From there, migrations left for other parts of South America and North America. The first North American migration from South America appears to have been the Chumash to southern California’s Channel Islands, who then spread up the Pacific Coast. This will be the subject of later blog posts. Click to enlarge map. The Native ancestors spoke a very old form of Ch'orti'... Continue reading

Most place names in El Salvador are Ch'orti' in origin, rather than Nawat or Pipil, as is commonly thought. This guide provides the meaning and the time frame of the names, starting from east to west. Names will be by municipality in alphabetical order in each department. La Union Anamoros - ahn nam hor os - "fitting in head of diminishing current" (7650 BCE). Testing gunpowder in place where river was partially damned. Tizate - ti' sat' te' - "disappearance of trees at opening" (7650 BCE). Testing gunpowder. Tulima - tul im ha' - "condition of explosions in river" (7650... Continue reading

This post will describe the history of human movement in the Americas from about 13000 BCE – and perhaps 20000 BCE – until the time of European colonization. There were at least five passages to the Americas from Asia: the Monte Verde, Amerind, or Clovis passage of about 13000 BCE, the “Zuni” passage of unknown time, the “Algonquin” passage of about 7600 BCE, the Na-Dene (Athabaska, etc.) passage of 8000-4000 BCE, and the Inuit passage of about 1000 CE. The Monte Verde / Clovis Migration The Monte Verde passage went directly to Monte Verde, Chile. Due to the distances involved,... Continue reading

This post tells the story of the rise of the Toltec civilization in central Mexico about 50 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, comprised of two of the seven ethnicities that made up Teotihuacan, the Totonac and Cakchiquel. It describes the oppressive practices of the Toltec which caused refugees fleeing north and south, the latter becoming the Nawat-speaking Pipil who went to El Salvador. Some of the Toltec followed the refugees to El Salvador where they ruled for about 130 years until their centers were burned. Seventy years later, in a bitter split of the Toltec, the losers, the Nahuatlized... Continue reading

The eruption of Ilopango volcano on or about 535 CE was one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years and may have impacted human development and societies, not just in Mesoamerica, but also worldwide. Ilopango volcano is located in central El Salvador in an area that was Ch'orti' Maya until the post Classic era (~850 CE). After introducing the impact of the volcanic eruption, this blog post will bring to light the impact of the eruption on local communities and how they responded to it, based on place name analysis. It will also describe the evidence that the... Continue reading

The Maya invented gunpowder in about 7740 BCE in order to remove the rocks and dirt which blocked the egress river of Guija Lake due to a landslide off a nearby volcano. The Popol Vuh uses the name Hunahpu, a generic name for Maya leader, as the one who began the work with gunpowder explosives. This indicates that members of the leadership were involved in inventing gunpowder, but due to the danger of injury and death, the task of working and experimenting with gunpowder was delegated to a specific group of people within the community - those without families, represented... Continue reading

Three of the most important concepts for the founding of the Mexican people are Teotihuacan, Chicomoztoc, and Aztlan. In the case of Teotihuacan it is not just a concept but also a site with structures. What the first two have in common is a cave motif. At Teotihuacan there is a human-made cave under the Pyramid of the Sun. The Chicomoztoc theoretical cave is a place of origin for most of the peoples of central and northern Mexico. Aztlan is the almost mythical homeland of the Aztec (Mexica). The Pyramid of the Sun cave at Teotihuacan has four chambers while... Continue reading

The pellagra crisis devastated the Maya community from 2400 to 1600 BCE, including nine banishments out of El Salvador, and one banishment within El Salvador. The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage remaining in El Salvador probably went into a long period of self-examination and renewal. This post describes what came out of this period of renewal - a time of meditation, movement, gymnastics, and science, including bird watching and shark study. (Click to enlarge map.) The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage likely moved from Igualtepeque at Lago Güija to Chalchuapa soon after the discovery of the nixtamal process in 1600 or 1500 BCE. Chalchuapa is located... Continue reading

For those familiar with my writing, up to now it had been unclear how the Maya and Olmec went from being concentrated in El Salvador for thousands of years, from 8200 BCE to 2400 BCE, to spread out over thousands of kilometers from the northwest coast of Mexico to the Yucatan to the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala by 1600 BCE. This dispersion happened in less than a thousand years. Such a dispersion is not natural, it takes an outside force like war, famine, or a life-changing invention. In Mesoamerica the dispersal force was disease: pellagra. By Amedeo John... Continue reading

The ancestors of the Maya were always on the gatherer side of the hunter-gatherer spectrum, leading them to be the probable first culture to begin cultivation - horticulture. The Maya began horticulture by first learning cultivation of tobacco on Isla Tigre, Honduras in about 8300 BCE. Tobacco led to the darkest time in Maya history, resulting in the escape of the Miskito and Chibcha people. The Maya soon risked moving off the protected island to the mainland in order to pursue their destiny - horticulture, the cultivation of plants for food and other human use. The risk was that their... Continue reading