Cotzumalhuapa
The so-called Cotzumalhuapa culture ( also Cotzumalguapa culture) is named after the town of Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa in the department of Escuintla in Guatemala. It consists primarily of the archaeological sites of El Baul, Bilbao and El Castillo, is - in addition to the Monte Alto Culture, Takalik Abaj and some smaller sites - to the Mesoamerican Pacific cultures from Guatemala until after Cara Sucia in El Salvador extend. The cultural landscape of Cotzumalhuapa was heavily damaged by modern settlement activities and the cultivation of sugar cane.
Location
The small town of Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa is located about 85 km south-west of Guatemala City or Kaminaljuyu in 500 m height above sea level. inst on the southern slopes of the volcanoes - in particular from 3,763 m-high Volcán de Fuego - dominated highlands of Guatemala. The main sites that Fincas Bilbao and El Baul lie, about 3 to 5 km north of the town.
History of Research
Drawings and descriptions of the Austrian traveler Dr. Habel, who visited the locality in 1862, led Adolf Bastian ( 1826-1905 ), the director of the Berlin Ethnological Museum, visit 1876 Cotzumalhuapa in and acquire some antiquities from Bilbao for the Berlin Museum. The reliefs on the stone slabs were sawed off in order to save weight, transported to the coast and loaded onto a ship. A block crashed into the harbor of Puerto San José and has not recovered to this day. The seven others came over to Berlin Stettin and adorned long time the stairwell of the Dahlem Museum. For some years they are ( again adds to stele ) erected in the Berlin Ethnological Museum.
The British archaeologist Eric Thompson (1898-1975) was the first to the end of the 1940s, about 10 km ² comprehensive and linked by paved roads main site as well as several secondary localities as far away as El Salvador ( Cara Sucia ) - with the exception of Monte Alto - summed up a cultural complex.
Attractions
Architecture
About the architecture of sites can say little, since all systems are covered by sugar cane fields and urban cultivations. Only some floor elevations have yet point to former buildings. A special feature of Cotzumalhuapa culture were discovered during excavations cobbled streets; the longest of them joined the Acropolis of El Baul with that of Bilbao, and measured about 2.5 km at a width of 11 m to 14 m. Even a wooden bridge, whose length was about 33 m and its about 6-8 meters away from one another stone pier foundations are still visible today was built.
Sculptures
Became famous for the Cotzumalhuapa culture through the autonomy and diversity of its sculptures, both in relief stelae, as also includes sculptured works of art that are dated to the period from about 200 BC to 800 AD. Its main characteristics Cotzumalhuapa monuments is - with one exception - the complete absence of dating and characters. The stylistic presentation is very uneven, so that some researchers make the immigration originating from Mexico and Nahuatl -speaking Pipilen who met here in a different language, and probably also dissenting indigenous population, partly responsible for the mix of styles. The most important steles are: