Cotzumalhuapa

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Santa Lucía Cotzumalhuapa (or Cotzumalguapa) is the name of a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological zone dating to the late Preclassic period in Mesoamerican chronology. It is located on the Pacific rim of Guatemala, in the department of Escuintla.

In the Middle to Late Classic period, Cotzumalhuapa was an important power in Mesoamerica and is known for its "Cotzumalhuapa style" artifacts and Maya hieroglyphs, the latter featuring as yet undeciphered combinations of numerals and figurative signs.^[1] Cotzumalhuapan style artifacts have been found up and down the Pacific coast of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and even as far as the western coast of Chiapas, Mexico, attesting to the city's importance and its widespread trading connections. Cotzumalhuapa is particularly known for ceramic figurines with a high level of realism, often depicting women or animals. This style was also often rendered in basalt stone.

Cotzumalhuapa covers over ten square kilometers and includes the smaller archeological sites El Baúl, Bilbao, and El Castillo. The famous Stela 1 from El Baúl has one of the earliest inscriptions in Mesoamerica, with the earliest legible hieroglyphic Long Count date in Guatemala: March 37 AD.

Contents 1 Location 2 Culture 3 Influence 4 Footnotes 5 References

[edit] Location

The Cotzumalhuapa Zone is 10 km², containing not only the 3 main sites, but the minor site of Golón as well as connecting stone-paved causeways and bridges. Its main structures were made of earthen filling and carefully chosen stones. There have been found more than 200 structures and 187 sculptured monuments here dating from Pre-Classic (see Stela 1, to right, dated at 37 CE) to the Late Classic (600-1000 CE). In the Late Classic phase, El Baúl was one of the most important Pacific coast sites.

[edit] Culture

The inhabitants of Cotzumalhuapa developed an original artistic style and a writing system of their own, which found expression in a large corpus of monumental sculptures. These include rock carvings, stelae, altars, colossal heads, and sculptures, both free-standing and as a component of the architecture (e. g. carved stairs, pillars, and pavement stones). There are also numerous portable sculptures. Characteristic of the Cotzumalguapa style is an extraordinary degree of realism in the representation of human figures, which in many cases may be considered as individual portraits, possibly representing kings and nobles. In many cases, these individuals participate in complex scenes, where they interact with other human characters or with supernatural beings. Sacrificial scenes are frequent. Distinctive elements of the Cotzumalguapa style include speech scrolls shaped as vines with a variety of flowers and fruits. Hieroglyphic signs usually are inscribed in circular cartouches, but they may also acquire complex animated forms.

[edit] Influence

Cotzumalhuapa was most likely the seat of a powerful state, which exerted political control over a vast region of the Pacific coast. The diffusion of the sculptural style provides a measure of the geographic extension of Cotzumalguapa influence. The style is found along a 200 kilometer stretch of the Pacific coast, from the modern border between Guatemala and El Salvador to the department of Suchitepéquez. It also had strong presence in some regions of the Central and Eastern Highlands, particularly in the region of Antigua Guatemala. Some elements of the style are perceptible in sculptures from various sites located in Chimaltenango in the Central Highlands, the western Pacific Coastal area, and the Motagua River valley.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo (2000), "Cotzumalhuapa style" in Evans, Susan , Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, Taylor & Francis.
• Parsons, Lee 1969 "The Pacific Coast Cotzumalhuapa Region and Middle American Culture History" In: Verhandlungen des XXXVIII: internationalen Amerikanistenkongresses, München: K. Renner.
• Website of the Cotzumalhuapa Archaeology Project