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History of Archaeology in the Sula Valley
Location and Geography
The lower Ulúa valley
The Lower Ulúa Valley is a very large and fertile alluvial valley,
with a rich and varied flora and fauna. Its peoples were also highly varied:
at least in some periods, differences among its ancient communities were
as great as those that usually exist between regions. In part this is
a reflection of the size of the valley, which occupies some 2400 square
kilometers of territory, and its wealth of natural
resources.
The valley, on the eastern edge of the Maya world,
is part of a frontier region in which Mesoamerican
patterns give way to different ways of life typical of lower Central
America. The political art and hieroglyphic texts that are so prominent
in lowland Maya cities during the Classic period lowland Maya Ulúa
towns did not extend into the Ulúa region, and it has usually been
called "Mayoid."
George Byron Gordon's survey and excavations in the valley in the 1890s
drew attention to the rich material remains of the region at a time when
systematic archaeological work was just beginning in Mesoamerica. A few
archeologists continued to work in the valley in the early and mid 20th
century: notably Dorothy Popenoe, who dug at Playa de los Muertos, and
Doris Stone, who excavated Travesía. For the most part, archaeologists'
attention increasingly shifted away from the valley because of the perception
that its peoples were "Mayoid" rather than "true"
Mayas.
Small-scale excavations at Travesía and Currusté sponsored
by the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia mark
the beginning of renewed archaeological interest in the valley. In 1979
IHAH, concerned by the accelerating destruction of sites in the valley,
established the Proyecto Arqueológico Sula (PAS), directed by John
Henderson, to compile a comprehensive inventory of archaeological remains
in the region. Between 1979 and 1988, PAS surveyed the valley using air
photos and on-ground reconnaissance, locating sites ranging from scatters
of surface artifacts a few meters square to an area nearly one kilometer
square covered by mounds that represent collapsed buildings. Each site
was mapped and surface artifacts were collected for chronological analysis
and to define the types of pottery vessels and stone tools used in the
valley. Test excavations in a sample of deeply stratified sites provided
additional chronological information. Rosemary Joyce's extensive excavations
at Cerro Palenque provided more detailed information on a large site with
complex architecture. The chronological framework, artifact typology,
and settlement pattern data developed by PAS laid the foundation for an
interim synthesis of the valley's culture history
and provide a baseline for subsequent problem oriented research.
Beginning in 1988, IHAH increasingly focused on emergency investigations
at sites threatened with immediate destruction. In 1993 a new phase of
investigation (Proyecto Arqueológico Valle Inferior del Río
Ulúa), emphasizing research questions alongside ongoing salvage
work, began under the direction of Henderson and Joyce. Excavations at
Campo Dos focused on domestic life and community organization during the
Classic period, as did initial excavations
at Puerto Escondido. Deep excavations at Puerto Escondido in 1995 unexpectedly
revealed one of the first settled pottery-making villages in Mesoamerica
(about 1600 BC) and a successor community that was intimately involved
in the Olmec world (after about 1100 BC). The main research agenda of
PAVIRU has shifted accordingly, but investigation of later periods continue
as well with renewed work at Cerro Palenque directed by Julia Hendon,
investigation of craft production by Jeanne Lopiparo, and exploration
of the latest precolumbian and early Colonial periods by Kira Blaisdell-Sloan.
More on the Ulua world.
Additional Information:(linked from above) 
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Natural resources
At the time of the Spanish invasion, and probably in precolumbian times
as well, valley societies were major producers of cacao. Shell and other
marine resources are available in the north; nearby mountains are still
home to the quetzal; there are local obsidian sources on the southwestern
flank of the valley and jade from the Motagua valley is only a bit more
distant (and there is evidence for exploitation of both very early in
the valley's history). The Ulúa, Comayagua, and Chamelecón
rivers all flow into the valley, providing natural routes of communication:
to central and southern Honduras (and lower Central America beyond), to
Copán (and the Maya highlands beyond). The Gulf of Honduras provides
easy access to Yucatan. It is not surprising that a region so favored
by nature was the home of prosperous societies actively engaged with their
neighbors.
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The lower Ulúa valley, the "Southeast Periphery," and
cultural identity
The valley is often characterized as part of a cultural frontier along
the southeastern fringe of the Maya world, in which the patterns typical
of the Maya and Mesoamerican cultural traditions give way to others. Although
the archaeological record of this "Southeast Periphery" reflects
similarities with the Maya world - in craft styles, persistent exchange
relationships, and common developmental trajectories - the orthodox view
of the prehistory of the region emphasizes absences (above all of writing
and the stela complex). The traditional interpretation has been that the
lower Ulúa valley was the seat of "Mayoid" societies:
non-Maya peoples imitating their sophisticated neighbors to the west and
north without fully participating in the essential patterns of Maya civilization.
Through the middle of the Classic period (until about AD 500), material
remains in the valley reflect a general affinity with the rest of the
southeast and with the Maya highlands of Guatemala; apart from a few ceramic
vessels that may be imports, there are no indications of particularly
close connections with distant parts of the Maya lowlands.
After about AD 500, many aspects of lower Ulúa valley communities
suggest connections with the rest of the Maya world. Ceramic vessels that
may have been imports from the Maya lowlands continue to occur, and skulls
with Maya-style jade dental inlays may be the remains of foreign individuals
who happened to die away from home. Many other things - ranging from general
features of settlement organization to very specific elements of ceramic
manufacture and decoration - are local patterns shared with the Maya world.
Large centers in the valley have ball courts, temples, and other civic
structures, sometimes with dressed stone construction and sculptural ornamentation.
Several erected vertical stone shafts among public buildings; these "stelae"
do not have hieroglyphic texts or portraits of nobles carved in relief,
but at least one, from Travesía, was originally plastered and painted.
Caches in low shrines include offerings of Spondylus shells accompanied
by red pigment and jade ornaments. At least one center built internal
causeways. Some domestic architectural groupings have a familiar "plazuela"
layout. Pottery is similar to that from the Maya world. Ulúa Polychrome
pottery is quite varied and reflects a complex array of similarities with
Maya polychromes, ranging from a comparable overall style, through shared
features of design organization, to identical vessel forms and design
elements. To what degree Ulúa Polychrome iconography is a variant
of Maya lowland symbolism - as opposed to Maya symbols re-definedin the
context of a different cultural system - is an open question that can
only be resolved by a thorough comparative analysis which remains to be
done.
Maya archaeologists argue over which, if any, of the similarities reflect
"foreign influence" and which are better interpreted as indications
that Ulúa Valley societies shared basic cultural patterns - and
therefore a common heritage and/or cultural identity - with their Maya
neighbors. Archaeologists now working in the valley believe that it was
culturally part of the Maya world, though its peoples probably didn't
speak a Mayan language. The area can be considered part of a cultural
frontier, but not one that was a periphery vis a vis a Maya core (except
in the sense that it isn't geographically central to the Maya world).
It is much more interesting to move beyond cataloguing what is supposedly
Maya and what is allegedly not to explore the nature of lower Ulúa
valley societies and of their interaction with Maya communities.
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Ancient Mesoamerica
From northern Mexico into Central America, people were in constant contact,
and they came to share many things, from particular kinds of artifacts
to beliefs about the nature of the universe. These common features define
a distinctive cultural tradition that sets Mesoamerica and its peoples
apart from their neighbors.
Ancient Mesoamerica shares the sense of mystery that surrounds all remains
of the distant past, but its civilizations have many other claims on our
attention. Aesthetically and intellectually, Mesoamerican civilizations
are among the great achievements of the ancient world, an important part
of the world's cultural heritage. Exquisite Mesoamerican things -- jades
and painted pottery and figurines -- are on display in the great museums
of the world. The ruins of Mesoamerica are easily accessible and they're
increasingly popular as tourist destinations. Mesoamericans developed
a variety of cultivated plants -- corn, beans, squash, chile peppers,
tomatoes, avocados, chocolate, and tobacco -- that shape the daily diets
of millions of people. Their mathematics, astronomy, and writing are the
most sophisticated intellectual achievements of ancient America.
Apart from these achievements, ancient Mesoamerica is important to us
because it is one of the very few places in the world where societies
with large-scale political and economic systems evolved. The possibility
of pre-Columbian contact with the Old World is an open question, but Mesoamerican
civilizations followed their own developmental trajectories, without significant
influence from the outside. The striking differences in styles, institutions,
and history that set Mesoamerica apart from the more familiar Classical
and Near Eastern civilizations make it a particularly interesting case
study. Mesoamerican farming techniques were mainly very simple; even the
largest states depended on slash and burn farming. Metal-working came
to Mesoamerica only late in its history, as an import; there was no Mesoamerican
Bronze Age. Mesoamericans knew the principle of the wheel, but they made
no practical use of it; they made small wheeled effigies, but no wheeled
vehicles (probably because they had no suitable draft animals). All Mesoamerican
civilizations were "low tech" compared to the Old World.
The things range from particular kinds of artifacts to very complex patterns
of behavior. Some of the things Mesoamerican peoples have in common were
distinctive and set them clearly apart from their neighbors, but these
weren't all culturally important things. Pottery lip plugs and quilted
cotton armor, for example, are certainly distinctive, but they don't tell
us much about the nature of Mesoamerican cultures. Other things that were
vitally important to Mesoamerican peoples - like slash and burn corn farming
- weren't uniquely Mesoamerican.
One very distinctive Mesoamerican trait was a ball game, in which the
opposing teams volleyed a solid rubber ball back and forth without using
their hands or feet. It was usually played in formal courts, which were
sometimes elaborate architectural complexes. The game was a game, but
rulers used it to attract allies and entertain supporters, and it also
had religious overtones (including sacrifice, and losers sometimes ended
up on the sacrificial altar).
Religion and world view define Mesoamerica best: they were distinctive
and fundamental to the Mesoamerican way of life. Gods were similar all
over Mesoamerica, although they had different names in different places.
Horizontal space was divided into color?coded cardinal directions, each
of which had its own set of gods and symbols. The universe was layered
too, with 13 levels in the heavens, 9 in the underworld, and the "middle
world" where we live in between. Complicated calendars kept track
of time and changing omens; all Mesoamericans had a ritual calendar of
260 days and a 365-day solar year. Details were different - the east was
red or yellow or blue?green - but the universe had the same structure
everywhere.
Mesoamerican themes were expressed in different ways, and the differences
sort out into distinct regional variants. There are western (or "Mexican")
and eastern (or Maya) patterns. The Maya world has more lowland rainforest,
Mexican Mesoamerica has more dry uplands, and farming systems reflect
that; irrigation was much more important in the west. Maya populations
were spread out in the countryside around the cities; Mexican cities were
larger, and more densely populated. Some Mexican states were big enough
to be called empires; Maya states were much smaller.
The Ulúa sphere, part of the Maya world, was the frontier of Mesoamerica:
farther east and south, cultures were quite different. In the north, Mesoamerican
patterns faded into ways of life like those of the Southwestern United
States. Mesoamerica never had sharply defined boundaries like a modern
political state. Its frontiers were fuzzy zones where Mesoamerican and
non?Mesoamerican peoples mingled.
We can see Mesoamerican patterns most clearly in the 16th century, when
we can combine archaeological evidence with documents (mostly written
by Spaniards for bureaucratic purposes, but some written by Mesoamericans
who survived the conquest). They give us a particularly detailed account
of the Aztecs, which we can use for analogies to flesh out the archaeological
picture of other times and places.
The development of Mesoamerican patterns in earlier periods is hard to
track, since a lot of things that show up clearly in documents are hard
to detect in archaeological evidence. It is clear, though, that Mesoamerica
was not static: every indication is that its frontiers (and its regions)
shifted constantly. A Mesoamerican sphere certainly existed by about 1000
BC, since the Olmecs are recognizably Mesoamerican, and it must have emerged
gradually in the preceding centuries. The pre-Olmec period is poorly known,
but there are hints (in things like widespread pottery styles) that the
process was under way even before 1500 BC.
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The Maya and their world
The eastern third of Mesoamerica is the Maya world; its distinctive Maya
patterns are variations on common Mesoamerican themes. Maya civilization
reached its peak in the lowlands of northern Yucatan, and especially in
the tropical forest to the south. The highland Maya, centered in the mountains
still farther south, extended down to the Pacific coast mixing with non-Maya
peoples. The Ulúa people, along the eastern edge of the Maya world,
were culturally Maya, though they probably didn't speak a Mayan language.
All the things that make Mesoamerican civilizations important apply to
the Maya, but Maya civilization has a special interest: the romantic fascination
of a "lost" civilization. To some tastes, Maya art and architecture
are the most elegant in Mesoamerica. Maya mathematics and astronomy are
astonishingly sophisticated. Maya writing gives us a kind of entrée
to Maya thought and Maya history that is unique in the precolumbian world.
The Maya are especially intriguing as a case study in ancient civilizations
because they are least like Old World civilizations. With few exceptions,
the earliest civilizations arose and flourished in arid river valleys
or in temperate uplands; the Maya (and a few other Mesoamerican civilizations)
flourished in the tropical forest. Southeast Asia is the only other place
where that happened. Most explanations for the rise of civilization are
tailored to fit very different environmental circumstances; they don't
work for the Maya (or the Olmec), and they don't work as general theories
of civilization.
Like their counterparts in the Mediterranean and Near East, the Maya
lived in cities, and they were subject to political states, but their
states and especially their cities were very different. They had the same
kinds of public buildings and political functions, but Maya urban populations
weren't densely packed in city centers as they were in central Mexico
and the Old World, so social and economic life had a different character.
Maya states controlled much smaller territories than Central Mexican
empires. No single state ever ruled the whole Maya world, or even most
of it. Some Maya cities influenced very large economic spheres, and their
kings had real power, but it was localized. Maya civilization, like ancient
Mesopotamia, was a network of states tied together by economics, aristocratic
marriages, and political alliances.
Maya states were varied, and that adds to their comparative interest.
Early Maya states invested tremendous resources in grand palaces, in monuments
glorifying the kings who lived in them, and in mortuary temples that kept
the memories of ancestral kings alive. The core of a Classic period Maya
city was mainly devoted to celebrating the power of the state and the
legitimacy of its kings. Late Maya cities were content with much more
modest public buildings, and rarely glorified their kings in sculpture
or inscriptions. Postclassic period Maya states were still ruled by kings,
but their resources went into long-distance commerce rather than into
architecture and sculpture. The transformation that reshaped Maya cities
and states in the intervening period - misnamed the "Maya collapse"
- is a fascinating study in the dynamics of Maya urbanism and kingship.
The Maya used almost no intensive agricultural techniques. They did almost
no metalworking at all, and even imported metal jewelry was rare. Maya
architects used arches and vaults, but not true arches with keystones,
so their ability to create large interior spaces was limited. The Maya
- despite their extraordinary intellectual accomplishments - had an unusually
simple technology even by Mesoamerican standards. Thinking about the things
that set the Maya apart from their Mesoamerican relatives and from the
European tradition helps to sharpen our understanding of ancient civilizations
and of what it means to be "civilized."
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Cultural history of the lower Ulúa
valley
The archaeological record in the valley begins with scattered traces
of occupation without pottery that probably correspond to the Late Archaic
period, at about 2000 BC. Beginning about 1600 BC, there is evidence of
a settled farming village at Puerto Escondido with pottery that closely
resembles contemporary ceramics from villages in the Pacific coast Soconusco
region - these Early Formative villages are the earliest known pottery-making
communities in Mesoamerica. Interestingly, these early pottery vessels
were evidently used for serving food and drink rather than for storage
or cooking.
In the later Early Formative period (roughly 1100-900 BC) pottery at
Puerto Escondido was decorated with a series of "Olmec" motifs;
jade pendants and other items of personal adornment also correspond to
styles that were very widely distributed across Mesoamerica. The Middle
Formative period in the Valley (roughly 900 - 400 BC) is represented by
pottery complexes in the distinctive Playa de los Muertos style, which
reflect continuing connections with the wider "Olmec world."
Special structures - including a building too large to be an ordinary
house, a probable steam bath, and a large stucco-covered platform - suggest
new kinds of community activities.
In the Late Formative period (from about 400 BC) some villages grew to
substantial size, and some of them built structures much larger than ordinary
house platforms. These trends indicate a continuing process of increasing
social, political, and economic complexity. Local potters' use of the
distinctive Usulután technique of negative painted decoration reflects
continuing interaction with distant communities.
These trends continued into the Classic period, which saw the florescence
of Lower Ulúa Valley societies. In the Late Classic period (about
600 - 850 AD) there were more communities, more different kinds of communities,
and more people in the Valley than at any other time in its history. Ulúa
polychrome pottery and carved marble vessels were the most striking craft
products and were widely distributed beyond the valley itself.
In the Terminal Classic Period (about 850 - 1000 AD) the same process
of cultural disruption that swept across the rest of the Maya area took
hold in the valley. Fine Paste pottery - related to the pottery that appeared
at the time of the collapse in Maya cities to the west - replaced the
old polychrome tradition, population declined and settlement patterns
underwent a radical shift. Cerro Palenque grew into the largest city in
the region (or anywhere in Honduras for that matter), but it too declined
after 1000 AD and almost all of the old communities were abandoned.
The valley was apparently very sparsely settled during the Early Postclassic
period.
During the Postclassic period the Valley experienced a slow resurgence
and by the time of the Spanish invasion in the 16th century it was an
integral part of the extensive exchange networks that connected Maya and
Central American communities. Valley towns were closely allied with Naco,
the region's most prominent commercial center, just up the Río
Chamelecón outside the Valley proper. Cacao production in the valley
was so important that the king of Chetumal sent a fleet of war canoes
in 1536 to defend his commercial outpost there from the Spaniards. (Parenthetically,
a renegade Spaniard, Gonzalo Guerrero, commanded the fleet and was killed
in the ensuing battle).
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The Land of Ulua in the Classic period
By many measures, the Classic period represents the florescence of always-prosperous
Ulúa societies. It was the time of maximum population, largest
number of communities, greatest differentiation among communities, and
exuberant craft production.
It was not, however, marked by the development of regional states; here,
the political and economic landscape remained heterarchical with autonomous
communities and small polities (except perhaps at the very end of the
Classic period). Some structures are larger than most obvious houses,
and they may well have been the scenes of public, community activity,
but there is no reason to identify them as state installations. Differences
in things like house size, elaboration, and (occasionally) ornamentation
probably reflect differences in wealth and prestige, but there is little
or no indication that this ranking evolved to the level we would call
social stratification.
Ulúa Polychromes, intuitively likely candidates for elite status
items, are in fact not restricted in their distribution; they are found
throughout the valley, at every social level. Exotic goods -- jade, imported
obsidian, shell -- are correspondingly broadly distributed. Ulúa
Polychromes were used in households, even the simplest dwellings: dishes
and bowls as serving vessels and cylinders in household ritual and caches.
They were not used as mortuary furniture. They provide a vivid indication
of the breadth of prosperity in the valley, which supported the extensive
production of a very elaborate craft item.
Imported exotic raw materials, imported pottery, and features of locally
produced pottery all reflect the external connections of Ulúa communities.
Similarities with Central Maya painted pottery appear on early (Early
Classic period) Ulúa Polychromes, but not as wholesale copying;
they are selectively incorporated into the Ulúa repertoire, with
no change in the local geometric design structure. By the middle of the
Classic period (about AD 600), relationships with Belizean assemblages
are particularly obvious, and late Ulúa Polychromes have an expanded
repertoire of designs shared with Belizean and other Central Maya communities.
Ulúa figurines reflect the same basic patterns of interaction.
Interestingly, similarities with Copán are scant: occasional polychromes
with Copador-like compositions. Some exotic figurines found at Copán
may be imports from the lower Ulúa valley, but most of the Ulúa
Polychromes found at there represent ties with other parts of the greater
Ulúa world. Ulúa valley imagery also reflects ties to the
east and south: with the Yojoa and Comayagua regions of the greater Ulúa
world and with more distant parts of Central America.
Within the Lower Ulúa Valley the elaborate visual imagery of Ulúa
Polychromes seems to have been uniformly distributed -- it was current
in all households and there is no indication of variability in shapes,
design structure, or motifs from community to community. It reflects a
distinctive Ulúa identity shared not just by an elite group, but
by the populace of the Valley at large. Other more localized identities
were no doubt constructed as well, in other contexts, and they may be
reflected in non-polychrome painted pottery that varies from community
to community within the valley.
The elaboration of monumental architecture at Travesía and Cerro
Palenque very late in the Classic period, along with sharp changes in
visual imagery on portable objects reflects a change in the political
and economic landscape. Ulúa Polychromes were quickly replaced
by Fine Paste pottery in the Terminal Classic. A new visual medium with
a new iconography -- carved marble vessels - is, like decorated architecture,
very restricted in its distribution (although the vast majority of Ulúa
marbles has been found by looters rather than archaeologists). Within
the valley, marbles are known only from Travesía and a few nearby
communities, and they may well have functioned as gifts in the consolidation
of patron/client relationships. Ulúa marbles found in Central Maya
sites (Uaxactún, San José, Altun Ha, and the Belize cayes)
and in Costa Rica reflect a continuation of old patterns of external connection,
though now an emergent elite may have been manipulating them to their
own advantage. These developments seem to signal a move toward centralization
of political power in the valley, perhaps as a response to the overall
disruption of political and economic life. In any case, Travesía's
prominence faded quickly as the transformation that swept the rest of
the Maya world took hold in the valley. Cerro Palenque remained a large
and prominent community until about 1000 AD, but it too was virtually
abandoned in the Postclassic period.
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The Ulua nation
Lower Ulúa valley polychromes are one facet of a more widespread
Ulúa Polychrome style. Polychrome painting styles in much of Honduras
to the west and south, in El Salvador, and in Pacific Nicaragua and Costa
Rica show clear indications of interaction with the Ulúa world.
Distinctive Ulúa substyles - with different constellations of vessel
forms and design elements - are found in the Yojoa basin and in the Comayagua
valley. These Ulúa styles, like that of the valley, reflect distinctive
regional identities.
Late Ulúa polychromes from Yojoa and Comayagua have some of the
most striking similarities with central Maya polychromes (especially images
of jaguars and processions), but for the most part they do not display
the specifically Belizean similarities that are so strong in lower Ulúa
valley imagery. Most of the Ulúa Polychromes found in tombs at
Copán belong to these southern substyles, and Copador Polychrome
from Copán is not uncommon in the Yojoa and Comayagua regions (in
contrast to the situation in the lower Ulúa valley, where it is
exceedingly rare).
The Ulúa Polychrome style as a whole reflects a larger shared Ulúa
identity -- an Ulúa nation. "Nation" in this sense refers
to autonomous inter-connected groups with a belief in common heritage
and values which are represented in the imagery of Ulúa Polychrome
pottery.
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