Guaytán is an archaeological site of the

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of San Agustín Acasaguastlán, in the department of

El Progreso El Progreso () is a city, with a population of 120,600 (2023 calculation), and a municipality located in the Honduran Departments of Honduras, department of Yoro (department), Yoro. Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport of San Pedro Su ...

, in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. It is the most important

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

archaeological site of the middle drainage of the

Motagua River The Motagua River () is a river in Guatemala. It rises in the Western Highlands of Guatemala and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The Motagua River basin covers an area of and is the largest in Guatemala. The Motagua Riv ...

.Romero 2016, p. 15. The site is located south of San Agustín Acasaguastlán, and to the north of the Motagua River, built on both banks of the Lato River. The site was inhabited from the Late Preclassic Period (c. 250 BC – 250 AD) to the Late Classic Period (c. 300 – 900 AD).Arroyave Prera 2012, p. 603. The city controlled an important source of

jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition Na Al Si2 O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades ...

Description

The site is distributed in a number of groups on both sides of the Lato River, but hasn't been completely mapped. The principal groups include the Acropolis,Arroyave Prera 2012, p. 601. El Castillo, Carrillo,Romero 2016, p. 16. La Escuela,Romero 2016, p. 17. and La Estela. Guaytán features an unusual Late to Terminal Classic ballcourt with an attached temple. Fragments of Classic period

codices The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

have been recovered from tombs at the site.

Sculptures

A number of zoomorphic sculptures have been recovered from Guaytán; five of these are believed to represent the heads of snakes and have been labelled as Monuments 1 through to 5. Although they have been described as ballcourt markers, they may have been set into the corners of buildings. Monument 6 represents a seated monkey with its arms curving around its front, with its left leg behind them. Only the right eye has been carved into the monument.

Burials

Guaytán features a number of large

cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...

s and extensive crypts containing multiple burials. Most were found under the remains of large structures that formed closed plazas. The crypts were built with large slabs of stone to form chambers that measured approximately high.Romero 2000, p. 659. The largest slabs were set to form vaulted roofs to the chambers. A tomb under Structure 24 features small niches that contained vessels left as funerary offerings. Some of the crypts contained an antechamber used for additional burials.Romero 2000, p. 660. Tomb 3 has a chamber that measures wide by long, accessed by a long passage with a width of and a height of .Romero 2000, pp. 659–660.

Site history

During the Late Preclassic, Guaytán was densely populated, although buildings were generally of perishable materials. At the time, the site had contacts with the

Guatemalan Highlands The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala which lies between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north. Geographic description The Highlands lie between 6360 ft and 13780 ft and are ...

and with the Pacific coastal lowlands. Guaytán was one of two sites (the other being La Vega de Cobán, in Zacapa) that controlled most of the

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

passing along the Motagua River. In the Early Classic, the city underwent a population explosion and there was contact with the great metropolis of

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

, in the distant

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico (; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, ...

. By the Late Classic, contacts extended to the Petén lowlands, the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

, and the western portions of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Modern history

The site was first reported in 1926 by archaeologist Gustavo Espinoza, although no serious investigations were undertaken until 1943. Projects to partially map the site were undertaken in 2001 and 2013.

Notes

References

*Arroyave Prera, Ana Lucia (2012).
Recordando a Guaytán, una propuesta de restauración en la acrópolis y en el Juego de Pelota B2
' (in Spanish). XXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2011 (edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz, and H. Mejía), pp. 601–610. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia and Asociación Tikal. Retrieved 2016-10-29. Archived fro
the original
on 2016-05-15. *Fox, John W. (1991). "The Lords of Light Versus the Lords of Dark: The Postclassic Highland Maya Ballgame". In Vernon Scarborough and David R. Wilcox (eds.). ''The Mesoamerican Ballgame''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 213–238. . . *López Garzona, Sergio (2015).
Esculturas zoomorfas del Motagua Medio
' (in Spanish). XXVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2014 (edited by B. Arroyo, L. Méndez Salinas and L. Paiz), pp. 759–772. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. *Romero, Luis A. (2000).
Sistema de enterramiento en la cuenca media del río Motagua: El caso de La Reforma Huité, Zacapa
' (in Spanish). XIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1999 (edited by J.P. Laporte, H. Escobedo, B. Arroyo y A. C. de Suasnávar), pp. 659–672. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología. *Romero, Luis Alberto (2016).
Registro y clasificación los sitios arqueológicos de San Agustín Acasaguastlán
' (in Spanish). Estudios Digital, Year 4, no. 8, March 2016. . Accessed on 2 May 2017. *Sharer, Robert J.; Loa P. Traxler (2006). ''The Ancient Maya'' (6th (fully revised) ed.). Stanford, California, US: Stanford University Press. . .