La Blanca is a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n archaeological site in present-day

La Blanca La Blanca is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in present-day La Blanca, San Marcos Department, western Guatemala. It has an occupation dating predominantly from the Middle Preclassic (900–600 BC) period of Mesoamerican ch ...

San Marcos Department San Marcos is a department in northwestern Guatemala, on the Pacific Ocean and along the western Guatemala-Mexico border. The department's capital is the city of San Marcos. History Colonial period The Spanish conquest of Guatemalan Highlan ...

, western

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. It has an occupation dating predominantly from the Middle Preclassic (900–600 BC) period of

Mesoamerican chronology Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BC ...

. This site belongs to the later period of the

Mokaya culture Mokaya were pre-Olmec cultures of the Soconusco region in Mexico and parts of the Pacific coast of western Guatemala, an archaeological culture that developed a number of Mesoamerica’s earliest-known sedentary settlements. The Soconusco regio ...

. A minor archeological site nearby is Salinas La Blanca at the mouth of the Río Naranjo.

The site

At its peak, this was one of the largest known Mesoamerican sites of that era. It is located on the western Pacific coast, where it rose to become the major regional center following the decline of an earlier

polity A polity is an identifiable Politics, political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relation, social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize ...

at Ojo de Agua,

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

. La Blanca's regional dominance appears to have lasted approximately three centuries, until it was eclipsed by

Ujuxte The site of Ujuxte ( after the Ramón or Breadnut tree ('' Brosimum alicastrum'')) is the largest Preclassic Maya site to be discovered on the Guatemalan Pacific coast. It is in the Retalhuleu Department, in western Guatemala. Site The site inc ...

, 13 km east. This 300-year period is defined as belonging to the ''Conchas phase''. The site covered over 200ha at its peak and boasted some of the earliest monumental architecture in Mesoamerica.

Mound 1

The site had the highest

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

in the Pacific Lowlands at 25 meters high (Mound 1). It was built c. 900 BC, and was one of the first pyramidal temples in Mesoamerica, measuring 150 x 90m at its base.

Monument 3

Monument 3 was discovered in La Blanca Mound 9, in a residential zone thought to be largely or completely elite. Excavations of the mound initially revealed domestic features such as floors, burials. Monument 3 is unique in

Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Withi ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. Found on the western slope of the mound, it consists of a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

in the shape of a

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

. It was formed of rammed earth, or sandy loam. The rammed earth was then coated with dark brown (nearly black) clay. The inner rim of the sculpture was painted with

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

red. The monument is 2.1 m in diameter The La Blanca quatrefoil has a channel within the rim that probably carried water to the interior basin. The initial hypothesis is that the sculpture functioned as a locus of ritual in which water, or notions of fertility, were invoked. Such an idea is consistent with the quatrefoil shape, which in the Classic period

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

symbolizes a watery portal to the supernatural realm. Dating to approximately 850 B.C., the La Blanca

appears to be the earliest example of a quatrefoil known in

. The inclination of the external rings, the presence of the channel, as well as the concavity of the basin all suggest that Monument 3 was meant to contain liquid. Fluid would flow into the centre of the basin. The use of water-filled basins in Preclassic-period Oaxaca provides a useful parallel, because such rituals were employed in rites of

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

La Blanca figurines

Abundance of hand-modeled ceramic figurines have been found at La Blanca. A series of figurines from La Blanca bear the puffy facial features associated with the

Potbelly sculpture Potbelly sculptures (Spanish barrigones pl. or barrigón sing.) are in-the-round sculptures of obese human figures carved from boulders. They are a distinctive element of the sculptural tradition in the southern Maya area of Mesoamerica. The prec ...

tradition, as well as with the massive heads of the

Monte Alto culture Monte Alto is an archaeological site on the Pacific Coast in what is now Guatemala. History Located 20 km southeast from Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa in Escuintla, Monte Alto was occupied as early as 1800 BC, but has a fairly light presence ...

. Some of the figurines have facial features that anticipate those of the Monte Alto heads and potbellies, including the closed eyes with puffy lids and swollen cheeks.Julia Guernsey
''Rulers, Gods, and Potbellies: A Consideration of Sculptural Forms and themes from the Preclassic Pacific Coast and Piedmont of Mesoamerica.''
in: The Place of Stone Monuments: Context, Use, and Meaning in Mesoamerica's Preclassic Transition, eds. Julia Guernsey, John E. Clark, and Barbara Arroyo. Dumbarton Oaks. 2010.

Notes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanca, La Mesoamerican sites Maya sites in Guatemala Archaeological sites in Guatemala Former populated places in Guatemala San Marcos Department Formative period in the Americas Mokaya culture