three
The three larger figurines measure about a foot tall. J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska / PASI
Researchers have discovered a trove of ancient clay puppets at an archaeological site in El Salvador. The five carved figurines are about 2,400 years old, and they may help shed new light on an ancient Mesoamerican society.
Jan Szymański and Gabriela Prejs, two archaeologists from the University of Warsaw, discovered the artifacts atop a ruined pyramid at the site of San Isidro. As they write in a new study published in the journal Antiquity, the figurines are known as Bolinas: rare puppet-like artifacts that have been found in other ancient Central American sites, such as the early Maya site Tak’alik Ab’aj in Guatemala.
All of the recently discovered Bolinas have open mouths. The smallest puppets measure 0.6 feet and 0.3 feet, while the other three stand at about a foot tall. These larger figurines have detachable heads and small holes in their necks and craniums. As the researchers write, this allows for “a string to be passed through the neck and tied on the top of the head.”
socket
A protrusion and socket allowed for head articulation within the three large figurines. J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska / PASI
“They are clay actors,” Szymański tells Science’s Lizzie Wade. “When you hold them in your hand, sometimes they even look creepy because of their vivid expressions,” depending on the angle at which one views them. “You shift your gaze just a little bit and it seems like, ‘Oof, this thing almost moved.’”
Compared to neighboring countries, El Salvador’s pre-Columbian history is poorly understood, according to a statement from Antiquity. Excavations are challenging due to the country’s high population density, and volcanic eruptions over thousands of years have damaged and buried archaeological sites.
“Very little is known about the identities and ethnolinguistic affiliations of the creators of ancient settlements that predate the arrival of Europeans in the early 16th century,” Szymański says in the statement. “This gets worse the further back in time we look.”
five
The researchers found five Bolinas. J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska / PASI
The San Isidro site is a complex of mostly clay structures built by an unknown group, and it remains largely unexcavated. The researchers found the Bolinas while digging at the top of the site’s largest pyramidal structure. Through carbon dating, they’ve concluded the five figurines were made between 410 and 380 B.C.E.
“This finding is only the second such a group found in situ, and the first to feature a male figure,” Szymański says in the statement. The male puppet sports what appear to be facial tattoos, and the other four are females.
The researchers think that these versatile Bolinas could have been used during “rituals that would involve recreation of some actual events or mythical events,” Szymański tells IFL Science’s Francesca Benson.
“In Mesoamerican thought, still visible today, to recreate something was to actually create it,” he adds. “So if a ruler decided to commission a sculpture of himself, he was effectively cloning himself, allowing himself to look over his people even when he was away.”
male
The head of the male figurine is decorated with tattoos or scarification. J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska / PASI
The idea that these artifacts are puppets is “super provocative,” as Julia Guernsey, a Mesoamerican art historian at the University of Texas at Austin who wasn’t involved in the research, tells Science. Such figurines that could “speak” during performances may shed light on “whose voices mattered in this era of incipient writing and emerging political power.”
Figurines like these have been found in Guatemala and elsewhere in El Salvador, and jade pendants unearthed nearby resemble similar artifacts discovered in present-day Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica, per the statement. As such, the ancient inhabitants of San Isidro may have been connected to distant peoples.
“This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador’s cultural backwardness or isolation in ancient times,” Szymański adds. “It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places.”
Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.
Email Powered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Privacy Notice / Terms & Conditions)
Sonja Anderson | READ MORE
Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.
Filed Under: Archaeology, Artifacts, Central America, Cool Finds, History, Mysteries, Rituals and Traditions