Archaeologists in El Salvador found a collection of clay puppets from the pre-Columbian El Salvador that they dated to around 400 B.C.
The level of realism, both in the facial features and movement, on the crafted puppets is remarkable considering the age of the figurines.
Holes in the necks of the puppets likely allowed strings to control their movements.
When archaeologists excavated the top of the largest pyramid at San Isidro, El Salvador, they found something one would expect to find in a child’s bedroom: a collection of five clay figurines. Details on the doll-like figures, including holes in the necks to allow for movement of the figurines’ heads, prompted further studying to conclude that they were tools for ritual puppetry.
A bit creepy, sure. Creepier yet, the figures had distinct facial expressions that appear to shift as you move. “One of the most striking features of the puppets is their dramatic facial expression, which changes depending on the angle that we look at them from,” Jan Szymanski, archeologist from the University of Warsaw, said in a statement, noting that each figurine had an open mouth and some had visible tongues. “Seen from above they appear almost grinning, but when looked at from the level angle they turn angry or disdainful, to become scared when seen from below. This is a conscious design perhaps meant to enhance the gamut of ritual performances the puppets could have been used in.”
In a study published by the journal Antiquity, the authors wrote that “beyond the aesthetic, figurines transmit deeper meanings that were readily decodable by their intended audience and may still offer sociocultural insights despite the loss of this coding through time.”
So, while some of the specific meanings are probably lost to history, the study authors still hope to glean information about the culture of the time, with they dated to around 400 B.C.
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The puppet-style figurines, known as Bolinas that also resembled a find at Tak’alik Ab’ai in Guatemala, were discovered in an excavation of what the archaeologists believe is a pile of funerary artifacts. This was only the second such group found in situ and the first to feature a male figure. The five figurines ranged in length from four inches to 12 inches and three had articulated heads that could be turned with string to make it look as though they were speaking or singing. Each was colored cream or with a faint orange-brown hue and could stand upright unaided. Based on the discoveries of other figurines across Central America, these could have once been adorned with costumes of clothes, miniature jewelry, or wigs (the smallest had bracelets and a necklace already designed onto the figure).
The style of the figurines led the authors to write that they were likely positioned, as puppets, into a scene to convey a message. “They are clay actors,” Szymanski said, according to Science. “When you hold them in your hand, sometimes they even look creepy because of their vivid expressions. You shift your gaze just a little bit and it seems like, oof, this thing almost moved.”
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The location atop a prominent pyramid and as part of a funeral-style burial gives them a level of importance and showed the figurines were likely used in rituals. Fragments found nearby suggest there could have been other figurines originally buried at the site.
The clay creations were found alongside jade pendants that likely came from modern-day Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, making evident that San Isidro had a connection to other cultures in Central America and shared traditions and customs. This figurine style was also common throughout western El Salvador and southern Guatemala.
“This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador’s cultural backwardness or isolation in ancient times,” Szymanski said. “It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places.”
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Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.