Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw discovered five ceramic figurines dated to around 400 BCE on top of a large pyramid in San Isidro in El Salvador. The figurines' movable heads and the way they were set up suggest that they were a type of puppets used in ritual scenes.
The archaeology of pre-Columbian El Salvador is poorly understood compared to neighbouring countries. The high population density makes excavations difficult, and volcanic eruptions have obscured 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. This gets worse the further back in time we look', says Jan Szymański, PhD, from the University of Warsaw, quoted in a press release.
To fill this gap, Szymański and team conducted excavations at the large, previously unexplored site of San Isidro in the Sonsonate Department, in western El Salvador.
The results of their work were published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.37).
At the top of the largest pyramidal structure, researchers made an unexpected discovery: a rich offering resembling a funeral deposit, but without any human remains. They found five ceramic figurines dated to c. 400 BCE.
'This find is only the second such a group found in situ, and the first to feature a male figure', Szymański adds.
Three of the five figurines have movable heads, similar to modern day dolls. The authors suggest that they were a type of ancient dolls, arranged in ritual scenes that were certainly intended to convey some message, unknown to us today.
The placement of the figurines at the top of the largest pyramid suggests that they were used in important, possibly public rituals.
'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', Szymański says. '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'.
Similar figurines have been found in both western El Salvador and southern Guatemala. Other artefacts discovered in this deposit, such as jade pendants, are also known from the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which includes modern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and parts of Colombia and Ecuador. These similarities could reflect connections between elites from different, distant places.
All this suggests that San Isidro participated in large networks of interaction and shared ritual traditions and customs with other Central American communities, challenging archaeologists' traditional thinking that El Salvador was an isolated part of the region.
'This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador's cultural backwardness or isolation in ancient times. It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places', Szymański concludes. (PAP)
PAP - Science in Poland
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