The first proof of human settlers in Guatemala goes back to 10,000 BC, although there are some evidences not yet clearly proved that put this date at 18,000 BC, some obsidian arrow heads have been found in different parts of Guatemala such as Piedra Parada near Guatemala city, Chivacabé in Huehuetenango, Chajbal in Quiché, Nahualá in Sololá, and other regions. They were hunters and gatherers., there is archeological proof in pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast that maize (Corn) crops were developed around 3500 BC.
Archaic sites have been documented in Quiché in the Highlands and Sipacate on the central pacific coast line (6500 BC)
By 2500.BC, small settlements were developing in Guatemala’s Pacific Lowlands, places as Tilapa, La Blanca, Ocós, El Mesak, Ujuxte, and others, where the oldest ceramic pottery from Guatemala have been found, indeed the first pottery documented at San Lorenzo, the earliest Olmec Center in Veracruz, is Ocós style, but dates to some 600 years later (Coe and Diehl 1980; Lowe1977). From 2000 BC heavy concentration of pottery in the Pacific Coast Line has been documented. The so-called Fat Boys from Monte Alto a Preclassic site of the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala may be as ancient as Ian Graham stated in 1979 (i.e., 2000 B.C ), there is little question that the most primitive examples of the sculptor's art in Mesoamerica, all stem from the Pacific Lowlands in Guatemala, it was in this region that the raw materials, including both granite and basalt, were readily available for carving. (Vincent H. Malmström, Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755).
Recent excavations suggest that the Highlands were a geographic and temporal bridge between Early Preclassic villages of the Pacific coast and later Petén lowlands cities. Recent excavations in the Antigua Valley, at Urías and Rucal, have yielded stratified materials for the Early and Middle Preclassic, the first pottery in the Antigua Valley is very well made and not simply a copy of either coastal or piedmont types. Their paste analyses, however, indicate that the vessels were
made on clays from different environmental zones, suggesting to them that these were people from the Pacific coast who expanded into the Antigua Valley. There are at least 5000 archeological sites in Guatemala, 3000 of them in Petén alone.
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| Uaxactún Group E |
Structure E7 the Focal point in E group ( All the important Classic Maya sites had E groups named after this , the oldest in the Maya Civilization) |
In Monte Alto near La Democracia, Escuintla some giant stone heads and Potbellies (Barrigones) have been found, Dated at 2000 BC, The so named Monte Alto Culture, that is classified as Pre-Olmec, (Why not Pre-Maya?), letting the door open to the opinion of some scholars, that the Olmec Culture was born in that area of the Pacific Lowlands, although the size is the only relation with the posterior dated Olmec heads, it is more accurate to say that the Monte Alto Culture was the first Complex Culture of Mesoamérica and the Predecessors of all the other cultures. In Guatemala, there are some sites with unmistaken Olmec style, such as Chocolá in Suchitepéquez, La Corona, in Cotzumalguapa, and Tak'alik A´baj, in Retalhuleu, that is the only ancient City in Mesoamerica with Olmec and Mayan features.
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| Tak'alik A´baj Head |
Monte Alto Potbelly |
The renown Archeologist Dr. Richard Hansen is sure that the Maya at Mirador Basin developed the first True political state in America, (Tha Kan Kingdom), around 1500 BC, (although Maize (corn) polen samples have been documented in lakes in the area dated in 2400 BC), not as thought before that the Olmec was the mother culture in Mesoamérica, he thinks, due to recent finding at Mirador Basin, Northern Petén, Guatemala, that the Olmec and Mayas developed its cultures, separately, and merged in some places like Tak'alik Abaj on the Pacific Low Lands; there is no evidence yet to link the Pre Classic Maya from Petén and those from the Pacific coast, but undoubtedly, they had cultural and economical links. Northern Guatemala has particularly high densities of Late Preclassic sites, including Naachtún, Xulnal, El Mirador, Porvenir, Pacaya, La Muralla, Nakbé, Tintal, Wakná (formerly Güiro), Uaxactún, and Tikal. Of these, El Mirador, Tikal, Nakbé, Tintal, Xulnal and Wakná are the largest in the Maya world, Such size was manifested not only in the extent of the site, but also in the volume or monumentality, especially in the construction of immense platforms to support large temples. Many sites of this era display monumental masks for the first time (Uaxactún, El Mirador, Cival, Tikal and Nakbé ). These masks often seem to depict powerful natural forces such as Sun and Earth.
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| Nakbé, Stucco Mask |
Tikal, Stucco Mask |
Kaminal Juyú, in the Central Highlands is the site that shows the longest occupation in Mesoamérica, (800 BC to 1200 AD), located in the central highlands, in what now is Guatemala City, had a very privileged part, serving as trading center between Petén and the Pacific lowlands, where they traded cacao, salt, chile, jade, furs, sea shells (The first currency), from both coastal areas, Quetzal feathers from the Highlands, obsidian from "El Chayal" and other quarries near Kaminal Juyú, among many goods.
All the Mesoamerican Jade, comes from quarries located in "La Sierra de Las Minas" and the "Motagua" River valley, Eastern Highlands, Guatemala. Fine jadeite material in natural colors ranging from a bright, intense green to soft lilac, blue, pink, white, black and yellow were available only in Guatemala, and then exported to all Mesoamerica, the green Jade is also known as Mayan Jade. The Black jadeite from the Motagua Valley area, represents the creamiest, richest, and best black jadeite in the world.
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| Jadeite Boulder |
The Archeologist divide the cultural History of Mesoamerica in 3 periods: The Pre-Classic from 2000 BC to 250 AD, (Early: 2000 BC to 800 BC, Middle: 800 to 400 BC, and Late 400 BC to 250 AD), Classic from 250 to 900 AD, (Early 250 to 550 AD, Middle from 550 to 700 AD and Late 700 to 900 AD), and Post Classic from 900 to contact (1520 AD), (Early 900 to1200 AD, and Late 1200 to 1520 AD)
Until a few years ago, the Pre Classic, was thought to be a formative period, with small villages of farmers, that lived in huts, and few permanent buildings, but this concept has been proved to be a big mistake, due to recent findings all over Guatemala, such as an altar in La Blanca, San Marcos, some 3 mt. in diameter from 1000 BC; Ceremonial sites at Miraflores, and El Naranjo from 800 BC, near Kaminal Juyú, in Guatemala City, El Portón in Baja Verapaz, The Mural paintings in San Bartolo, Petén, the Stucco Masks and monuments in Cival and of course The Mirador Basin major cities of Nakbé, Xulnal, Tintal, Wakná and Mirador, the Cradle of the Maya Civilization, where, the cities were not only numerous, but very sophisticated, and developed, with architectonic structures from 1400 BC, indeed the two biggest cities of the Maya Civilization (Mirador and Tintal) are there, with the same religious believes, astronomical, mathematics and writing knowledge that those in the Classic period.
The city of El Mirador was the biggest city in ancient America, has the largest pyramid in the WORLD, 2,800,000 Mt2 of volume some 200,000 more thant the Giza pyramid in Egypt, and was by far the most populated city in the Pre Columbine America, in fact, Mirador was the first Politically organized State in América, named the Kan Kingdom in ancient texts. The first aerial surveys of this area in the 1930' by North American Archeologist does not give any results, because they interpreted the huge Pyramids as Volcanoes. There are 26 cities, some bigger than Tikal, the Jewel of the Classic period, all connected by huge Sacbeob (Plural for highways ), or Sacbé (Singular), meaning "White road", several Km long and up to 40 mt wide and 2 to 4 mt. above the ground, paved with stucco, that are clearly distinguishable from the air in the most extensive virgin Tropical Rain Forest left in Mesoamerica, thus, these were Kingdoms equal in Power and Culture to those in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, etc.
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| Mirador Temple |
Causeway |
The Classic is represented by countless sites, mainly in Petén, although there are Classic sites in any region in Guatemala, The Post Classic is represented by different kingdoms like the Itzá and Ko'woj in the Lakes area in Petén that were the last cultures in Mesoamérica to be conquered by the Spaniards on 1697 when Tayasal capital of the Itzá fell; and, by the Mam, Ki'ch'es, Kack'chiquel, Tz'utuh'il, Poko'mam, Achí, Kek'chi and Chortí among others in the Highlands, Izabal, Petén and the Pacific Lowlands that kept the essential believes of the Maya Civilization but didn't reach the splendor of the Pre Classic and Classic cities. In fact, they still retain the use of not only their languages, but also their believes and cosmology., even more they use the Tzolk'in calendar in their ceremonies and for crops.
