El Salvador Travel Guide

The first settled peoples of El Salvador were the Maya , who had arrived in the territory from Guatemala by 1200 BC or earlier. By 500 BC they had developed several large settlements in the west and the centre, the most important of which was Chalchuapa - close to present-day Santa Ana - trading in ceramics and obsidian across Mesoamerica. A catastrophic eruption of Volcán Ilopango around 250 AD spread ash over ten thousand square kilometres and all but wiped out many of these settlements, forcing their inhabitants to flee north. Over the next two hundred years, during the early Classic Period (300-900 AD), the land began to be repopulated, with important cities developing at San Andrés, Tazumal, Cara Sucia and, in the east, Quelepa. West of the Río Lempa the Maya-Quiché predominated, with the Chortís (Chortí being a dialect of Quiché) settling around Santa Tomas and Tejutla in what is today the department of Chalatenango. To the east of the river the Lenca - a mix of the early nomadic tribes and groups of Maya-Quiché, with linguistic links to the South American Chibchan group - established themselves and developed in overall isolation from their neighbours.

Around 900 AD, when - for reasons still unclear - the Classic Maya culture began to crumble, these cities were abandoned. During the early Postclassic period (900-1200 AD), waves of Nahuat-speaking groups began to migrate south from Mexico, seeking land and power. These settlers, who established themselves in west and central El Salvador and in the northwest around Metapán, came to be known as the Pipils . New seats of power were built at Cihuatán, Tehuacán and Cuscatlán; unusually, the deserted Maya city of Tazumal was also reoccupied. The new settlers planted maize, beans, cocoa and tobacco, lived in highly stratified societies under a hereditary system of military rule, had highly developed arts and sciences and worshipped the sun and the idols of Quetzalcoatl (man), Itzqueye (woman), Tlaloc (rain) and Mictlanteuctli (god of the underworld). Trade links with the west and north were strong, based on the exchange of cocoa, which was extensively cultivated.

Final waves of Nahuat speakers arrived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, threatening and occasionally displacing the already established communities and disrupting the network of trade, possibly contributing to the abandonment of Cihuatán and Tehuacán. Chief among the new immigrants were the Nonualcos , who settled around what is now the city of Zacatecoluca, and the Pok'omans who moved in around Chalchuapa.