Site Offers Clues to Life in Pre-Columbian El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR—New excavations at the site of Nuevo Lourdes, in central El Salvador, have revealed evidence of everyday life in Mesoamerica during the late Classic period, from 650 to 950 A.D. Ceramic vessels and bowls, stone pestles for grinding corn, and two jade beads were found, in addition to a skull, teeth, and other bone fragments. “Many investigations in the Mesoamerican region have found, mostly, ceremonial sites with pyramids,” Shione Shibata, archaeological director at the Cultural Secretariat’s Cultural Heritage Directorate, told the EFE News Agency. The site was discovered by construction workers nearly two years ago, when a burial site, cooking pots, pottery fragments, and obsidian and stone artifacts dating from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. were unearthed.