Joya de Cerén, the buried Maya village
Joya de Cerén, la aldea maya sepultada
- Date
- 1976 (aldea sepultada c. 630 CE) · confidence high
- Place
- Joya de Cerén, San Juan Opico, La Libertad, El Salvador
- Credited to
- Village of Maya farmers (Early Classic); excavated by Payson Sheets from 1978
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A bulldozer uncovered in 1976 an agricultural village buried by ash from the Loma Caldera volcano around AD 630, preserved with houses, kitchens, granaries, gardens and tools intact. It is the main source on the daily life of ordinary Maya people rather than the elites.
The eruption date (c. AD 630) comes from recent dating; earlier c. 600 was cited. It is called 'the Pompeii of the Americas', with the caveat that the inhabitants escaped and left no bodies.
What it led to
- detailed knowledge of housing, diet and storage among the ordinary Maya
- a model for managing excavated sites with protective covers (UNESCO World Heritage, 1993)
- later finds such as the buried manioc field