Author: miron

San Isidro, El Salvador

project director: Dr. Jan Szymański

research location: San Isidro archaeological site, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador, Central America

San Isidro is located in the middle of a natural corridor connecting the Pacific coast with the fertile valleys further inland.

site characteristics: The site has been continuously eroded by heavy agricultural machinery. Currently ca. 50 visible remains of monumental architecture are dispersed over the area of 6.5 km² on a sugarcane plantation. Dating of surface collections of pottery encompasses the Middle (ca. 1000-400 BC) and the first half of the Late (ca. 400 – 1 BC) Preclassic periods. San Isidro most likely served as a large regional center at the southeastern boundary of Mesoamerica, and western fringe of Central America.

Until 2022, over 50 structures were recorded through drone surveys. Ground-truthing has been underway.

participating institutions: University of Warsaw (Poland), Dirección de Arqueología del Ministerio de Cultura (El Salvador)

dating: tentative, ~1000 – 1 BC

financing: 

2021-2024 – “Sonata” grant (no. 2019/35/D/HS3/00219) titled. “Na kresach Mezoameryki: badania archeologiczne stanowiska San Isidro w Salwadorze” (“On the Fringes of Mesoamerica: archaeological research at the site of San Isidro, El Salvador”)

2019 – funds from the “Excellence Strategies – Research Academy” program

2018 – “Miniatura” grant provided by the National Center for Sciences (Narodowe Centrum Nauki – NCN), (ID 381403),

research description: So far, seven research campaigns have been carried out, including two seasons of survey (2018 and 2019), one of geophysical prospection (February 2021), three of excavations (March-May 2021, 2022, 2024), and one of laboratory analyses (2023).

In 2018 a field survey was carried out, as well as partial photogrammetric documentation of the visible architectural remains. A drone-based topographic map, albeit interim, has been elaborated. The works continued through 2019. In 2021, a three-season-long excavations begun, focusing on three prominent areas of the site: the Cerrito and Trapiche groups, and El Pato structure.

Cerrito 1 before excavations.

In the course of excavations it became apparent that the largest structures at San Isidro are made mostly of clay heaped while wet. Inside the largest building at the site – Cerrito 1 – vestiges of an earlier pyramidal structure were found, perhaps one crowned with an intentionally-destroyed shrine. Basing on radiocarbon analyses, the process of expansion of Cerrito 1 has been dated to ca. 400 BC, while the ceramic data indicates that the original structure was erected no earlier than 650 BC.

Uncomplicated constructive methods contrast with particularly large size of the site, and with rich offerings purposefully deposited within the fill of Cerrito 1. Among these, a few stacks of vessels were found, along with jade jewelry in the form of tubular and globular beads and a miniature pendant representing an abstract avian personage with folded arms. Beside it, a group of large ceramic figurines with movable heads were found, of which one represents a male with tattooed face, accompanied by two smaller figurines probably symbolizing children. Such figurines, known as Bolinas type. are exceptionally rare. The nature and position of those findings suggest that during the expansion of Cerrito 1 a rich burial was placed in the fill, albeit the body did not survive due to an elevated acidity of the soil and other unfavorable taphonomic conditions.

Interestingly, the figurines and the avian pendant have close analogies at a contemporaneous site of Tak’alik Ab’aj, located some 400 km west of San Isidro, on the southern Pacific slopes of Guatemalan Highlands. A well-preserved burial was found there of a ruler with a jade necklace. The necklace’s central element was a relatively large pendant in the form of a human with an avian head and arms folded across the chest. By the head of the ruler, six large Bolinas figurines were placed, of which one had a movable head.

Further analogies indicate that both pendants, that is, the San Isidro and Tak’alik Ab’aj ones, although made of Guatemalan jade, represent a figure typical for Costa Rican iconography, thus coming from ca. 1000 km away in the opposite direction, east of San Isidro. All of this points to an existence of a very early exchange route, along which travelled not only objects, but also ideas. That route cuts across cultural spheres known as Mesoamerica in the west and Isthmo-Colombian Area in the east.

A number of objects found just under the surface on the top of Cerrito 1, including remains of a calcite or travertine vessel, and a miniature jade mask representing a monkey skull, most likely come from much later times (so-called Postclassic Period, AD 900-1520) Central Mexico. Perhaps ethnolinguistic groups that migrated along the Pacific before the Conquest, made offerings on the imposing ruins of a long-abandoned city.

The research at San Isidro is ongoing. This site will be (irregularly) updated.

bibliography:

2024; Szymański J.; M. Méndez, San Isidro, Sonsonate, El Salvador: Development of a Preclassic Settlement in Chronological and Geographic Context, Journal of Field Archaeology 49(5): 370-389.

2022; Szymański J.; K. Misiewicz; R. Mieszkowski; J. Martecki, Regional Patterns, Local Techniques: Remote Sensing and Archaeology at prehispanic site of San Isidro, El Salvador, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 45.

2020; Szymański J.; Recent Research at San Isidro, El Salvador, in the Context of the Southeastern Mesoamerican Archaeology, Estudios Latinoamericanos 40:1-28.

2018; Szymański J., M. Mendez, M. Toledo, J. Avalos Campos, R. Cabrera, R. Cea; San Isidro: Large Preclassic site at the eastern edge of the Maya Culture, Mexicon 40(40): 100-104.

Person conducting excavation: Dr hab. Mariusz Burdajewicz and Prof. Jolanta Młynarczyk
Site name: Khirbat Sarah (west Amman), MEGA Jordan # 11304 (JADIS 2215017).
Country: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw; Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw; Wrocław University of Science and Technology; Department of Antiquities, Jordan. In 2018-2019: Polish Centre of the Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw.
Type of the site: settlement from the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods.

Description of the research:
In 2018 and 2019, a team directed by Prof. Jolanta Młynarczyk from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw conducted two short seasons of work at the ancient site of Khirbat Sarah, located on the western outskirts of Amman. A geophysical and archaeological survey proved the great cognitive potential of Khirbat Sarah as an exemplary site in terms of the longue durée, occupied from the Iron (Ammonite) age till the middle Islamic period at least.

After the break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, excavations were resumed in 2023, this time on behalf of the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The current project aims to define the chronology and nature of the settlement in the different phases of its history, as well as to better understand its relationship with nearby Amman during the period of over two millennia. This spectacular site, occupying an excellent strategic position on the western edge of the Amman plateau, is crowned by a monumental architectural complex. It consists of an ‘Ammonite tower,’ secondarily used in the Roman period as a temple with an arcaded courtyard added to it. This complex, surrounded by buildings of later periods, still needs to be fully recognized. Finds, mainly pottery, indicate a particularly intensive settlement from the Ayyubid-Mamluk period. Likely, a rural settlement existed here, its inhabitants involved in agriculture and animal husbandry, which provided an agricultural base for the Islamic capital of Amman. On the other hand, the unique combination of an Iron Age Ammonite tower with a temple characterized by Classical architectural order is an interesting issue related to the local community’s adaptation of a Greco-Roman material culture and religion.

The site’s ancient name remains obscure. 19th-century travelers S. Merrill and C.R. Conder identified the site with biblical Azor (Iazer), still mentioned in the 4th century by Eusebius (Onomastikon). Indeed, the very geographical situation and some archaeological evidence for a Hellenistic period habitation might suggest the identity of Khirbat Sarah with the fortified settlement of Jazer, conquered by Judah Maccabee in 163 BC (I Macc. 5,8). Under the Ptolemies, in the 3rd century BC, the site must have been a part of the region administered by the mighty family of Tobiads, suggesting its possible identification with “Birta of the Ammanitis”, mentioned in a letter from the Zeno Archive, dated 259 BC.

Further reading:
Młynarczyk J. and Burdajewicz M., with appendices by R. Ryndziewicz and J. Burdajewicz: Archaeological and geophysical survey at the site of Khirbat as-Sar (Sara), Jordan, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 27/1 (2018), 341-378 (with earlier bibliography relevant to Khirbat es-Sar).
Villeneuve, F., Khirbet Sara (Jordan) 1983. In: A. Łajtar and K. Jakubiak (eds.), Ex Oriente Lux. Studies in Honour of Jolanta Młynarczyk, Warsaw (2020), 309-322.
Funding statement: The project is financed by the Polish National Science Centre (UMO-2021/43/B/HS3/00813, Opus 22).