San Isidro, El Salvador

San Isidro, Salwador

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.

struktura Cerrito 1

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.

Miniature jade pendant representing an avian personage
Group of figurines from San Isidro (so-called Bolinas type), of which the large ones (ca. 30 cm) have movable heads

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.

Miniature jade mask representing a monkey skull, most likely coming from Gulf of Mexico area.

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 ContextJournal 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 SalvadorJournal 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.

Khirbat Sarah (Khirbat as-Sar) – settlement from the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods

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).

Argamum and its hinterland: northern Dobruja and the Danube Delta

Person conducting excavation: dr Martin Lemke, dr Karolina Trusz
Country: Romania
Site name: 
Argamum and its hinterland: northern Dobruja and the Danube Delta
Type of the site: 
Greek colony, Roman fortified city, various limes fortifications.
Involved institutions:
Faculty of Archaeology UW, ICEM Tulcea (Rumunia)


Description of the research:
The research involves terrestrial and underwater archaeological investigations in north-eastern Dobruja (Romania), around the ancient city of Argamum. The investigations are part of project ArchLiMar (www.archeologia.uw.edu.pl/archlimar).

Currently, selected areas are being explored using archaeological prospecting methods, scanning the ground or water to understand what might be hidden beneath the surface. These methods are called non-invasive because they do not require exploration of the ground, although future excavations will be carried out based on them.

The chronological scope of the project focuses on Antiquity and Late Antiquity: the time of the Greeks and Romans. Around the Black Sea, significant settlements appeared during Greek colonisation, and many of these towns were located in the area that later became the coast of the Roman province of Moesia inferior – modern day Romania and Bulgaria.

The central site is the Greek and Roman city of Argamum, studied on land and from the perspective of the nearby Lake Razim, using underwater methods. Such underwater prospection is also planned further south from Argamum.

More exploration, but in the Dobruja interior, will be carried out at two sites that could have been Roman forts, in order to verify this theory. Both are located in the valley of the strategically important Taița River, a natural land route crossing the Dobruja, connecting the Black Sea with the Danube.

 

Dudka – cemetery and campsites of hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age

Excavation conducted by (renew from 2023): Dr Karolina Bugajska and Dr hab. Witold Gumiński
Localisation: NE Poland, Masurian Lakeland, Wydminy commune, Giżycko district
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Type of the site: Stone Age peat-bog site with the cemetery of hunter-gatherers

Description of the site: Exceptional cemetery with very diversified burials from the Late Mesolithic and Para-Neolithic, and habitation sites of hunter-gatherers from the Late Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Para-Neolithic (Zedmar culture) till the Late Neolithic. Complex stratigraphy and preserved bones and wooden materials, besides amber, stone, flint and pottery make the site unique.

Research project:
NCN Opus 20; nr 2020/39/B/HS3/02375, Absolute chronology of burials and loose human bones from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age sites Dudka and Szczepanki in Masuria (NE-Poland)
published results of the project:
– Bugajska, K. (2023). Purified by fire: Cremation burials in the Stone Age hunter-gatherer cemetery at Dudka, Masuria, northeast Poland. Documenta Praehistorica50, 110-135. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.50.10

Hammersø – lake

Person conducting excavation: prof. Bartosz Kontny
Country:
Danmark
Site name: Hammersø Lake, Bornholm
Type of the site:  
Involved institutions:
Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw; Bornholms Museum
Dating: late Middle Ages-modernity

Description of the research: Since 2019 an archaeological team from the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw has been conducting underwater survey in a postglacial Lake Hammersø, in collaboration with the Bornholm Museum in Rønne. The only tarn in the territory of Denmark is located in the Hammeren region, i.e. the northernmost part of Bornholm (55°16′58″N, 14°45′54″E). It is the largest lake on the island, measuring ca. 650×150 metres with the maximum depth of ca. 13 metres. The project revealed certain phenomena from the lake’s past. A few phases of occupation may be singled out, offering a longue durée sequence of habitation in the area, from the Middle Ages until now. The most fascinating are late medieval/early modern episodes. The martial one is documented by the discoveries of several crossbow bolts and an arrowhead. With another, possibly of a ritual character, one may associate a find of a lugged spearhead and possibly also an axe. There are non-military late Medieval finds as well: ring-shaped brooch and a seal stamp. All of them give a promising perspective for combining with the  history of the Hammershus castle – the largest medieval structure of that type in northern Europe – situated ca 1.5 kilometres as the crow flies. The relics of contemporary human water-related activities were also discovered in the basin: three wrecks of tourist plank-boats from the turn of the 20th century, which might be associated with the hotel’s presence, and a number of metal objects; their presence resulted from the stone industry, active until AD 1970. One may add to the list numerous fishing hooks and lures (not collected), proving the twentieth-century fishing – apparently not very intensive.

 

 

Puszcza Augustowska – early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Person conducting excavation: dr hab. Tomasz Nowakiewicz
Country: Poland
Site name:  Augustów Primeval Forest, area of Szczeberka river
Type of the site:
early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Description of the research: The aim of excavation is research of cemeteries of Yatvingian elites from the 12th-13th centuries. Layers with the remains of funeral pyres containing rich burial assemblages were explored. The result of the research provides the best illustration of the material culture of early medieval Yatvingia (vel Sudovia), confirming the meaning of medieval historical sources, which emphasise the wealth and military power of the inhabitants of this land.

 

 

Ciepłe – a settlement complex from the turn of the 10th/11th century in Eastern Pomerania

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: 
Ciepłe, county Tczew, voivodeship pomorskie
Type of the site: 
a complex of sites – three strongholds, two cemeteries and settlements
Involved institutions:
Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The excavations are carried out as a part of  project ‘The early medieval settlement complex at Ciepłe: the Piast dynasty’s key to Eastern Pomerania’, which aim is to investigate the important archaeological site at Ciepłe in Eastern Pomerania, and to learn about the role that it played in incorporating this region into the first Polish state. Until recently Ciepłe was best known for the accidental discovery of an early medieval cemetery where there was a grave of an armed warrior thought to be a Viking. This cemetery is only one part of a vast complex made up of three strongholds, several settlements and two burial grounds. So far, researchers have concentrated on the discoveries made at the cemetery. This is no surprise. New excavations carried out at the cemetery (2004–2014) uncovered further richly furnished graves, which confirmed the remarkable importance of this place.

The settlement complex at Ciepłe is a unique cluster of sites dating from the late 10th/early 11th century. It was probably founded at the end of the 900s by people associated with the first rulers of the Piast dynasty (Mieszko I or Bolesław I the Brave). Gaining supremacy over Eastern Pomerania was one of the steps that helped build a fully formed and strong political structure at the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century. The Piasts were particularly keen to seize this area for economic reasons (it gave them access to trade and control of the River Vistula).

The planned research will be conducted on two levels. A multidisciplinary study of the Ciepłe settlement complex will examine the site at a narrow, regional level. The second, broader-level study will look at the site’s wider importance, and will include several innovative research methods. As well as traditional archaeological procedures, we will be using palaeoenvironmental and bioarchaeological studies (including genetic analysis, and analysis of stable isotopes of strontium, carbon nitrogen and sulfur).

 

Nowy Chorów – cemetery with rectangular mounds

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: 
Nowy Chorów, pow. Słupski, woj. pomorskie
Type of the site: 
barrow cemetery
Involved institutions:
Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The cemetery in Nowy Chorów is located on a small elevation, along the edge of the valley cut by watercourses. Excavations in the necropolis were initiated in 2022. They were preceded by geophysical research, which was carried out using magnetic and electrical resistance methods. In the first two seasons of research, three barrows were examined and protection works were carried out on one barrow, where there is a large robbery pit. The research allowed us to initially determine the chronology for the 11th-12th century.

In fact, most of the burial mounds at the site have a quadrangular shape. Objects of this type are called the Orzeszkowo type. The term comes from the cemetery in Orzeszków in the district of Łobez, examined in 1921-1924. In their classic form, they are found only in Pomerania. Barrows of the Orzeszkowo type are basically four-sided, usually square embankments “closed” with a stone surround. Inside the mound, there are various stone constructions in the form of burial chambers or stone pavements. They are usually the burial place of several people. They are characterized by bi-ritualism – apart from the prevailing inhumation, cremation was also used. The “equipment” of the dead is usually very modest. Although the Orzeszkowo-type graves belong to the more intriguing category of funerary objects, they have not been studied in recent decades. There are 16 mounds at the site. They form two clusters – the larger (Western) consisting of 10 and the smaller (Eastern) with six barrows.

Each of the examined burial mounds is a different funeral story. The goal is to explore a few more embankments. And due to the fact that the last studies of objects of this type took place in the years 1966–1968 – then excavations were carried out in Żydów in the Koszalin district – the research has great scientific and cognitive potential.

 

Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Person conducting excavation: dr. hab. Dobrochna Zielińska
Country: Sudan
Site name: Miseeda, region Mahas,  19°53’1.31″N  30°23’35.49″E
Type of the site: church built around a rock drawing and the surrounding sites
Dating: ca. 6000 BC – 19/20th cent.
www: The site of Miseeda

The “Good Shepherd” of Maseeda. An image in the context of the changing cultural landscape of the Third Cataract of the Nile. – financed by NCN (UMO-2019/35/B/HS3/02440).

Near the modern village of Miseeda in the Sudanese part of Nubia, in the area of ​​the Third Cataract, an isolated church has been preserved, which conceals a rock drawing from the Kushite period (7th century BC – 4th century AD), made at least three hundred years before the region was converted to Christianity. A certain similarity of this image to the depiction of the “Good Shepherd” known in early Christian art became the initiating factor for the entire project.

 

 

The combination of old rock drawings with much younger sacral architecture is an intriguing situation, unique in Nubia. Both the petroglyph and the church are on the spatial border, but they eliminate the border in time, connecting pre-Christian times with the Christian era.

 

 

To understand the reasons and circumstances in which this church was founded, the broader context needs to be studied and understood. Firstly, the spatial context: there are numerous rock carvings in the Third Cataract region. The second context is the period in which the drawing was made, viewed, respected, and perhaps revered. Its meaning must have been transformed between the late Meroitic period and the moment when it became an object of interest for the Christian inhabitants of this region and travelers.

 

Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Miseeda – church and surroundings, Mahas region, Sudan

Person conducting excavation: dr. hab. Dobrochna Zielińska
Country: Sudan
Site name: Miseeda, region Mahas,  19°53’1.31″N  30°23’35.49″E
Type of the site: church built around a rock drawing and the surrounding sites

Dating: ca. 6000 BC – 19/20th cent.

http://miseeda.uw.edu.pl

The “Good Shepherd” of Maseeda. An image in the context of the changing cultural landscape of the Third Cataract of the Nile. – financed by NCN (UMO-2019/35/B/HS3/02440).

Near the modern village of Miseeda in the Sudanese part of Nubia, in the area of ​​the Third Cataract, an isolated church has been preserved, which conceals a rock drawing from the Kushite period (7th century BC – 4th century AD), made at least three hundred years before the region was converted to Christianity. A certain similarity of this image to the depiction of the “Good Shepherd” known in early Christian art became the initiating factor for the entire project.

 

The combination of old rock drawings with much younger sacral architecture is an intriguing situation, unique in Nubia. Both the petroglyph and the church are on the spatial border, but they eliminate the border in time, connecting pre-Christian times with the Christian era.

To understand the reasons and circumstances in which this church was founded, the broader context needs to be studied and understood. Firstly, the spatial context: there are numerous rock carvings in the Third Cataract region. The second context is the period in which the drawing was made, viewed, respected, and perhaps revered. Its meaning must have been transformed between the late Meroitic period and the moment when it became an object of interest for the Christian inhabitants of this region and travelers.