This
site represents a pre-Classic city in highland Guatemala.
William M. Ferguson and Arthur H. Rohn write: "The
very early cultures of the highlands of Guatemala - Abaj
Takalik and El Baul - formed a conduit through which many
of the customs and traditions of the Olmec (800 - 300 B.C.)
and Izapans (300 B.C. - A.D. 150) came to Kaminalijuyú."
Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities (Niwot, Colo.: University
Press of Colorado, 1990), p. 155. Kaminalijuyú is
a site that it now engulfed by modern Guatemala City.
Known
variously as Abaj Takalik or Takalik Abaj, this site received
its name from Susanne Miles, an American who visited in
1965. The name literally means "stopped stones"
or "standing stones," but is sometimes translated
as "large stones" and refers to the many stone
monuments found throughout the site (Zetina Aldana 6). Located
in Southwest Guatemala, 190.5 km from the capitol on Carretera
del Pacífico, this site, now surrounded by coffee
farms, once was a major trading post on the Camino Real
(Schieber de Lavarreda 9). Archeologists believe the site
was inhabited from about 800 BCE to 1524 CE, with its peak
importance coming in the second and third century of the
common era, with a slight resurgence after the decline of
Teotihuacan after 600 CE. This trade center featured stone
canals that brought potable water to the homes of its inhabitants
(Schieber de Lavarreda 6-7).
Sources:
Zetina Aldana, Mario Enrique.; Escobar, Jaime
Gildardo.
Flora y fauna : una visión retrospectiva y contemporánea
en Abaj Takalik. Retalhuleu,
Guatemala, C.A. : Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Dirección
General del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural, Instituto de Antropología
e Historia, Proyecto Nacional Abaj Takalik, 1994.
Schieber de Lavarreda, Christa.; Orrego Corzo, Miguel. Abaj
Takalik. Preface by Richard Adams.
Guatemala, Centro América : Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes,
Proyecto Nacional Abaj Takalik : Editorial Galería Guatemala
: Fundación G&T Continental, 2002.
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