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The territory of current Honduras was inhabited by two culturally distinct peoples: the Maya civilization and the Nahua. Although the Mesoamerican influence was the one that remained as the dominant influence in the territory.
The influence of Mesoamerican cultures from the valley and southern Mexico can be observed in the archaeological sites of Yarumela, Tenampua, and Los Naranjos during the late pre-classic period and mid classic period. We can see these influence mainly in the pyramidal structures. The largest in Honduras is the structure 101 of Yarumela, also known as "El Cerrito", which is more than 20 meters high and can be seen from almost anywhere in the valley where the site was located. Copan was also influenced from other regions and cities from the Mayan and Mesoamerican world, like Tikal and Teotihuacan.
This last one having a big influence in the city thanks to the trade routes that extended from the Valley of Mexico to central Honduras to the Lencan region. In the northern part of the country pyramid like structures can still be seen in many mounds built by other cultures such as the Xicaque and Pcultures. After cultural encounter with Mayans, they started to adopt soon a pyramid like style of construction as seen in the archaeological sites of the valley of Sula near the city of San Pedro Sula Cortes. Other archaeological site that has these characteristics is the archaeological site of El Curruste, with many mounds that reach the six to eight meters most of them used for religious ceremonies.
They were driven by the development of a varied agriculture (beans, cocoa, chili, etc.) and had large irrigation systems. In this way, they guaranteed adequate food for their populations within the Mesoamerican area of influence. In the case of the region east of the great transversal depression of Honduras and next to the Caribbean Sea, we have yam or mountain cassava crops along with hunting and fishing that characterize the Circuncaribe cultural influence. They were also growers of fruits native to the continent such as Papaya, Pineapple, Tomato and Avocado. Also playing an important role in your economy.
They also applied techniques of great perfection in textiles and ceramics, many of which were decorated with all kinds of illustrations that represent a human or an animal. They developed an intense, complex, and varied trade of these art. Architecture also founds an important role in these cultures, the most developed in the national territory was the Mayan. In the western national territory you can find ruins of Mayan cities such as Copan and El Puente as examples of this and a number of mounds scattered throughout the territory where they were present.
They reached a high scientific development in mathematics and astronomy; in addition to architecture and sculpture, that employed in the construction of big cities. [1] In addition to engineering and sculpture, which they used in the construction of large cities, even having systems of aqueducts and drains that are still functional .1 The calendar and systems to calculate the movement of stars and planets like Venus is another of their great advances in science. The writing was also quite developed, the Mayan writing had more than two thousand different characters each with one representing a different word, element or phrase.
The economy of these societies was in the agriculture of fruits and vegetables. There is archaeological evidence of changes and trade routes with different towns, such as those in Yarumela, which was a key area for the trade and commercial exchange of merchandise from various cultural areas. It was imported jewels from Guatemala and beans that came from Yucatán Mexico, such as cocoa.
The cultural contact through the trade of these people went from the north of the valley of Mexico to what today comprises Nicaragua and the Caribbean. Important pieces of Jade and metals from archaeological sites in Mayan cities such as Copan Ruinas and El Puente show that they maintained absolute control of trade networks during the classical period. For the Post classic period, the Mayan culture was in decline and had lost its political-military power in Honduras, therefore the Lenca kingdoms maintained contact with some cultures until the arrival of the conquerors.
Most of the religions of the natives belonging to what today comprises the Honduran territory were polytheistic in nature. Many of the deities that various peoples worshiped were hierarchical. In the Mayan area of the country, religion was not far from that of the rest of the indigenous people of this culture, since the same rites were practiced and the same deities were worshiped as in all the area that this culture understood.
The Lenca autochthonous religion was highly influenced by Nahualism, also having hierarchically organized deities. Some of its most important deities were Itanipuca (great earth mother), Ilanguipuca (great sky father), Icelaca (lord of seasons) among others. As for the peoples of circum-Caribbean origin that inhabit the country, each one had their own religion with their own belief system and deities. Some archaeological remains show that these peoples also had representations of their gods either in rock carvings or paintings.
In the northwestern section of Honduras, villages with Tolteca influences predominated, between them the following:
The rest of the Honduran territory is inhabited by villages from the south of the continent, with a nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures, governed by relations of communal production.
Between these villages found the following:
Into this group, falls the majority of the population of the country. [3]
The largest population is the Lencas who, when the Spanish arrived, were the most widespread and organised of the groups of the country.
They lived in populations of considerable size, with an average of 350 houses and much more of 500 people. [4] Although scientific controversies exist on the descendants and origin of the Lencas, of agreement to Rodolfo Baron Castro, are the direct rests heirs of the Mayas, that did not follow the exodus that gave end to the Ancient Empire. At the arrival of the Spaniards, they were established in the territory that today comprises the Republics of El Salvador and Honduras." [5] However, other theories maintain that this group is much older, possibly being a descendant of Olemecs, thanks to the archaeological evidence of Los Naranjois, which were confirmed to be built by ancestors of this culture.
The Maya area consists of what in our days are the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. [6] [ unreliable source? ]
The Maya flowered in these countries in the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era. [7] Causes unknown to this day, caused the abandonment and destruction of Copán and other Mayan cities, that in the period of the Spanish conquest were no longer more than ruins. Hunger, plagues, internal wars have been proposed as causes of the abandonment. [8]
This period of national history came to an end in 1524. After the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521 with the victory of Hernán Cortés and his allies, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to arrive in Honduras for conquest purposes. Which had to face a huge, violent and well organized indigenous resistance.
Then Cortes, moved by the reports he had received on the great wealth found in those territories, gave authorization to send two expeditions, one for more and the other for land. The first was entrusted to Pedro de Alvarado and the second to Cristóbal de Olid, the latter, betrayed him. For this reason, Cortés left Mexico to capture and execute him for his actions. During the two years of the conqueror's stay, he introduced the cattle and fruits from Spain. He founded the town of Natividad near Puerto Horses and appointed Hernando de Saavedra, Governor of Honduras and left instructions to treat the indigenous people well, allowing some of them to keep their lands and properties.
Honduras was inhabited by many indigenous peoples when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas, the central north coast by the Tol, the area east and west of Trujillo by the Pech, the Maya and Sumo. These autonomous groups traded with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico. Honduras has ruins of several cities dating from the Mesoamerican pre-classic period that show the pre-Columbian past of the country.
Copán is one of the departments in the western part of Honduras. The departmental capital is the town of Santa Rosa de Copán. The department is well known for its tobacco and fine cigars.
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian ; the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE – 250 CE), the Classic (250–900 CE), and the Postclassic (900–1521 CE); as well as the post European contact Colonial Period (1521–1821), and Postcolonial, or the period after independence from Spain (1821–present).
The wealth of cultural expression in Honduras owes its origins primarily to being a part of Latin America but also to the multi-ethnic nature of the country. The population comprises 90% Mestizo, 7% Amerindian, 2% Black, and 1% Caucasian. This influences all facets of the culture: customs, practices, ways of dressing, religion, rituals, codes of behavior and belief systems.
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and seven major language families. Mesoamerica is also an area of high linguistic diffusion in that long-term interaction among speakers of different languages through several millennia has resulted in the convergence of certain linguistic traits across disparate language families. The Mesoamerican sprachbund is commonly referred to as the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.
The culture of El Salvador is a Central American culture nation influenced by the clash of ancient Mesoamerica and medieval Iberian Peninsula. Salvadoran culture is influenced by Native American culture as well as Latin American culture. Mestizo culture and the Catholic Church dominates the country. Although the Romance language, Castilian Spanish, is the official and dominant language spoken in El Salvador, Salvadoran Spanish which is part of Central American Spanish has influences of Native American languages of El Salvador such as Lencan languages, Cacaopera language, Mayan languages and Pipil language, which are still spoken in some regions of El Salvador.
The Lenca, also known as Lepa Wiran, meaning “Jaguar People” or “People of The Jaguar” are an Indigenous people from present day southwest Honduras and eastern El Salvador in Central America. They historically spoke various dialects of the Lencan languages such as Chilanga, Putun (Potón), and Kotik, but today are native speakers of Spanish. In Honduras, the Lenca are the largest tribal group, with an estimated population of more than 450,000.
Mesoamerican pyramids form a prominent part of ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Although similar in some ways to Egyptian pyramids, these New World structures have flat tops and stairs ascending their faces, more similar to ancient Mesopotamian Ziggurats. The largest pyramid in the world by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the east-central Mexican state of Puebla. The builders of certain classic Mesoamerican pyramids have decorated them copiously with stories about the Hero Twins, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, Mesoamerican creation myths, ritualistic sacrifice, etc. written in the form of Maya script on the rises of the steps of the pyramids, on the walls, and on the sculptures contained within.
Cuzcatlan was a pre-Columbian Nahua state confederation of the Mesoamerican postclassical period that extended from the Paz river to the Lempa river ; this was the nation that Spanish chroniclers came to call the Pipils or Cuzcatlecos. No codices survive that shed light on this confederation except the Annals of the Cakchiquels, although Spanish chroniclers such as Domingo Juarros, Palaces, Lozano, and others claim that some codices did exist but have since disappeared. Their Nawat language, art and temples revealed that they had significant Mayan and Toltec influence from the ties they had with the Itza in Yucatan. It is believed that the first settlers to arrive came from the Toltec people in central Mexico, mostly Puebla during the Chichimeca-Toltec civil wars in the 10th century AD.
El Puente, or the Parque Arqueológico El Puente, is a Maya archaeological site in the department of Copán in Honduras. Once an independent Maya city, the city of El Puente became a tributary to the nearby city of Copán between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. The site contains more than 200 structures that include tombs, religious structures, and living quarters, but only a few have been excavated, including a large Maya step pyramid.
Salvadorans, also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smaller communities in other countries around the world.
Hondurans are the citizens of Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States, Spain, and many smaller communities in other countries around the world.
Talgua Cave is a cave located in the Olancho Valley in the municipality of Catacamas in northeastern Honduras. The misnomer “The Cave of the Glowing Skulls” was given to the cave because of the way that light reflects off of the calcite deposits found on the skeletal remains found there. The site has gained the interest of archaeologists studying cave burials of Central America and of Mesoamerica as one of the most extensive Early to Middle Pre-Classic ossuary cave sites currently known to have been in contact with the Maya societies of nearby Mesoamerica. It provides many valuable clues to how the inhabitants of the Talgua Cave may have been an important link between Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and parts further south and east in Central America and extending into those societies in northern South America, a region known as the Isthmo-Colombian Area.
Honduras has been inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, the most powerful of which, until the ninth century CE, were the Maya. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lenca while other indigenous peoples settled in the northeast and coastal regions. These peoples had their conflicts but maintained commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico.
Los Naranjos is the name for an archaeological region in western Honduras. It lies on the north border of Lake Yojoa. It is significant to the region because of its implications on determining where the Mayan frontier existed, as well as which ancient peoples were in contact and what relations between "tribes" may have been like. Whether or not the Olmec influenced the people of the Lake Yojoa region is disputed.
Yarumela also known as El Chircal, is one of the archeological sites located in Honduras and based around the Middle Formative era in Mesoamerican history, occupied between 1000 BC and AD 250 by the ancestors of the Lencan culture also known as the Proto-lencan people. During its heyday at the end of the Preclassic mesoamerican period was a popular trade center, especially for precious commodities.
Honduras is a touristic destination that attracts visitors due to its natural environment, white and dark sand beaches, coral reefs, abundant flora and fauna, colonial era towns, and archaeological sites. Other attractions include the area's customs and traditional foods. In 2019 Honduras received 2.8 million foreigners, half of those tourists are cruise passengers.
Honduras has rich folk traditions that derive from the fusion of four different cultural groups: indigenous, European, African and Creole. Each department or region, municipality, village and even hamlet contributes its own traditions including costumes, music, beliefs, stories, and all the elements that derive from and are transformed by peoples in a population. In sum, these define Honduran Folklore as expressed by crafts, tales, legends, music and dances.
The Spanish conquest of El Salvador was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Central American country of El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and is dominated by two mountain ranges running east–west. Its climate is tropical, and the year is divided into wet and dry seasons. Before the conquest the country formed a part of the Mesoamerican cultural region, and was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, including the Pipil, the Lenca, the Xinca, and Maya. Native weaponry consisted of spears, bows and arrows, and wooden swords with inset stone blades; they wore padded cotton armour.
Lenca mythology is the set of religious and mythological beliefs of the Lenca people from Honduras and El Salvador, before and after the conquest of America. Little of these beliefs have been documented, due to colonization and the adoption of the Catholic faith after the 16th century.
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