**2. From the bulldozer cut to UNESCO world heritage**

As a beginning graduate student in archeology in 1969, I was intrigued by finding a white volcanic ash layer between pyramid construction phases at Chalchuapa, El Salvador [1]. After almost a decade of archeological and volcanological research it became clear that tephra was from a colossal eruption, the source was Ilopango volcano, and we named it the "Tierra Blanca Joven" tephra, meaning the young white earth [1]. During archeological survey in central and western El Salvador, I found that same tephra layer underlying and overlying cultural features, including agricultural fields, artifact-bearing soils, and various ancient constructions [1]. Project members appreciated the graciousness and generosity of Salvadorans, particularly the rural poor, and we vowed to search for something special to give back to them, and to Salvadorans in general. Surveying near the town of Joya de Cerén, in 1978, in a bulldozer cut I discovered that same Ilopango tephra underlying the floor of a house, with some five meters of tephra burying the house [1]. Radiocarbon dating the thatch proved the house was about 1400 years old [2], and finding ceramic vessels full of beans in perfect preservation in spite of the hot moist tropical environment made me think I may be seeing the rest of my professional life at the site. That is precisely what happened in the decades since that discovery. The extraordinary preservation of the village and the landscape by the Loma Caldera tephra in the mid-seventh century provides the first clear window into ancient Maya village life of commoners. The exceptional preservation even included plants, allowing the reconstruction of "plantscapes" within the community [4]. Although commoners constituted more than 90% of ancient Maya populations, not much has been known about them, when compared to Maya elites. The notable accomplishments of Maya elites has been the focus of research for the past two centuries, emphasizing their

**365**

**Figure 1.**

*Map of the ancient Maya village.*

*From a Bulldozer Cut to a World Heritage Site DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93624*

got home from their fieldwork.

country.

architecture, writing, astronomy, art style, dynastic succession, history, and other domains of impressive accomplishment. Based upon our research discoveries during the 1980s and early 1990s, I nominated it for inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage list, and it was accepted in 1993. Salvadorans are justifiably proud to have it, and many claim it is the most important cultural feature in the

I named the site Cerén, or Joya de Cerén, after the nearby present-day village. The villagers are justifiably proud of the association, and many are employed as guides in the park, architectural conservators, maintenance workers, and as excava-

Almost all seasons of fieldwork, for surveys and excavations, have included volcanologists with archeologists and other specialists, supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation. Integrating the specialists from different disciplines within the fieldwork has resulted in much better understanding of what happened 1400 years ago, than archeologists consulting with specialists after they

The white tephra underlying the Cerén site is from the cataclysmic eruption of Ilopango volcano, probably in AD 539 [5], which depopulated most of El Salvador, and contributed to the mid-sixth century worldwide climatic crisis [5]. After a few decades of weathering, and floral and faunal recovery, a few Maya families immigrated and founded the village of Cerén on the left bank of the Rio Sucio. Although the village was occupied for only about three generations before the Loma Caldera eruption, they adapted to the environment with sophisticated agriculture, built earthquake-resistant household structures and intriguing special buildings, and maintained lifestyles largely separate from elite influence. A few decades after the Ilopango eruption, the village was deeply buried by tephra from nearby Loma

tors when I am conducting research at the site (**Figure 1**).

Caldera volcano, the focus of the following section.

**2.1 Results of integrated volcanological-archeological research**

### *From a Bulldozer Cut to a World Heritage Site DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93624*

*Updates in Volcanology – Transdisciplinary Nature of Volcano Science*

window into the vitality of Maya commoner life.

active fault, as the next eruption is coming at an unknown time.

**2. From the bulldozer cut to UNESCO world heritage**

named Joya de Cerén, been abandoned in the usual fashion, we would never have been able to learn such details about the high quality of lives lived there. The usual abandonment of wattle-and-daub structures has people taking their most valued artifacts to their new location. Other people remaining in the area take items that are useful to them. And, when the thatch roof fails, the rains, sun, and wind reduce the buildings to low mounds. The greatly impoverished record available to archeologists limits the knowledge that can be gained from excavation and

An overview of volcanism in central El Salvador was provided by Lexa et al. [2]. What makes Joya de Cerén unique is the nature of the Loma Caldera eruption that buried it in the mid-seventh century [1]. That volcanic vent opened up less than a kilometer away, and buried the village under some 5 m of tephra [1]. An earthquake preceded the tephra emplacement, and presumably the loud noise of the eruption beginning, gave warning to the residents. They literally "headed south" as evidenced by human footprints. The alterations of phreatomagmatic and magmatic phases of the eruption preserved the buildings, foods stored, crops in gardens and fields, and the landscape to an extraordinary degree. The site provides the first clear

Our publications in Spanish (e.g. [3]) were accessed by high school students and their teachers in the area, and they regularly make public presentations depicting village life before the eruption, recognizing the danger signals, and fleeing the village. These performances provide effective training to families living along this

As a beginning graduate student in archeology in 1969, I was intrigued by finding a white volcanic ash layer between pyramid construction phases at Chalchuapa, El Salvador [1]. After almost a decade of archeological and volcanological research it became clear that tephra was from a colossal eruption, the source was Ilopango volcano, and we named it the "Tierra Blanca Joven" tephra, meaning the young white earth [1]. During archeological survey in central and western El Salvador, I found that same tephra layer underlying and overlying cultural features, including agricultural fields, artifact-bearing soils, and various ancient constructions [1]. Project members appreciated the graciousness and generosity of Salvadorans, particularly the rural poor, and we vowed to search for something special to give back to them, and to Salvadorans in general. Surveying near the town of Joya de Cerén, in 1978, in a bulldozer cut I discovered that same Ilopango tephra underlying the floor of a house, with some five meters of tephra burying the house [1]. Radiocarbon dating the thatch proved the house was about 1400 years old [2], and finding ceramic vessels full of beans in perfect preservation in spite of the hot moist tropical environment made me think I may be seeing the rest of my professional life at the site. That is precisely what happened in the decades since that discovery. The extraordinary preservation of the village and the landscape by the Loma Caldera tephra in the mid-seventh century provides the first clear window into ancient Maya village life of commoners. The exceptional preservation even included plants, allowing the reconstruction of "plantscapes" within the community [4]. Although commoners constituted more than 90% of ancient Maya populations, not much has been known about them, when compared to Maya elites. The notable accomplishments of Maya elites has been the focus of research for the past two centuries, emphasizing their

**364**

analysis.

architecture, writing, astronomy, art style, dynastic succession, history, and other domains of impressive accomplishment. Based upon our research discoveries during the 1980s and early 1990s, I nominated it for inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage list, and it was accepted in 1993. Salvadorans are justifiably proud to have it, and many claim it is the most important cultural feature in the country.

I named the site Cerén, or Joya de Cerén, after the nearby present-day village. The villagers are justifiably proud of the association, and many are employed as guides in the park, architectural conservators, maintenance workers, and as excavators when I am conducting research at the site (**Figure 1**).

## **2.1 Results of integrated volcanological-archeological research**

Almost all seasons of fieldwork, for surveys and excavations, have included volcanologists with archeologists and other specialists, supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation. Integrating the specialists from different disciplines within the fieldwork has resulted in much better understanding of what happened 1400 years ago, than archeologists consulting with specialists after they got home from their fieldwork.

The white tephra underlying the Cerén site is from the cataclysmic eruption of Ilopango volcano, probably in AD 539 [5], which depopulated most of El Salvador, and contributed to the mid-sixth century worldwide climatic crisis [5]. After a few decades of weathering, and floral and faunal recovery, a few Maya families immigrated and founded the village of Cerén on the left bank of the Rio Sucio. Although the village was occupied for only about three generations before the Loma Caldera eruption, they adapted to the environment with sophisticated agriculture, built earthquake-resistant household structures and intriguing special buildings, and maintained lifestyles largely separate from elite influence. A few decades after the Ilopango eruption, the village was deeply buried by tephra from nearby Loma Caldera volcano, the focus of the following section.

**Figure 1.** *Map of the ancient Maya village.*

## *2.1.1 The Loma caldera eruption, and the burial of the Cerén village*

The Loma Caldera vent is only 600 m north of the village, along the manykilometers-long fissure that runs from north of it all the way southeast to San Salvador volcano [6]. Many hydromagmatic and explosive eruptions occurred along the fissure in centuries before Loma Caldera, and two occurred after Loma Caldera, less than 2 km distant, and one other (El Playon) in 1658, 4 km away. The social implications of these frequent eruptions are considered in a later section, below.

The eruption was preceded by seismic activity [6], including an earthquake of about 4 on the Richter scale, as we judge from a round-bottomed pot not falling off a broad flat walltop of Structure 3, and tiny fissures and subsidence in the immediate pre-eruption ground surface. The eruption began with a pyroclastic surge generated by an energetic explosive hydromagmatic eruption, followed by a drier phase of hot blocks (lava bombs) and lapilli falling. That alternation occurred at least 14 more times, taking hours, deeply burying the village of a few hundred residents. The tephra thins rapidly with distance from the source, with only about 4 square km buried deeper than a meter. Inhabited areas farther away would have received only a dusting. Because no human remains have been found to date in the village, the precursors, including the deafening sound from the north, may have been sufficient for people to evacuate (**Figure 2**).

The first tephra to arrive in the village, Unit 1 [6], was a fine-grained and moist pyroclastic surge that traveled at 100 km/hour, or faster [6]. It plastered around buildings and their roofs, and the mature corn plants and other cultigens in gardens and fields. The tephra temperature was approximately 100°C from magma in contact with water from the Rio Sucio. Unit 2 was from a dry phase, composed of blocks and lapilli fall. The larger juvenile clasts followed ballistic trajectories, landing with temperatures above 575°C. They penetrated the thatch roofs of all structures, and caught the thatch on fire on the underside, and the wooden roofsupport framework. The top of the roofs did not burn because Unit 1 coated them. Because only the bottommost zone of the thatch burned, very little time elapsed between the fires starting, and Unit 3's arrival. Unit 3 is a much thicker deposit of largely pyroclastic surges, with abundant accretionary lapilli, and occasional ballistic blocks. Because it was often some 75 cm thick, its weight collapsed most roofs and snuffed the fires.

From the volcanological point of view, Units 1–3 were highly destructive to the village by collapsing all roofs, collapsing many walls, and of course creating an emergency and a natural disaster for inhabitants. Dan Miller's chapter [6] is representative of various volcanologists' considerations of the eruption's deleterious effects on the village, emphasizing the destructiveness on buildings. The emphasis is the natural disaster. The subsequent Units alternated with pyroclastic surges and dry lapilli falls until some 5 m buried the village. The archeological perspective was totally different from the volcanological, because the tephra nature and sequence were spectacularly successful in preserving the village in its cultural and natural landscape. All elements of the structures were preserved and were fully reconstructable to their condition and use right before the eruption. Units 1 and 3 preserved plants in the kitchen garden of Household 1, and the maize plants in fields. Ceramic vessels in households contained a wide variety of foods, preserved in original conditions, in spite of being in a tropical wet environment for 1400 years. A following section details what we learned about life in an ancient Maya village of commoners, that could not have been learned if the eruption did not occur and bury the site, after we consider the usual preservation of ancient households and their villages.

**367**

**Figure 2.**

*From a Bulldozer Cut to a World Heritage Site DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93624*

*2.1.2 Maya households and villages in the archeological record*

In almost all cases, when people abandon their households, they take with them the most valuable and transportable artifacts. Then people still in the area scour the structures for still useful artifacts, and take structural elements away for their own purposes. When the thatch roofs disintegrate, the rains, sun, and wind reduce the wattle-and-daub walls to a small mound of dirt with some mixed broken artifacts. The cultural and natural factors immensely degrade the condition of the site, thus limiting the understanding that can be gleaned from excavations and analyses. The remains can be dated, approximately, by comparing artifacts such as ceramic sherds with other dated remains from other sites. Occasionally radiocarbon, obsidian hydration, or other quantitative dating can be done, but are done only rarely on

*Structure 4, the storehouse for household 4, buried under 5 m of volcanic ash from Loma caldera volcanic vent, looking north. All walls withstood the forces of the eruption, except the southern wall, that fell to the south.*

*From a Bulldozer Cut to a World Heritage Site DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93624*

*Updates in Volcanology – Transdisciplinary Nature of Volcano Science*

been sufficient for people to evacuate (**Figure 2**).

*2.1.1 The Loma caldera eruption, and the burial of the Cerén village*

The Loma Caldera vent is only 600 m north of the village, along the manykilometers-long fissure that runs from north of it all the way southeast to San Salvador volcano [6]. Many hydromagmatic and explosive eruptions occurred along the fissure in centuries before Loma Caldera, and two occurred after Loma Caldera, less than 2 km distant, and one other (El Playon) in 1658, 4 km away. The social implications of these frequent eruptions are considered in a later section, below. The eruption was preceded by seismic activity [6], including an earthquake of about 4 on the Richter scale, as we judge from a round-bottomed pot not falling off a broad flat walltop of Structure 3, and tiny fissures and subsidence in the immediate pre-eruption ground surface. The eruption began with a pyroclastic surge generated by an energetic explosive hydromagmatic eruption, followed by a drier phase of hot blocks (lava bombs) and lapilli falling. That alternation occurred at least 14 more times, taking hours, deeply burying the village of a few hundred residents. The tephra thins rapidly with distance from the source, with only about 4 square km buried deeper than a meter. Inhabited areas farther away would have received only a dusting. Because no human remains have been found to date in the village, the precursors, including the deafening sound from the north, may have

The first tephra to arrive in the village, Unit 1 [6], was a fine-grained and moist pyroclastic surge that traveled at 100 km/hour, or faster [6]. It plastered around buildings and their roofs, and the mature corn plants and other cultigens in gardens and fields. The tephra temperature was approximately 100°C from magma in contact with water from the Rio Sucio. Unit 2 was from a dry phase, composed of blocks and lapilli fall. The larger juvenile clasts followed ballistic trajectories, landing with temperatures above 575°C. They penetrated the thatch roofs of all structures, and caught the thatch on fire on the underside, and the wooden roofsupport framework. The top of the roofs did not burn because Unit 1 coated them. Because only the bottommost zone of the thatch burned, very little time elapsed between the fires starting, and Unit 3's arrival. Unit 3 is a much thicker deposit of largely pyroclastic surges, with abundant accretionary lapilli, and occasional ballistic blocks. Because it was often some 75 cm thick, its weight collapsed most roofs

From the volcanological point of view, Units 1–3 were highly destructive to the village by collapsing all roofs, collapsing many walls, and of course creating an emergency and a natural disaster for inhabitants. Dan Miller's chapter [6] is representative of various volcanologists' considerations of the eruption's deleterious effects on the village, emphasizing the destructiveness on buildings. The emphasis is the natural disaster. The subsequent Units alternated with pyroclastic surges and dry lapilli falls until some 5 m buried the village. The archeological perspective was totally different from the volcanological, because the tephra nature and sequence were spectacularly successful in preserving the village in its cultural and natural landscape. All elements of the structures were preserved and were fully reconstructable to their condition and use right before the eruption. Units 1 and 3 preserved plants in the kitchen garden of Household 1, and the maize plants in fields. Ceramic vessels in households contained a wide variety of foods, preserved in original conditions, in spite of being in a tropical wet environment for 1400 years. A following section details what we learned about life in an ancient Maya village of commoners, that could not have been learned if the eruption did not occur and bury the site, after we consider the usual preservation of ancient

**366**

and snuffed the fires.

households and their villages.

### **Figure 2.**

*Structure 4, the storehouse for household 4, buried under 5 m of volcanic ash from Loma caldera volcanic vent, looking north. All walls withstood the forces of the eruption, except the southern wall, that fell to the south.*
