Puerto Escondido is a multicomponent archaeological site located on the Ulúa River near the Caribbean coast of northwestern Honduras. The site has 3.5 meters of sediment resulting from regular riverine flooding events, which has preserved several occupation layers dated between about 1600 BC and 450 AD. Puerto Escondido has essentially continuous occupations of Archaic, Early Formative, and Middle Formative occupations: yet each is separated by natural forces, making it a very important site indeed. Puerto Escondido also has the earliest known archaeological evidence for the use and likely domestication of cacao to date, at circa 1150 BC.
The surface of the site prior to excavation consisted of four extensive, low earthen mounds. These mounds and about 1 meter of fill, including Late and Terminal Classic period occupations, were destroyed by a housing project prior to the identification and excavation of the site.
Occupations at Puerto Escondido
The earliest occupations at Puerto Escondido date before 1600 BC, and are represented by obsidian flakes and bone and shell fragments from short-term visits by hunter-gatherers. Between 1600 and 1400 BC, people were living at Puerto Escondido in perishable structures and making pottery: some of the earliest pottery known in Mesoamerica. The pottery is finely made, thin-walled vessels reminiscent of the earliest phase of the pottery of Soconusco, the Pacific coastal regions of Mexico and Guatemala.
About 1400 BC, a distinctive shift apparently resulted from a deepening trade connection with the Soconusco coast. About 1150 BC, the first evidence for cacao (chocolate) consumption occurs, as a residue of the chemical Theobromine recovered by archaeologists within the ceramic walls of a spout from a bottle.
Between 1100 and 900 BC, the suite of vessel forms and decoration techniques changes radically, with a new clay mixture and firing technology, including black, grey or black and tan zoned finishes and deeply carved designs. This shift represents the incorporation of Puerto Escondido into the Olmec Interaction Sphere; however, the pots are locally made. By 900 BC, new bottle forms appear at Puerto Escondido, similar to those found at sites in Belize such as Colha. These bottles, called Playa de los Muertos, are known to represent the more elaborate cacao consumption methods.
The importance of Puerto Escondido lies in its stratigraphic integrity, and the fact that it represents a continuous occupation throughout the great changes in Mesoamerican society during the Formative period.
Sources
This site description is part of the Guide to the Maya Civilization and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Henderson, John S., et al. 2007 Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(48):18937-18940
Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2007 From Feasting to Cuisine: Implications of Archaeological Research in an Early Honduran Village. American Anthropologist 109(4):642–653.
Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2001 Beginnings of Village Life in Eastern Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity 12(1):5-23.
