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Five expressive ceramic figurines have been discovered atop a large pyramidal structure at Preclassic San Isidro, El Salvador.
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Their movable heads and positioning suggest they were a kind of puppet, used in ritual scenes or ‘tableaus’.
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Similarities with examples from other Central American countries imply interaction and shared ritual traditions across this vast region.
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This contradicts the commonly-held belief that El Salvador was culturally isolated from the rest of Central America.
Five figurines from the San Isidro deposit. Scale in centimetres (credit: J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI)
Continue reading “Pre-Columbian ‘Puppets’ indicate ritual connections across Central America”