/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/HONDURAS: Pre-Colombian Site Found Among Rubble

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Jul 20 1999 (IPS) - Residents of Morolica were preparing to rebuild their city – destroyed by Hurricane Mitch late last year – when they discovered a surprise: artifacts from an era prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.

Among the city’s rubble, the townspeople found pottery, crystalised stones and pieces of roofing from what they assumed were houses.

Shocked by their discovery, residents requested the help of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) earlier this month. The IHAH sent two experts to the area to begin classifying the pieces found in what is now called “Nueva” (New) Morolica, an isolated city in southern Honduras.

Olga Joya, IHAH director, said that all indications are that “they have discovered a site that dates back to an era prior to Christopher Colombus’s arrival on the continent.”

“The pottery, stones and other tools found there indicate that we are on the verge of finding a lost city,” she added.

Joya reported that they are conducting studies and analysis of the site, while reconstruction of ‘New’ Morolica has been postponed for the time being.

The city was hit hard by Hurricane Mitch in late October 1998. The storm destroyed homes, schools, livestock herds and fields – the facade of the city’s church and a telephone station were the only things left standing.

After the hurricane hit, the town’s residents had to walk five days to find vehicles which took them to the capital, Tegucigalpa for help.

With national and international financing, Morolica residents decided to rebuild the city just metres from its former location. But they never imagined that an archeological discovery would postpone their dreams of having their own houses again.

Local resident Aquilino Martinez said that, even though they are happy to have found the “remnants of what they say is a lost city,” residents are concerned because they do not know what will happen with the housing project, which “we were almost done building.”

“We don’t want to rebuild at another location because this is where we have our lives, our efforts and our memories,” said Martinez. “We want to show nature that even though it erased our town from the map, we are going to build it again,” he declared.

Carmen Fajardo, an anthropologist with IHAH, told IPS that, for now, they are not considering moving Nueva Morolica to another site.

“What we are planning to do is locate the diameter of the archaeological site’s activity in order to fence it in, isolate it and keep it independent from the rest of the new city,” she explained.

Fajardo said “the Morolicans can have their own city and have an archeological site next to them, which may even promote tourism and help the city develop more rapidly.”

“For now, we are conducting the necessary studies and we believe that it is logical to suspend construction of the new Morolica,” she added.

According to Fajardo, Honduras has more than 30 archaeological sites throughout its 12,821 square km, and “this discovery proves that several civilisations converged in this region prior to European presence.”

The artifacts found in Morolica include what appear to be handles, bases and borders of ceramic pots, pieces of stone for grinding grains, and fragments of plates with different levels of quality in their construction.

Oscar Nell Cruz, a Mexican archaeologist who specialises in identifying remnants, said the pieces found correspond to the era prior to the voyages of Colombus, but it will take further study to pinpoint the time period.

He said some objects were for domestic use, and several of the grinding stones were made from volcanic material. He also determined that one of the pieces of crystalised stone is part of a sharp instrument, probably an ax.

The discovery of the Morolica site is among others found in the last six months. The others were located in the northern Valle de Sula, where it is presumed that part of the Lenca civilisation lived, one of the seven indigenous branches that exist in Honduras.

The IHAH anthropologists are also investigating what they call “Ciudad Blanca” (White City) in the northeastern region of Talgua, where residents say the hidden site is protected by nature because it was inhabited by the Mayans who mysteriously disappeared.

For now, the principal archeaological and cultural site in Honduras is the Copan region, in the west, thought to be the birthplace of Mayan civilisation. There, the Rosalila Temple – discovered three years ago – was recently opened to the public.