and technologies of the Zapotitan basin. An unanticipated by-product of the focus on vulcanism was the discovery at Ceren of buildings and fields buried during eruption, preserving fragile organic remains and the relative contextual associations between items. Excavation and analysis of these materials, interrupted by the deepening of civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s, was resumed in the early 1990s.

Contemporary processual archaeology has greatly advanced the goal of establishing basic chronological control (see Sheets 1984). Projects have contributed valuable data on specific sites long noted as important, and they have introduced refined excavation techniques and a variety of specialized technical analyses. But other aspects of archaeology remain undeveloped. A focus on Mesoamerican contacts has limited the amount of attention directed to the eastern part of El Salvador, and data on this region are insufficient to begin to suggest models for interaction with neighboring Central American countries. Even in the better-studied western and central regions of the country, site-centered research and the often unique characteristics of sites limit the interpretation of internal developments.

Salvadoran archaeology continues to suffer from a lack of reliable regional data on settlement for most of the country. In addition to the Zapotitan basin, the Cerron Grande salvage project conducted in the valley of the Lempa River is the only major survey completed to date. The latter project is also notable in that it represents a national initiative following a period during which archaeology was primarily carried out by North Americans. Along with the end of civil war in El Salvador, the development of national archaeological programs may begin to address the existing gaps in Salvadoran archaeology.

Rosemary A. Joyce

See also

Maya Civilization

References

Andrews V.E.W. 1976. The Archaeology of Quelepa, El Salvador. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 42. New Orleans: Tulane University.

Boggs, S.H. 1950. “Archaeological Excavations in El Salvador.” In For the Dean, 259–276. Ed. E.K. Reed and D.S. King. Tucson and Santa Fe: Hohokam Museums Association and Southwestern Monuments Association.

Bruhns, K.O. 1980. Cihautan: An Early Postclassic Town of El Salvador. Monographs in Anthropology, no. 5. Columbia: University of Missouri, Museum of Anthropology.

Demarest, A. 1986. The Archaeology of Santa Leticia and the Rise of Maya Civilization. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 52. New Orleans: Tulane University.

Fowler, W.R. 1989. The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahau Civilizations: The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Haberland, W. 1964. “Marihua Red-on-Buff and the Pipil Question.” Ethos 1–2: 73–86.

Kelley, J. 1988. Cihuatan, El Salvador: A Study in Intrasite Variation. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology, no. 35. Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

Longyear, J. M., III. 1944. Archaeological Investigations in El Salvador. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 9, no. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

———. 1966. “Archaeological Survey of El Salvador.” In Handbook of Middle American Indians, 4:132–156. Ed. R. Wauchope, G. Ekholm, and G. Willey. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Lothrop, S.K. 1927. Pottery Types and Their Sequence in El Salvador. Indian Notes, vol. 1, no. 4. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

———. 1939. “The Southeastern Frontier of the Maya.” American Anthropologist 41: 42–54.

Peccorini, A. 1913. “Algunos datos sobre arqueologia de la Republica del Salvador.” Journal de la Societe des Americanistes de Paris 10: 173–180.

Sharer, R. J., ed. 1978. The Prehistory of Chalchuapa, El Salvador. 3 vols. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Sheets, P., ed. 1983. Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitlan Valley of El Salvador. Austin: University of Texas Press.

———. 1984. “The Prehistory of El Salvador: An Interpretive Summary.” In The Archaeology of Lower Central America, 85–112. Ed. F. Lange and D. Stone. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Spinden, H.J. 1915. “Notes on the Archaeology of El Salvador.” American Anthropologist 17: 446–487.

Elgin, Lord

(1766–1841)

Bruce Thomas Elgin was born into the line of the earls of Elgin and Kincardine in 1766, attended Harrow and Westminster schools, and studied at St Andrew’s University in Scotland, and then in Paris. In 1771 he succeeded as earl on the death of his elder brother, and was a representative peer of Scotland from 1790 to 1807 and from 1820 to 1840.

../images/Elgin1.jpg

Lord Elgin

(Hulton Getty)

Elgin’s career began in the army in 1785; he became major-general in 1809 and general in 1837. He also became a diplomat. In 1790 he was appointed envoy in Brussels, and in 1795 envoy extraordinary in Berlin. But it was through his appointment in 1799 to the embassy of the Ottoman Porte of Constantinople (now Istanbul), that he was to become famous.