2,400-year-old puppets with dramatic expressions found atop pyramid in El Salvador
The rare clay figurines, featuring four female figures and one male, are around 2,400 years old and are believed to have played a role in public rituals reenacting both mythical and real events.
According to Jan Szymański, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw and lead author of the study, the puppets were initially thought to be burial offerings, but the lack of human remains at the site suggested otherwise.
"One of the most striking features of the puppets is their dramatic facial expression, which changes depending on the angle that we look at them from," Szymański said, highlighting the puppets appear angry at eye level, grinning from above, and scared from below. "This is a conscious design, perhaps meant to enhance the gamut of ritual performances the puppets could have been used in."
While three of the puppets are nearly a foot tall, the other two are much smaller, measuring just 0.6 and 0.3 feet. Additionally, the bigger figurines are entirely bare with no hair or jewelry. On the other hand, the smaller ones are more detailed, featuring locks of hair on their foreheads and earspool in their lobes.
All of the figurines had open mouths—some even showing visible tongues—while the three largest had detachable heads with small holes in their necks and tops. The discovery also included figurine fragments scattered across the site.
Szymański observed that threading a string through these holes would allow the heads to move side to side, creating the illusion of singing, chanting, or speaking- suggesting they may have functioned as ancient marionette-style puppets.
While it's uncertain if the figurines depict real people, researchers believe they were designed for theatrical scenes or tableaus, bringing stories and messages to life. The archaeologists opine the smallest figurine's upper half, which fits into a hollow torso, may have been part of a birth reenactment scene.
The rare discovery marks only the second time researchers have found ceramic figurines of this kind in their original location, and the first to include a male figure. In 2012, archaeologists uncovered six broken but complete female figurines at a burial site in Guatemala's western highlands from the Middle Preclassic period.
The resemblance between the newly discovered figurines and to those found in Guatemala suggests a shared tradition and connections among the region's elites. This is especially significant given that many of El Salvador's artifacts were lost or buried when the Ilopango volcano erupted between 400 and 500 AD, wiping out all life within a 25-mile radius.
Due to the volcano's devastation and the present day's dense population limiting excavations, little is known about the identities of those who built ancient settlements before European arrival in the 16th century. However, the current find shows that ancient Salvadoran communities were not isolated.
"This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador's cultural backwardness or isolation in the ancient times," concluded Szymański. "It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places."
The research has been published in the journal Antiquity.
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