Human remains from 850 BC found underneath volcanic ash in El Salvador

Archaeologists in El Salvador exhumed human remains believed to be nearly 3,000 years old on Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture said.

The remains were first uncovered on July 2 in a burial site at Antiguo Cuscatlan, a suburb of San Salvador, and are estimated to date back to around 850 BC, according to the ministry, which also released images of the site.

The burial pit contained a small Usulutan-style ceramic vessel shaped like a sea turtle, as well as remnants of cassava branches preserved beneath layers of volcanic ash deposited over different periods.

The remains were found face down and will undergo radiocarbon dating to determine their age. DNA analysis will also be carried out to determine the person’s sex.

“This find could become one of the oldest pre-Hispanic burials in Mesoamerica and would provide new information about the populations that inhabited this region more than two thousand years ago,” the ministry said in a social media post along with a video of archaeologists working at the site.

According to the ministry, the site may contain burials similar to those uncovered at the Chalchuapa archaeological site in western El Salvador, where archaeologists unearthed the remains of 33 people in the 1970s.

That discovery included 26 complete skeletons, four partial skeletons and three isolated skulls. Many were found face down with their hands and feet bound, while others showed signs of mutilation or decapitation.

Last year, archaeologists said they discovered an ancient altar in a jungle in Guatemala that was apparently used for human sacrifices, “especially of children.”

In 2015, scientists in Brazil announced they discovered evidence of human decapitation that dates back to over 9,000 years, making it the oldest case ever seen in the New World.