View source for La Blanca, San Marcos (archaeological site)

[[Image:SE Mesoamerican Formative Period sites.svg|thumb|right|350px|La Blanca and other Formative Period sites, as of approximately 900 BC.]]
'''La Blanca''' is a [[pre-Columbian]] [[Mesoamerica]]n archaeological site in present-day [[La Blanca, San Marcos (municipality)|La Blanca]], [[San Marcos Department]], western [[Guatemala]].  It has an occupation dating predominantly from the Middle Preclassic (900&ndash;600 BC) period of [[Mesoamerican chronology]]. This site belongs to the later period of the [[Mokaya culture]].
A minor archeological site nearby is Salinas La Blanca at the mouth of the [[Río Naranjo (Guatemala)|Río Naranjo]].
==The site==
At its peak, this was one of the largest known Mesoamerican sites of that era. It is located on the western Pacific coast, where it rose to become the major regional center following the decline of an earlier [[polity]] at [[Mazatan, Chiapas#Ojo de Agua|Ojo de Agua]], [[Chiapas]].
La Blanca's regional dominance appears to have lasted approximately three centuries, until it was eclipsed by [[Ujuxte]], 13&nbsp;km east. This 300-year period is defined as belonging to the ''Conchas phase''. The site covered over 200ha at its peak and boasted some of the earliest monumental architecture in Mesoamerica.
==Mound 1==
The site had the highest [[Mesoamerican pyramid|pyramid]] in the Pacific Lowlands at 25 meters high (Mound 1). It was built c. 900 BC, and was one of the first pyramidal temples in Mesoamerica, measuring 150 x 90m at its base.<ref>Love et al. 2005</ref>
==Monument 3==
[[File:Lablanca15.jpg|thumb|Basin-like quatrefoil sculpture at La Blanca (Monument 3). Diameter 2.1m]]
Monument 3 was discovered in La Blanca Mound 9, in a residential zone thought to be largely or completely elite. Excavations of the mound initially revealed domestic features such as floors, burials.
Monument 3 is unique in [[Mesoamerican]] [[archaeology]]. Found on the western slope of the mound, it consists of a [[sculpture]] in the shape of a [[quatrefoil]]. It was formed of rammed earth, or sandy loam. The rammed earth was then coated with dark brown (nearly black) clay. The inner rim of the sculpture was painted with [[hematite]] red. The monument is 2.1 m in diameter
The La Blanca quatrefoil has a channel within the rim that probably carried water to the interior basin. The initial hypothesis is that the sculpture functioned as a locus of ritual in which water, or notions of fertility, were invoked. Such an idea is consistent with the quatrefoil shape, which in the Classic period [[iconography]] symbolizes a watery portal to the supernatural realm. Dating to approximately 850 B.C., the La Blanca [[sculpture]] appears to be the earliest example of a quatrefoil known in [[Mesoamerica]].<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0003598X00096009| title = Monument 3 from La Blanca, Guatemala: A Middle Preclassic earthen sculpture and its ritual associations| journal = Antiquity| volume = 81| issue = 314| pages = 920–932| year = 2007| last1 = Love | first1 = M. | last2 = Guernsey | first2 = J. | url = https://www.academia.edu/10688677/}}</ref>
The inclination of the external rings, the presence of the channel, as well as the concavity of the basin all suggest that Monument 3 was meant to contain liquid. Fluid would flow into the centre of the basin.
The use of water-filled basins in Preclassic-period Oaxaca provides a useful parallel, because such rituals were employed in rites of [[divination]].<ref>MARCUS, J. 1999. Men's and women's ritual in Formative Oaxaca, in D.C. Grove & R.A. Joyce (ed.) Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica: 67-96. Washington (D.C.): Dumbarton Oaks.</ref>
==La Blanca figurines==
Abundance of hand-modeled ceramic figurines have been found at La Blanca.
A series of figurines from La Blanca bear the puffy facial features associated with the [[Potbelly sculpture]] tradition, as well as with the massive heads of the [[Monte Alto culture]].
Some of the figurines have facial features that anticipate those of the Monte Alto heads and potbellies, including the closed eyes with puffy lids and swollen cheeks.<ref>Julia Guernsey, [https://www.academia.edu/10672426/ ''Rulers, Gods, and Potbellies: A Consideration of Sculptural Forms and themes from the Preclassic Pacific Coast and Piedmont of Mesoamerica.''] in: The Place of Stone Monuments: Context, Use, and Meaning in Mesoamerica's Preclassic Transition, eds. Julia Guernsey, John E. Clark, and Barbara Arroyo. Dumbarton Oaks. 2010.</ref>
==Notes==
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==References==
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* {{cite book |author=Coe, Michael D.  |author-link=Michael D. Coe |year=1961 |title=La Victoria: An Early Formative site on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala |series=Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 53 |location=Cambridge MA |publisher=[[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology]], Harvard University |oclc=3020676}}
* {{cite web |author=Love,  Michael  |author2=Julia Guernsey |year=2005 |title=The Context and Associations of Monument 3 from La Blanca, Guatemala |url=http://www.famsi.org/reports/05051/index.html |work=The Foundation Granting Department: Reports Submitted to FAMSI |publisher=Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI) |access-date=2007-02-12}}
* {{cite conference |author=Neff, Hector  |year=2005 |title=Buscando las fábricas del Plomizo: Exploraciones geofísicas en el área de La Blanca, Costa Sur de Guatemala |url=http://www.famsi.org/reports/03101es/100neff/100neff.pdf |format=[[PDF]] |book-title=XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología (2 vols.) |editor=Juan Pedro Laporte |editor-link=Juan Pedro Laporte |editor2=Bárbara Arroyo |editor3=Héctor E. Mejía |location=Guatemala City |publisher=Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología; Asociación Tikal; and the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. (FAMSI)  |pages=Report 100|oclc=66464884 |access-date=2008-01-15|language=es}}
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==External links==
*[http://www.authenticmaya.com/la_blanca.htm La Blanca - Description and Photos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214080218/http://www.authenticmaya.com/la_blanca.htm |date=2007-12-14 }}
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[[Category:Mesoamerican sites]]
[[Category:Maya sites in Guatemala]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Guatemala]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Guatemala]]
[[Category:San Marcos Department]]
[[Category:Formative period in the Americas]]
[[Category:Mokaya culture]]