Central America odyssey pt. 5 (Archaeology in El Salvador pt. 1)

After Nicaragua I made my way through to San Salvador. The city was much nicer than I expected... although I was staying in what I was told was the most posh area of town (so that may have had something to do with it). Anyway I decided to get myself some private transport and hit as many archaeological sites as I could. Although not as monumental as those found in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize or Honduras the sites were quite interesting. One thing which became very obvious was that these were not "Mayan" sites as the brochures claim. It does not take a archaeologist or physical anthropologist to notice the heavy Toltec influences in this region. Aside from some pottery found in the area, there is nothing Mayan about these ancient settlements. The first set of photos are of "San Andres", while the last three belong to "Joya de Ceren" which was a small pre-hispanic settlement (and seems the most maya of the sites I visited in the country) which was consumed by the eruption of a nearby volcano. The remains of the setlement do not offer to much in architecture, however the seeds, tools and other remains shed much light on the day to day lives of these pre-hispanic peoples.