Cerro Palenque - Excavations and Findings

Excavations and Findings

The fact that there were ruins on the top of Cerro Palenque has been known for a long time. Its first mention may be in A Ladies Ride across Spanish Honduras published in 1884.

Dorothy Popenoe excavated at the Late Classic portion of Cerro Palenque in the 1920s but died before she published the results of her excavations. Doris Stone included her analysis of the materials Popenoe excavated in her Archaeology of the North Coast of Honduras (1941)

In 1979, John S. Henderson began a project authorized by the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia - IHAH) to survey and test more than 2400 square kilometers of the valley, to record all of the archaeological sites within it, and perform a series of excavations to understand the chronology of settlement (who lived where, when). In this context, Rosemary A. Joyce did survey work and rediscovered the site. As part of her dissertation fieldwork, she mapped, and excavated at Cerro Palenque in 1982 and 1983. Her dissertation, and the book listed below are some of the results from that work. Most recently, Julia Hendon has been conducting excavations in the elite residential groups off the ballcourt.

The earliest settlement of this city, in the site called CR-44, atop Cerro Palenque itself, is Late Classic (500-850 AD). As a new city center was built to the north, this part of the site was abandoned. The new center was on top of a lower set of hills north of Cerro Palenque in the Terminal Classic (850-1100 AD). This new center includes a 300 meter long plaza and a large ball-court. There are also the remains of two causeways leading to residential groups off the main plaza. In the Terminal Classic, Cerro Palenque grew to be the largest city in the valley, with over 500 buildings.

Settlement patterns shifted in the post-Classic (1150-1536) and Cerro Palenque was abandoned in favor of settlements right down along the river banks. The valley itself remains an important resource area for the Maya of Yucatan and Belize for chocolate, feathers, and honey.