Talgua Caves - Identity of Site's Occupants

Identity of Site's Occupants

Determining the identity and languages of the people whose remains are located in the Talgua Cave has been a complicated and difficult endeavor due to the fact that Rio Talgua, described during the period following the Spanish Conquest, fell on the border of a number of ethnic groups. A Spanish missionary named Father Fernando Espino described the Olancho Valley to be an area containing “more than two-hundred different nations and languages” in 1674. Although there are numerous links between the people of Talgua and the Maya cultures, the site is definitively and categorically not a Mayan site due to location and spoken language.

Two of the most likely candidates for the lineage of the people at Talgua are the Lenca people and the Pech People (Paya). The Lenca people are generally considered to be Mesoamerican and are now spread among the following western Honduran Municipalities: La Paz Department, Comayagua Department, Intibucá Department, Lempira Department and Santa Bárbara Department. Although, evidence of Pre-Columbian Lencan culture can be traced to the Olancho Valley (Salinas). Pech people, who speak a variation of the Chibchan languages of South America, can still be found in the Olancho Department in the area surrounding the site and along the Rio Talgua, as well as in the Colón Department. Other candidates for descendents include the Tawahka and the Tol people

Despite the difficulty of determining for certain the exact identity of the inhabitants of Talgua, many aspects of their society can be determined with some certainty. Based on finds at the Talgua Cave and at the Talgua Village Site, a definite affiliation with Mesoamerica and the Maya living in the area of Copán has been determined. The people at Talgua were linked in trade with the Maya and, reflected in many of the objects and architecture of the Talgua area, had many similarities to the Maya of the period. In the words of one of the principal investigators of the site, James E. Brady: “To put the Talgua site into Maya perspective, the Talgua people may have been interacting with the Maya and had developed a level of civilization equal to any society known in the Maya area at that time.”

A surprising find relating to analysis of the bone protein stable isotopes is that the people buried in the cave did not eat an abundance of maize, the cultivation of which is normally seen as corresponding to advancements in social complexity and stratification within Pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica and surrounding areas. Instead, researchers suspect that manioc, or cassava root may have been the society’s primary means of subsistence.