A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Abaj Takalik (also Tak’alik Ab’aj means ‘standing stone‘ in the local K’iche’ Maya language) has a pre-Columbian origin. The earliest known occupation at Takalik Abaj dates towards the end of the Early Preclassic, ca. 1000 BC.
The Mayan civilization emerged around 2000 BC and flourished around 900 AD, and about 300 BC, they constructed hundreds of enigmatic centers out of stone in what is now central Mexico, the Yucatán, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize.
Our knowledge about the Maya significantly increased since 1976 when archaeologists led by John A. Graham of the University of California, Berkeley began to investigate the ruins of Abaj Takalik, situated on Guatemala’s south coast, and in close vicinity (only seventy kilometers) from important Mexican ruin known as Izapa.
Archaeological finds from the site indicate contact with the prestigious center of Teotihuacán, a city of more than 150,000 people living in the Valley of Mexico, and imply that Abaj Takalik was conquered by it or its allies.
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