Seated female figure,

300 BCE–200 CE

The art of ancient Honduras and El Salvador has long been considered in terms of its possible relationships to the more famous cultures of Mesoamerica. By the Early Formative period (1000–500 BCE), there is evidence of interaction with the Olmec of Mexico’s gulf coast and the southernmost Maya kingdom, centered at Copán, in northwest Honduras. Indeed, the people of this region were never isolated from their neighbors. For example, local artists adopted the tall, cylindrical form for chocolate-drinking vessels from the Maya, but their shorter marble vessels, also used for chocolate drinking, have no correlates in Mesoamerica. As more archaeological excavations are conducted in this region, scholars are learning that ancient Honduras and El Salvador had stronger cultural connections with peoples to the south and in the Caribbean than with Mesoamericans.