Recent Research at San Isidro, El Salvador, in the Context of Southeastern Mesoamerican Archaeology

Archaeology of the extreme southeast of Mesoamerica, despite receiving a fair amount of scholarly attention, still remains a relatively poorly developed field. In this article I identify main factors that hamper our understanding of the ancient past of this region, including population density, volcanism, multiple historical reasons, and exceptionally uneven distribution of data from different periods. The second half of the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC - AD 250) seems to be the most understudied, and likely the most crucial time for the southeastern boundary of Mesoamerica from the perspective of reconstructing processes of cultural dynamics and emergence of identities. I offer a probable, if only partial solution to the problem by presenting recent advances, and future directions of my ongoing research at a large Preclassic site of San Isidro, Sonsonate, El Salvador. I argue that even at the early stage of investigation San Isidro shows great potential for providing the missing data.