Yarumela

Yarumela also known as El Chircal, was one of the sites located in Honduras and based around the Middle Formative era in Mesoamerican history, occupied between 1000 BC and AD 250 by the ancestors of the Lencan culture also known as the Proto-lencan people. During its heyday at the end of the Preclassic mesoamerican period was a popular trade center, especially for precious commodities. Yarumela also called Hiarumela, llarumela, or "El Chilcal", was an Lenca settlement from the Middle Formative period in Mesoamerica, a period that ran from approximately: 900 BC-300BC. The Lenca are an indigenous mesoamerican people from southwestern Honduras and eastern El Salvador. Yarumela was part of a region that covered around 16,000 square kilometres and shared the region with other archaeological sites such as: La Venta, Los Naranjos, Lo de Vaca and Playa de los Muertos. Located sixty kilometres south of the Los Naranjos, the site of Yarumela yielded information that led archaeologists to believe that it was another imposing Middle Formative center. This information also led archaeologists to believe that Yarumela as a center had a focus on precious commodities. Much like the settlement found at Los Naranjos, Yarumela’s area was protected by the location in which it was found. On the eastern side, the settlement at Yarumela was protected by the Humuya River, which was a branch off of the Ulua, and on the western side it was protected by a large man-made ditch. The settlement at Yarumela was considered to be a large and prosperous trade center; archaeologists determined this from the numerous large structure mounds they found on the site as well as some of the material artifacts located there as well. Artifacts like shells, jadeite, obsidian fragments as well as exotic ceramics. According to the archaeological studies carried out in the area, this settlement was founded in approximately 1,000 BC during the Mesoamerican pre-classic period by the ancestors of the Lenca culture known as the Proto-Lenca.