The Dating and Cultural Associations of the “Potbellied” Sculptural Style: New Evidence from Western El Salvador

Abstract

For decades the “potbellied” monuments have been the center of a controversy in Mesoamerican archaeology. These massive boulder sculptures have been found at numerous sites associated with the major culture-historical problems of the Preclassic period in southern Mesoamerica. A secure dating of the style has not been possible and there have been several conflicting interpretations of their age and significance. One interpretation holds that some “potbellies” are among the earliest monumental sculptures in the New World, contemporary with, or even ancestral to, the Olmec style. New evidence from the site of Santa Leticia. El Salvador, provides the first secure dating of several “potbellied” monuments and related sculptures. An undisturbed stratigraphic context, dated by both associated ceramics and a C-14 series, indicates that the style is probably a phenomenon of the Late Preclassic period (ca. 500 B.C. to A.D. 100).