El Baúl is a
Pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in present-day
Escuintla Department
Escuintla () is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. The capital of the department is the city of Escuintla. Escuintla covers an area of 4,384 km² and is situated in the coastal lowland region, directly south of Guatemala City, and bord ...
,
Guatemala. El Baúl, along with the sites of
Bilbao
)
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and
El Castillo, is part of the
Cotzumalhuapa Archaeological Zone. It was occupied during the prehistoric
Formative stage
Several chronologies in the archaeology of the Americas include a Formative Period or Formative stage etc. It is often sub-divided, for example into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" stages.
The Formative is the third of five stages defined by Gor ...
of the Americas.
Site
The El Baúl acropolis is located 4 km north of
, above sea level, from the Pacific Ocean. Its southern acropolis complex was destroyed in 1997 by urban development and the main groups are now covered by
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stal ...
fields. The
ballcourt
A Mesoamerican ballcourt ( nah, tlachtli)