ANTIGUO CUSCATLÁN — Archaeologists uncovered a human skeleton buried face down in Antiguo Cuscatlán, a suburb of San Salvador. The El Salvador Ministry of Culture reported that the burial was discovered on July 2 during excavation work directed by Carlos Flores Manzano.

A ceramic vessel shaped like a sea turtle was interred with the skeleton. The Usulutan-style vessel was found near the skeleton's hand. Remnants of cassava branches were preserved beneath layers of volcanic ash in the burial pit.

The skeleton was discovered underneath a layer of volcanic ash from an eruption of the Plan de la Laguna volcanic crater. The volcanic ash layer is thought to date to between 850 and 830 B.C. Archaeological evidence from Antiguo Cuscatlán has revealed early Mesoamerican agricultural practices, including two distinct cassava cultivation furrows buried under volcanic ash layers from different eruptions.

The burial is estimated to be nearly 3,000 years old. The skeleton has not yet been radiocarbon-dated. The remains will undergo radiocarbon dating to determine their age.

DNA analysis will be carried out to determine the sex of the individual. The skeleton will undergo chemical analysis to learn more about the individual's life, diet, and possible cause of death. The fragile burial was encased in plaster before being removed for further study. Carlos Flores Manzano expects the analyses to take about a year. The results of the analyses will be announced to the public after completion.

Carlos Flores Manzano is an archaeologist and a doctoral student at Yale University. He questioned the interpretation of human sacrifice in a 2020 study. Fowler's interpretation of human sacrifice has been questioned in recent years.

Carlos Flores Manzano stated that the unusual burial position might be related to an ancient understanding of the cosmos and underworld. He said the sea turtle ceramic vessel may be associated with Orion's Belt. Orion's Belt features in later Maya astronomy as part of a sacred journey.

The burial may be from a pre-Maya civilization. The burial dates to the Middle Preclassic period, roughly 1000 to 400 B.C. in Mesoamerica. Societies in southeastern Mesoamerica were becoming more sedentary and developing more complex cultures during the Middle Preclassic period. Archaeological remains of crop cultivation and painted ceramics have been discovered in Antiguo Cuscatlán.

Antiguo Cuscatlán, located in the La Libertad department, has a long history of human settlement, with archaeological evidence indicating continuous habitation from the Middle Preclassic period onward. Antiguo Cuscatl is district in Eastern La Libertad, El Salvador. Antiguo Cuscatlán has been a site of significant archaeological interest since the 1980s, with a 1987 rescue excavation conducted by Paul Amaroli and Gregorio Bello-Suazo, as noted in a 2026 report by Tico Times. In 1977–1978, excavations at the Chalchuapa archaeological site in western El Salvador uncovered the remains of 33 individuals, widely interpreted as evidence of human sacrifice, according to a 2026 Tico Times report.

The El Salvador Ministry of Culture emphasized the significance of the discovery. "This find could become one of the oldest pre-Hispanic burials in Mesoamerica and would provide new information about the populations that inhabited this region more than two thousand years ago." The agency said in a statement.