Chocolá

Chocolá is a Preclassic Southern Maya site whose developmental emphasis was from c. 1000 BC to AD 200 [1]. Chocolá is in the San Pablo Jocopilas municipality in the southern Suchitepéquez Department of Guatemala [1]. Lying on a plateau below volcanic mountain ridges to the north and east, and at a height of 500–1000 meters, the site consists of three general groupings extending over c. 6 by 2 kilometers [1]. To the north, great platform mounds consisted of elite residences, with elaborate hydraulic networks of stone-lined canals bringing water in from underground springs [1]. In the ancient central district further south, pyramidal mounds up to 25 meters held administrative structures [1]. A complex of more than 100 structures was discovered by Karl Sapper in the last years of the 19th century and a few mounds were excavated by Robert Burkitt in the 1920s [1]. The discovery by Burkitt of Monument 1, a stela carved in the "Miraflores" style, sparked interest among scholars, suggestive as it was that Chocolá may have been an important polity early on with distinct political connections with Kaminaljuyu [1].