🧿 Quelepa

Quelepa is an important archaeological site located in eastern El Salvador. Generally considered to have been settled by the Lenca people, the site was founded around 400 BC in the Late Preclassic period. The inhabitants constructed a platform from plaster and pumice and rebuilt it a number of times. Artifacts recovered during the excavations of the site indicate that the local population depended upon subsistence agriculture, these artifacts included metates and comales. The site belonged to the Mesoamerican cultural region. Quelepa means "stone jaguar" in the Lenca language, probably in reference to the large Jaguar Altar found at the site.